VOORHEESVILLE — Four speedy kids will try to fly even higher in Buffalo.

Voorheesville’s 4x800-meter relay team qualified for the New York State Meet in Buffalo this weekend. The team — made up of seniors Mackey Lloyd and Ryan Allison and juniors Nathan Bub and Ian Powell — reached the state meet by winning the Division II (small school) race at the Section II State Qualifier meet last Friday in Johnstown.

The team ran 8:06.35 to win the small school division.

“We wanted to beat eight minutes,” Lloyd said before practice on Monday.

“We ran slower than we normally do,” Powell added. “Ryan and Nathan had good days. Mackey and I didn’t. But we were able to pull it out.”

The boys’ relay team was the only winner at the qualifier meet, but it was not the only good performance for the Blackbirds last week.

The girls’ 4x400-meter relay team finished in second place.

“They only take the winners,” Voorheesville Coach Steve Relyea said.

Seneca Gray finished third in the 100-meter high hurdles. Josh Glover finished second in the long jump and Anthony Lociasno finished second in the triple jump.

“They were good performances,” Relyea said. “It would have been nice to have others qualify. But there is always next year. Every year we get closer. We should have more qualify next year.”

“We want to win states”

Relyea is looking forward to seeing how the boys’ relay team will fare.

“Hopefully, they perform well and score high,” Relyea said. “If they have a good run, they should get to eight minutes. We’ll see how well they can do.”

The foursome has run together for the past three years and has seen faster times almost every time they run.

“We ran 8:20 our first time out,” Lloyd said. “We ran 8:02 and 8:06. That is almost 20 seconds that we’ve taken off our time.”

The relay team has become finely tuned after three years of competing against some top notch competition.

“We’ve done this for three years now,” Powell said. “We definitely work well with each other.

“We pick up each other’s slack,” Lloyd added.

Allison, who will run track and cross-country at Springfield College next year, ran a 2:01 split at the state qualifier. Bub ran a 2:03 and Powell ran two minutes flat. Lloyd, who will run at The College of Saint Rose next year, ran 1:59.

The goal for the states is to break the eight-minute barrier.

“We want to run 7:59 or less,” Lloyd said. “We want to win states. We have a chance of doing that if we finish around 8:01.”

“There are a lot of teams that have run 8:02 this year,” Powell said. “There’s a lot of competition.”

But, when the race starts on Saturday at 2:45 in the afternoon, there is one thought that will be going through the minds of the relay team members.

“We want to bring it home,” Lloyd said. “We definitely have a shot at being state champs.”