NY STATE GIRLS TRACK & FIELD: TIOGA’S ROSSI REACHES PODIUM IN LONG JUMP DEBUT; QUALIFIES FOR 100 FINALS (June 13, 2026)

By TIM TAYLOR
Valley Sports Report
WEBSTER — Tioga's Vida Rossi reached the podium in her debut at the 2026 NYSPHSAA Track & Field Championships at Webster Schroeder High School here Saturday, albeit not without a little drama.

The sophomore landed a long jump distance of 18 feet, 8 ¾ inches on her first attempt, but the electronic distance measuring device registered the distance as 18 feet. Her next two jumps were shorter, leaving her in ninth place and one spot out of the finals.

“They got my mark wrong, so I thought I was bumped out of finals, so I headed over to the 100, and then I got told that my mark was wrong,” Rossi said.

As she was preparing to compete in the 100-meter dash preliminaries, Rossi was informed of the error and told she would need to make three more jumps to see where she would finish. Her initial jump of the meet would stand as the sixth best in Class C, earning her a spot on the podium.

Rossi said she felt comfortable jumping at states for the first time.

“My first jump was my best, so I think I just had a bunch of adrenaline and then I just tried to jump as far as I could,” she said.

Of course, then she had set her focus from jumping to running and the situation added a little pressure to her day.

“That was really stressful,” she said, but she did well running all the same.

“I thought it was pretty good,” Rossi said. “I hesitated off the gun a little bit, so I could be a little faster, but I don't know. It was a good time.”

The seventh seed with a time of 12.31 seconds, Rossi finished fourth in the prelims and will run in the final Sunday morning.

Teammate Gavin Albrecht will defend his state title in the boys Class C pole vault on Sunday also.

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PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.

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