A mere 1 ¼ inches separated Cicero-North Syracuse senior Jeremiah Willis from achieving back-to-back state championships in the indoor track and field long jump and triple jump.
That’s how close the competition was Saturday at Staten Island’s Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex, where Willis arrived with one purpose – to defend the titles he earned one year ago before heading off to the spring outdoor season and then, in the fall, the University of Lousiville.
Willis had gone 23 feet 1 inch in the long jump and 49’ ½” in the triple jump at the Feb. 13 Section III state qualifying meet, not far from the winning 23’4” and 49’5 ¾” he had in those events at the 2018 state meet.
Now, on Staten Island, Willis had a top long jump of 23’5 ¼”, which beat everyone except Mount Sinai’s Kenneth Wei, who finished at 23’5 ½” – just a quarter of an inch ahead. This came after Wei was second in the 55-meter hurdles final to Victor’s Michael Bayly by one-hundredth of a second, 7.55 to Bayly’s 7.44.
Moving to the triple jump, Willis again improved upon what he had done a year earlier with a top attempt of 49’6 ½”. Yet Uniondale’s Jadan Hanson earned a leap of 49’7 ½” to beat Willis by one inch.
Liverpool had a large contingent here, too, for the state meet, led by Nathan Reeves, who roared to third place in the NYSPHSAA portion of the mile with a time of four minutes, 17.24 seconds, not far from the winning 4:13.21 by Bronxville’s Alex Rizzo.
On the girls side for the Warriors, Jenna Schulz finished eighth in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 9:49.69 as North Rockland superstar Katelyn Tuohy won in 9:15.35 and Tully’s Brooke Rauber (9:42.73) was second.
C-NS eighth-grader Kate Putman broke the three-minute mark in the girls 1,000-meter run, finishing in 2:59.52 to place 10th overall as Ursuline’s Lily Flynn won in 2:50.91.
Sophomore Brooke Blaisdell had a top-10 finish of her own in the long jump, going 17’2 ½”, which didn’t quite reach the 17’4 ¾” she got this season, but still got her to ninth place as Hilton’s Anaya Dees won with 18’8”.
Nathan Poirier took part in the 1,000-meter run, as the 17th-fastest qualifier at 2:36.47, but could only make to 28th place here as he posted 2:45.38.
Also, the Northstars’ Christian Carlin ran with Lucas Casab (Whitesboro), Josh Farmer (New Hartford) and Declan Shaughnessy (Nottingham) on Section III’s distance medley relay team, which was ninth in 9:11.66. Section II won in 8:55.07.
Liverpool’s 4×800 relay team of Reeves, Cameron O’Connell, T.J. Praschunus and Spencer Ruediger were ninth in the qualifying field with their 8:07.43 from earlier this winter, but finished 11th here in 8:09.67 as Saratoga Springs (7:56.60) won it.
Schulz also ran with Sydney Carlson, Claire Carlson and Windsor Ardner in the 4×800 relay. After a time of 9:28.01 in the qualifier, the Warriors only had 9:35.70 here and finished 12th as Ursuline won in 9:07.89.
Imahni Sinclair gave Liverpool a 12th-place shot put toss of 36’8 ¼” as Rome Free Academy’s Sarah Crockett (41’ 1 ¾”) snared third place. Sinclair also had a 15th-place finish in the weight throw with a heave of 42’10 ¾”.
In the 4×200 relay, the Warriors had Haven Hicks, Tahje McDonald, Amina Sinclair and Anne Gullo roar to a time of 1:48.36, putting them in 15th place, when it took 1:44.49 to reach the finals and 1:40.75 for Paul Robeson School to win it.
Hicks, on her own, took part in the 55-meter dash, having gone 7.34 seconds in the qualifier, but only 7.54 seconds here to finish 28th.
Antwan Kelly had a weight throw of 62’1” in the weight throw this winter, which set him up to be a medal contender as the seventh-best qualifier.
But Kelly was unable to place due to fouls as St Joseph’s Will Gross won with 69’5 ½” and Lancaster’s Andy Pietrantoni (67’5 ¾”) took public-school honors. Kelly’s teammate, Jacob Barnes, also had fouls in the shot put, where he had thrown 51’5 ½” this winter.
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