Some indoor track and field teams take their time to ease into the season, making sure the peak doesn’t arrive until the latter part of the winter.
But Cicero-North Syracuse’s boys did not wait. Instead, it went to last Tuesday’s Jack Morse Relays at Manley Field House and wiped out the field, piling up 81 points.
The next-closest finisher, Baldwinsville, had just 30 points, with Fayetteville-Manlius (29 points) settling for third place.
Seven different times, CNS won events. It all began with the distance medley relay, where Nathan MacNabb, Ben Ludovici, Brandon Marlow and Jake Whritenour teamed up for a time of 10:58.04 that beat B’ville by more than five seconds.
Whritenour would join Ty Howington, Zach Marchese and James Thurn for another CNS win, in the 4×400 relay, where CNS prevailed in 3:41.79.
Ludovici wasn’t done, either, helping Devon Young, Mike Fischer and Jeff Azzoto as the Northstars took the 1,600 sprint medley in 3:46.88, another romp over the field.
In the longest race of all, the 4×1,600 relay, MacNabb, Kevin Cusworth, Chris Taddeo and Nick Dunbar had a time of 19:17.94 that topped B’ville by nearly 10 full seconds.
Each of CNS’s other three titles required two-man efforts. Andy Kahl, a gold medalist at the Empire State Games last summer, teamed with Devin Mertens to win the high jump (11 feet 6 inches). Kahl cleared 6 feet 6 inches at the Morse meet.
Twice, Andy Neumeister was involved. He teamed with Kahl to take the triple jump, as they combined for 80 feet 6 3/4 inches, and Neumeister teamed with Thurn in the 55-meter hurdles as they won with 16.79 seconds. CNS also tied for second in the pole vault as Craig Barber and Mike Fischer combined to clear 20 feet.
