The Panama sophomore will enter Friday’s 11:30 a.m. final tied with a bevy of other jumpers at No. 6, but only two other Division II jumpers hold higher positions.

Barmore came away with an individual Section VI title after hitting 6 feet, 5 inches at Niagara Falls High School this past weekend, but in his last several jumps the potential for improvement was clear.

“He was out to states last year as a freshman. Judging by what we saw last year out there, Cameron with a good day, if he jumps what he did, he’ll be right in the mix, he’s a strong competitor for the podium,” Clymer/Sherman/Panama coach Irv King said.

Six feet, 5 inches marked a career best for Barmore, who hit 6 feet, 4 inches at this year’s Golden Falcon Invitational.

“We’ve watched his strength and his maturity in a year and you look ahead and think, over the next couple of years he’s going to improve,” King added.

Joining Barmore on the trip will be teammate John Swabik, who sits at No. 8 in the pentathlon with 3,111 points.

Only two Division II entrees hold higher seeds than Swabik, who ran away with the Section VI title, picking up 802 points after clocking a 4:21.39 in the 1,500 meters a week ago.

“John has been a distance runner since seventh and eighth grade and is a very good runner. This year we decided to move him to the pent. We obviously started competing in the other events, we picked one or two for some of the early meets,” King said. “He had started triple jumping a year ago, so long jumping was a fairly easy one to slide into but high jumping and especially the hurdles, that was a process and we just needed to get him some meets to do it in.”

While Swabik’s distance running carried him to a sectional title, Maple Grove’s Carson Crist will look to rely on his hurdling, jumping and throwing this weekend as he enters as the No. 11 seed with 3,047 points.

Crist claimed all four events besides the 1,500 meters at Niagara Falls to finish just behind Swabik.

“He won four of the five events. It just happens that Johnny Swabik is a miler and he got those mega points because he won by so much,” Maple Grove coach Bob Gould said.

Crist has steadily improved on his marks from earlier in the season, hitting 5 feet, 11.5 inches in the high jump, 19 feet, 4.75 inches in the long jump, and 37 feet, 10 inches in the shot put at Niagara Falls; all while dropping 20 seconds off his 1,500-meter time since running at the Depew Invitational.

“If he can drop another 10 seconds (in the 1,500) then he’ll get maybe another 100 points,” Gould said. “He’s hoping to go a little faster, and if he can hit all those marks he should be a little higher.”

Also representing the black and red in Cicero will be senior Michael Peppy, who enters the weekend at No. 22 in the 1,600 meters (4:25.54) and No. 19 in the 3,200 meters (9:33.08).

The former will be run on Friday while the 1,600-meter final is scheduled to take place at 11:15 a.m. on Saturday.

“Looking at times across the state he is in pretty good shape. There are a couple kids down in Long Island that have run a 4:17, but he’s going to give it a shot,” Gould said of the 1,600. “He wants to get up on the podium as a senior. The one word I use for Michael is driven. He’s very driven, both athletically and academically. He’s been pretty busy but he’s a very driven kid. When he got to Maple Grove he just built on his success.”

In what has been a inspiring season for Falconer/Cassadaga Valley’s 3,200-meter relay team of Bryce Baglia, Andrew Young, Collin Barmore and Rayven Sample, the state meet looks to offer a chance to finish the year in style.

In its first year together, the team was able to clock an 8:03.55 to take home the sectional crown, upsetting powerhouses East Aurora and Lewiston-Porter in the process while also breaking a Chautauqua County record from 1984.

“It isn’t the four guys that I started the season with,” Golden Cougars coach Dave Nelson said. “About the second or third meet of the year I inserted Rayven Sample. I was saying that he was the spark plug, I kind of knew that I had something special probably by the Falconer Invitational.”

Baglia, Young, Barmore and Sample — the whole truly does seem to be greater than the sum of its parts. While no individual runner has been able to break 2:04 this season running alone, three of the four hit that mark during Saturday’s win.

“They ran all summer together and then they went out to the Cleveland half-marathon at the end of August. Collin Barmore had run cross country for us the past year, but this year decided to devote himself to track,” Nelson said.

The team will carry a No. 16 seed into Saturday’s race and look to cap off their first year together with a strong finish.