Northport's Dickinson noses Whitman's Damato in 3,200

The longest race came down to the smallest possible margin of victory.

Northport's James Dickinson edged Michael Damato of Whitman at the finish line by about an inch to win the 3,200 meters and advance to the state meet on the first day of the Suffolk state qualifying meet Friday at Port Jefferson.

The junior clocked it in 9 minutes, 20.05 seconds, just .01 seconds ahead of Damato (9:20.06) to earn the lone large-school Division I spot at states next week at Cicero-North Syracuse. James Burke of Port Jefferson (9:25.07) qualified from the small schools.

"I thought I had him by maybe an inch, but I was very doubtful," Dickinson said. "I ran right over to the scoreboard with the times just to make sure."

Dickinson faded toward the back of the pack in the early part of the race as Damato and Hauppauge's Ryan Colabella (9:24.44) set the early pace. Damato held a 30-meter lead at the bell lap when Dickinson, who was hanging on to the tail end of the lead pack, made his final push.

Dickinson caught Damato with 100 meters left, and from then on, it was a drag race to the line. The two finished in a virtual tie, but Dickinson was able to barely nose out Damato.

"When it came down to shoulder-to-shoulder, I knew I just needed to get an inch ahead of him," Dickinson said. "I just gave it all I had."

SEE PHOTOSTrack and field individual championships

Earlier in the meet, Huntington's Tyriek Johnson leaped to the top of the state long jump rankings with a personal best of 23 feet, 111/4 inches on his final attempt of the afternoon to win the event.

"I just sort of pulled it out," said Johnson, who will also compete in the 110 hurdles final Saturday. "I thought, 'It's the last jump of my senior year, I've got to go out with a bang.' "

In the girls meet, Shannon McDonnell of Shoreham-Wading River kicked down the final straightaway to go from third to first and win the 800. McDonnell (2:14.62) edged Danielle Rowe of Bay Shore (2:15.28) and Smithtown East's Kelsey Amarosa (2:16.47) in the final 55 meters to win.

McDonnell and Rowe both qualified for the state meet out of Division I, and Shanna Heaney of Hampton Bays (2:20.96) qualified from Division II.

"I realized at the end that I had something left, and I just went for it," McDonnell said. "It worked out."