Liberty's Jessica Dunnigan Repeats Gold Medal Performance

On Friday, June 10, and Saturday, June 11, Jessica Dunnigan, Nikole Snyder, Rebeccah Harman and Lara Heslop traveled to Caledonia-Mumford HS to compete in the NYSPHSAA Spring Outdoor Track Championships. Jessica competed individually in the 100 and 200 meter dashes and the long jump. She also anchored Liberty's 4 x 100 meter relay team.

On the first day Jessica started her competition by posting the second fastest time in the 100 m dash preliminaries. She then ran her 200 m dash preliminary and posted the second fastest time in that event. Shortly after that is was time for the 4 x 100 relay. The girls were ready as the gun sounded and Rebeccah Harman responded. Unfortunately, at the first handoff, a runner from South Lewis fell and rolled in front of Nikole Snyder. Nikole did her best to hurdle the runner but the team could never quite recover. Lara Heslop ran the curve and made a good handoff to Jessica. She made up ground on the rest of the field in the final 100 m. Liberty was ruled "out of zone" on a handoff and did not advance.

On the second day, Jessica started early with the 100 m dash Division II finals. She had a good start and was just behind the winner at the finish line. Her time of 12.41 seconds was her personal best for the year. Jessica's next race was the 200 m Division II finals and she was determined to defend her championship. Coming off the turn after the first 100 m, Jessica was in third. As the leaders came down the final 100 meters, Jessica continued to gain ground with each stride. At the finish line, it was Jessica in first in a school record 25.02 seconds.

Jessica's times were good enough to qualify her for the Federation races in both sprints. The  Federation races include ALL the public, private and Catholic schools in New York State and the schools from New York City.

Jessica was also honored as the recipient of the Section 9 Division II Sportsmanship Award. She was nominated by Section 9 Girls' Track Chairman Eric McLaud. Jessica was called to  the center of the field at the state track championship to be congratulated along with all the other winners from throughout New York state.