All through the spring, as Cicero-North Syracuse’s boys track and field team dominated the OHSL Colonial National division, and Fayetteville-Manlius had similar control over the American division, the anticipation built.

Finally, after two months of this build-up, the Northstars and Hornets met each other Wednesday at Bragman Stadium with the Section III Class AA title on the line — and both sides put on first-rate efforts.

In the end, though, the Northstars had a bit more depth, especially in the shorter relay races. This produced 132.66 points, just ahead of the Hornets’ total of 116 points.

The 4×400 relay produced an early benchmark. Jake Whritenour, Zach Marchese, Jeff Azzoto and James Thurn combined to set a school record with a time of 3:26.44, while F-M floundered back in fifth place (3:33.49), an eight-point difference.

And in the 4×100, Vincent St. James, Nick Orlando, Devin Young and Charles Haven produced a time of 44.31 seconds, good for second place behind Rome Free Academy (43.88 seconds). Again, F-M finished fifth (45.01 seconds), making for a six-point separation between the Northstars and Hornets.

Otherwise, the meet was close to even. Thurn, with a time of 57.64 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles, led a 1-2-3 sweep as Andy Neumeister finished second (59.66 seconds) and Ty Howington finished third (59.99 seconds).

Howington would get his own title in the 110-meter high hurdles in 15.58 seconds as Neumeister finished third (15.84 seconds) and Thurn (16.32 seconds) took fifth place.

Andy Kahl again beat the field in the high jump, clearing 6 feet 4 inches to beat Nottingham’s Kempton Taylor by an inch. He was also fifth in the triple jump with 41 feet 8 inches.

Jeff Crooks was second in the discus (132 feet 11 inches), while Steve Jensen got third place in the triple jump (44 feet 6 inches) and Craig Barber cleared 11 feet for third place in the pole vault.

CNS placed in every field event. Richie Lickfield had a fourth-place shot put toss of 44 feet 7 1/2 inches and was also fourth in the discus (124 feet 10 inches). Orlando got fifth in the long jump, going 20 feet 5 inches, after finishing sixth in both the 100 (11.35 seconds) and 200 (23.08 seconds).

In distance races, Ben Ludovici was third (10:02.59) and Kevin Cusworth fifth (10:28.94) in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, as Nathan MacNabb ran to fourth place in both the mile (4:24.72) and 800-meter run, the latter in a time of 2:02.96. Ludovici, Cusworth, Whirtenour and Azzoto (who was fifth in the 400-meter dash) combined to finish third in the 4×800 relay in a time of 8:19.67.

F-M, as expected, dominated the distance races, as Tommy Gruenewald won both the mile (4:11.79) and 3,200-meter run (9:55.76), and freshman Alex Hatz edged out Geoff King to take the 800-meter run in 2:00.39. The Hornets also won the 4×800 relay in 8:07.80.

All of the top CNS performers will be at home again next Friday, to compete in the state qualifying meet with the hope of advancing to the June 8-9 state championships in Kingston.