Cortland Standard .net

By TOM VARTANIAN
Staff Writer
Three local student-athletes have been busy practicing this week for the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Indoor Track and Field Championships Saturday.
Dryden High School junior Abbey Yatsko will compete in the girls’ portion of the championship that kicks off at 9 a.m. inside Cornell l University’s Barton Hall. Dryden junior Tor Wildenstein and Marathon Central junior Daniel Harden cach see action in the afternoon session that gets underway at 2 p.m.
Yatsko is tied for 13th in the seeding process for the 300-meter dash with a time of 40.99 seconds.
“Abbey has had an awesome indoor season,” Dryden coach Lee Stuttle said. “Running the 600 and 300 double most of the season has her primed for a fast 300 at States. She keeps dropping time each week, breaking her own school record. If she drops 0.26 seconds, Abbey will break the Section III 300m record.
“On Saturday. it will be nice to break that record and hopefully get to the finals,” he continued. “A lot of her competition doesn’t run on a flat track most of the season so this will give Abbey an advantage. I am looking forward to seeing her compete Saturday as she is looking very fit and fast to end this indoor season.”
Wildenstein is tied for the 26th seed in the triple jump with Harden with a best leap of 42-feet-8 inches.
“Tor has been one of the best jumpers in Section IV this year in both the long and triple,” Stuttle said. “He slipped up a little in the long jump at the qualifier, but responded by winning the triple jump later that day. Tor is looking good in practice, his personal record in triple is 42-8 and I believe he has a 44-foot jump in him. I don’t think 44 will get him to the finals, but it would be a great personal record.”
Harden will compete in both the long and triple jump. He is the 11th seed in the long jump with a distance of 22-0.75 and 44-8 in the aforementioned triple jump with Wildenstein.
“Daniel has been very consistent in the long and triple jump,” Marathon coach Todd James said. “Daniel had some issues early in the season. He just changed his mark on the approach and really began jumping better. He was consistently hitting 21-foot jumps.
“Daniel is looking for consistency this weekend,” he continued. “He want to build some momentum for the Nike Indoor Nationals–which he qualified for. Those take place March 13 at The Armory in New York City. In the triple jump, Daniel would like to reach 43-feet in the triple jump.”