Though the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool girls indoor track and field teams both had plenty of highlights in Thursday night’s Section III Class AA championship meet, only the Northstars walked away from SRC Arena with the title.
Scoring runs in several key events allowed the Northstars, with 129 points, to jump past the Warriors (117.5 points) for the top spot, while Fayetteville-Manlius finished third with 93 points.
A cornerstone of C-NS’s efforts was what it did in jumping events. The Northstars were 1-2-3 in the long jump, freshman Lilly Capria prevailing with 16 feet 5 inches, Julianna Hutt (16’4 ½”) half an inch behind and Brooke Blaisdell third with 16’1 ¼”.
When it came to the triple jump, it was Blaisdell finishing in front, her leap of 37’ ¼” beating out Baldwinsville’s Lauren Addario (36’6”) as Sierra Davis got fourth place with 34’11 ¾” and Hutt (32’4 ¾”) was seventh.
Another example was the high jump. Even though Liverpool’s Amina Sinclair won by topping 5’4”, C-NS claimed the next three spots, with Liliana Klemanski topping 5’3” for second place as Capria was third (5’1”) and Madelyn Wheeler was fourth with 4’10”.’
Blaisdell was third in the 55-meter hurdles in 9.07 seconds, while Kuhr was fourth (9.32) and Lexi Gaetz fifth (9.52), giving C-NS 12 more points for its total.
Meanwhile, on the track, Kate Putman piled up points, winning the 600-meter run in one minute, 38.86 seconds, backed up by Sarah Davis taking third place in 1:42.51. Putman also was second in the 1,000-meter run in 3:02.15, just behind F-M’s Phoebe White (3:01.98).
McKenna Johnston cleared 7’6” in the pole vault to tie Liverpool’s Amelia Loops for second place, with Jamie Snyder (7 feet) fifth and Catherine Crivelli (6’6”) tied for seventh.
In the 4×400 relay, C-NS was second as Sarah Davis, Mackenzie Mahoney, Hannah Boyle and Amanda Reilly went 4:13.95, trailing only F-M’s 4:12.55 as Liverpool was fifth in 4:26.63.
But Liverpool had plenty of its own great moments, starting with Jenna Schulz winning her 3,000-meter duel with F-M’s cadre of runners.
Though she didn’t match her school-record time from the Utica Challenge Invitational on Jan. 25, Schulz prevailed in 9:52.27 over the 9:58.36 from F-M’s Claire Walters.
Later, in the 1,500-meter run, Schulz was second in 4:48.70 to Walters’ 4:44.81 as Sydney Carlson was fifth in 4:56.31 and Emily Neuner seventh. Also, Carlson was fifth in the 1,000 in 3:10.83, with Windsor Ardner fifth in the 600 in 1:45.23.
But they all got a rare victory over F-M in the 4×800 relay. Schulz, Ardner, Sydney Carlson and Claire Carlson went 9:46.89, which beat out the Hornets’ 9:49.79 as Putman, Davis, Allison Newton and Maria Marullo had C-NS third in 10:06.90.
The Warriors also won the 4×200 relay, seeing Haven Hicks, Anne Gullo, Amina Sinclair and Tahje McDonald go 1:49.81 to beat out Baldwinsville’s 1:50.93. Again, the Northstars were third as Reilly, Boyle, Johnston and Julianna Hutt posted 1:51.67.
Imahni Sinclair was second in both throwing events, going 36’1 ½” in the shot put behind Rome Free Academy’s Sarah Crockett (41’6 ¾”) as Madyson Oliveri was third with 31’9 ½” and C-NS had Stephanie Webb (30’5 ¼”) in fourth place.
Then, in the weight throw, Sinclair had a spectacular effort, going 47 feet, yet Crockett still edged her out with 47’3 ¼” as the Northstars’ Faith Keville was fourth with 36’5 ½”.
Hicks got second place in the 55-meter dash in 7.54 seconds behind Baldwinsville’s Lauren Addario (7.43), with Gullo fourth in 7.60 seconds and Riley Norris (7.71) seventh.
Gullo, with a time of 43.24 seconds in the 300-meter dash, got second place behind Corcoran’s Jaelyn Howard (42.86) as Tahje McDonald was sixth in 44.85 seconds. Lauren Fradette was sixth in the 55 hurdles in 9.59 seconds and Alexia Ostrander sixth in the high jump by topping 4’8”.
