It's a splashdown for Lansingburgh High School junior C.J. Sousis during the steeplechase event at the 45th annual Colonie Relays Carnival at South Colonie High School. (All photos by J.S. Carras - The Record).

The temperatures rose and the meet records fell at the 45th annual Colonie Relay Carnival at South Colonie High School on Saturday.

A total of nine meet records were set, two on the boys side and seven on the girls side, over the speed-favoring Garnet Raiders' sun-baked track.

Shaker's Brian Hickey finds the water pit during the steeplechase race at the Colonie Relays Saturday afternoon.

The Shaker High School boys and Shenendehowa girls won the team titles and Plainsmen sophomore Lizzie Predmore ran the second fastest 1500-meter time in the country with a 4:33.3.

Lasingburgh took the first in a pair of individual events with C. J. Sousis winning the 3000-meter steeplechase and Alney Tobias taking the prestigious invitational 1600-meter run.

Sousis sat just off the lead in third before making a powerful surge to the front near the 2000-meter mark. The Lansingburgh junior swept by Shaker's Casey Gilbert at the water jump and extended his lead over the final 1000 meters to cruise to victory in 9:53.8.

"I didn't feel that good the first couple laps," Sousis said. "Then, those last two laps I felt better and I saw them dying and I’ve always been good with the 400 meter kickers at the end of the race so I knew no one was going to catch me after that."

The win is the second in three steeplechase attempts this season for Sousis and comes just one week after setting meet and school records at the Cohoes Relays.

Tobias turned in an impressive performance to win the invitational mile. The University of Nebraska bound senior relaxed off the pace for three-quarters of a mile before pulling away thanks to an all-out 62-second final lap effort. Tobias surged to the lead and kicked away from the competition for a final time of 4:21.

"That last lap I just decided to pick it up with about 600 meters to go," Tobias said. "So I started to go and started picking it up a little. I usually try to pick it up the last lap and I just felt like I had a little more that race so I just tried to go with it the last lap and try to hold onto it."

Tobias’ final 400-meter effort gave him negative splits of 2:11 and 2:10 to edge Shenendehowa’s Dan Harris and Shaker’s Ryan Egan.

"I like coming to this meet and racing," Tobias said. "It gets away from our usual meets, just racing the Colonial Council, and you get to race more top level guys."

Tobias also ran the 800-meter anchor leg of Lansingburgh's school record-breaking sprint medley relay team. The team of Daryl Pharrell, Terrance Kemp, Aaron Fuller and Tobias set the set the school mark for the second time in two weeks with a time of 3:33.3

Shenendehowa senior Cara Janeczko leads the first leg of a girls 4 x 800 relay during the Colonie Relay Carnival Saturday afternoon.

Troy High School's Courtney Avery cleared 5-foot-3 for the best individual performance in the girls’ high jump. The Flying Horses’ freshman said she was a little nervous going up against some of the section’s best jumpers but she managed to stay cool under the pressure.

"I was nervous up until the Shenendehowa girl missed her last one," she said. "That's when it sunk in."

Avery's top jump capped a busy day in which she competed in high and long jump, pole vault and the 4x400 meter relay.

"She's amazing," Troy head coach Paul Bearup said. "There's nothing she can't do."

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A major shout-out goes to The Record's running expert, Ryan Kircher, who covered this event for us. Thanks, Ryan!

For the full story, click here.

45th Annual Colonie Relays Carnival
Boys

Team Scores: 1. Shaker 100, 2. Shenendehowa 91, 3. Albany 68, 4. Ballston Spa 52, 5. Albany Academy 49, 6. Colonie 46, 6. Saratoga 46, 8. Burnt Hills 39, 9. Lansingburgh 39, 10. Averill Park 34, 11. Mohonasen 19, 12. Ichabod Crane 18, 13. Schenectady 17, 14. Niskayuna 16, 15. CBA 10, 16. Guilderland 8, 17. Ravena 5.
Individuals: 3000: Sousis (L’burgh) 9:53.8. 100: Morris (Alb)10.8, 1600:Tobias (L’burgh) 4:21.1, 3x110: Alb (Gates, Morris, Thompson) 44.8, 4x200: Colo (Freeman, Colella, Bonneau, Okpodu) 1:32.4, SMR: BH (Carr, Loeffler, Tayloe, Fernandez) 3:32.4, 4x800: Sha (Delago, Dolan, Hedderman, Foster) 8:07.6, DMR: BS (Custer, Grandeau, Bennett, Groves) 10:26.7, 4x1600: BH (Fernandez, Pezzulo, Manghan, Ubriaco) 18:20, 4x400: Alb (Gates, Morris, Arrington, Daniels) 3:24.1, 4x100: Alb (Morris, Arrington, Murnell, Gates) 42.6, Discus: AP (Singleton, Winkler, Luzmas) 396-6, High Jump: Shen (McLeod, Wilkins,Charboneau) 17-7, Triple Jump: AA (Currie, Ferris, Potter) 120-10.

Girls

Team Scores: 1. Shenendehowa 115, 2. Colonie 102, 3. Guilderland 92, 4. Shaker 80, 5.Burnt Hills 56, 6. Troy 38, 7. Niskayuna 30, 8. Ballston Spa 26, 9. Schenectady 25, 10. Holy Names 23, 11. Mohonansen 20, 12. Ichabod Crane 18, 13. Averill Park 13, 14. Lansingburgh 7, 15. Columbia 6, 16. Albany 4, 17. Tamarac 2, 18. Albany Academy 1.
Individuals: 2000: Prutn (BH-BL) 7:33.7, 100: Plante 11.8, 1500: Predmore 4:33.3, 3x100: Colo (Plante, Sainato, Keane) 45.7, 4x200: Sha (Brundige, Hayes, Vandenburg, Rowland) 1:46, SMR: Shen (Osaheni, Manson, Klein, Crisafulli) 4:07.5, 4x800: HN (Allen, Triller, Close, Maloy) 9:37.1, DMR: BH (Taylor, Pierce, Anderson, Drapeau) 12:55.8, 4x1500: Shen (Westcott, Janesczko, Irving, Predmore) 19:43.2, 4x100: Sch (Shapiro, Thompson, Laurehle, Joseph) 50.2, 4x400: Shen (Klein, Simonson, Burtnick, Crisafulli) 3:59.2, Discus: Shen (Gordan, Kosa, Furjanic) 282-11, High Jump: G (Diamante, Tersumette, Tapier) 14-3, Triple Jump: G (Tapier, Diamonte, Fehevari) 98-4, Shot Put: Shen (Hoefer, Gordon, Kosa) 100-2.75, Pole Vault: Shen (Gibson, Preston, Weekes) 25-6, Long Jump: Sha (Brundige, Vandenburg, Torricello) 45-8.75.