On Saturday, seniors Mia Sanford and Lydia Wamsganz and junior Mitchell Ellsworth, along with their coach Cy Ellsworth, will travel south to Staten Island for the NYSPHSAA Indoor Track and Field Championships at the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex.

“It’s another great opportunity to showcase their talents. All three of them have been with me for a long time,” Cy Ellsworth said. “They have the opportunity to compete against the top kids in New York state.”

While most state championships in New York are divided based on division and class size, that’s not the case for indoor track.

At the indoor track and field state championships, all public and private high schools in New York state will be clumped together rather than separated by division.

Mitchell Ellsworth, left, and Mia Sanford work out during the Saranac Lake indoor track team’s outdoor workouts on Feb. 4, 2021. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)

“If you can perform well at the state meet, you are a pretty good at track and field,” Cy Ellsworth said. “Especially when you start mixing in the kids from New York City.”

While Saranac Lake, along with most schools in the North Country, are at a disadvantage when it comes to indoor track — with the SUNY Plattsburgh Fieldhouse being Section VII’s lone competition venue for the sport — they do have something that most schools don’t. That’s experience at the state meet.

While the state championship was canceled last year due to the pandemic, the Red Storm’s Sanford will return to Staten Island as one of the few student-athletes who previously competed at states.

Competing at states as a sophomore, Sanford finished 28th among 34 competitors in the girls’ weight throw competition.

“It was the last thing to happen right before the pandemic. We were all kind of worried but it’s a very exciting event,” Sanford said. “Especially my sophomore year, I really wasn’t worried about placing in the top 10, it was more of experiencing the ring. I was the only sophomore in New York state that went and competed. It’s nice to have that advantage to know what that ring is like.”

Sanford will not only return to the girls’ weight throw competition, but she will also compete in the shot put competition.

“It’s a little stressful, I’m not gonna lie,” Sanford said. “I’m very excited to go down and compete in both. Weight throw has been my main thing that I do indoor. I’m going to college for that, hopefully. It’s going to be exciting to do shot put as well.”

While Sanford’s personal record for weight throw sits at 39 feet, she said she hopes to hit over 42′ or 43′. For shot put she wants to throw past 34′.

Sanford isn’t the only field athlete representing Saranac Lake. Competing in the boys’ shot put contest will be Mitchell Ellsworth.

“I’m very excited. It’s going to be my first state meet because of the pandemic,” Mitchell Ellsworth said. “So it will be my first real state meet.

“Last year, there was an invitational that I went to and I was seeded the number one sophomore boys shot putter in the state,” he said. “So it’s exciting, but to compete against greater athletes, I’m excited.”

For the past two indoor track seasons, Mitchell has dominated Section VII in the boys shot put competition, winning back-to-back sectional titles. But the state championship is a different animal.

“It’s going to be different,” Mitchell Ellsworth said. “Winning the section the last two years has kind of been easy for me and I think it’s going to be cool to have greater competition, hopefully, I’ll get better under the pressure.”

Mitchell Ellsworth’s personal record for indoor shot put is 47’11.25″, a record he hopes to beat on Saturday.

“I think my goal is to place in the top 10, that would be really cool,” Mitchell Ellsworth said. “Realistically, I just want to PR, but I think it would be really cool to place in the top 10.”

The lone track runner representing Saranac Lake will be Wamsganz.

“I think that all the runners on the team worked really hard this year,” Wamsganz said. “I think that I’m just excited and thankful to go.”

Wamsganz will compete in the girls’ 600-meter competition. Cy Ellsworth said there will be a lot of good runners competing against her on Saturday.

Wamsganz said her goal is to break her PR (personal record), which currently sits at 1 minute, 47.74 seconds.

She achieved her personal record during the sectional meet on Feb. 13. Her time was the second-fastest in the competition and was just 0.34 seconds slower than the sectional winner.

“I’m excited that I’ll have an opportunity to go this year and I’m excited to see what I can run,” Wamsganz said.

While the competition for Saturday will be fierce for the three competitors, Cy Ellsworth said he wants his team to have fun and enjoy traveling down to Staten Island. He also added that wants to come back home with some personal records.

“Our kids are going to see some really quality competition this weekend. But they’ve put a lot of hard work in over the season,” Cy Ellsworth said. “We started back in November. Now it’s just kind of an opportunity to relax and travel one day and then get ready for a really big competition on Saturday.”