Those days where the Cicero-North Syracuse boys indoor track and field team flew far away from the field in weekly meets might be gone.
Still, the Northstars are winning, and did so again last Wednesday night in the George Constantino Invitational at Manley Field House.
CNS finished with 68 points, still clear of everyone. Fayetteville-Manlius was second, with 57 points, while Baldwinsville (39 points) lay claim to third place.
And the Northstars pulled this out while winning just one event — the 55-meter hurdles, where Ty Howington prevailed by inches over Rome Free Academy’s Santino Emmanuele, both finishing in 8.35 seconds.
Andy Kahl had dominated the high jump all season, but he had to settle for second as he cleared 6 feet 4 inches, the same as Josey Witter (Skaneateles), but had more misses than Witter.
Jeff Azzoto ran to second in the 300-meter dash in 37.48 seconds, while Nathan MacNabb needed 4:29.36 to claim the runner-up spot in the mile behind Westhill’s Greg Pallotta (4:26.52).
In yet another second-place effort, Zach Marchese, Nick Orlando, Mike Fischer and Devin Young combined for a time of 1:35.91 in the 4×200 relay, a number only B’ville (1:34.89) could top.
Ben Ludovici could only manage fourth place in the 1,000-meter run (2:39.61), as Kevin Cusworth got fifth place in the 3,200-meter run in 10:19.03. Cusworth and Ludovici joined Matt Perkins and Joe Losito for a fourth-place clocking of 8:43.64 in the 4×800 relay.
In field events outside of the high jump, Dan Minahan grabbed third place in the shot put (46 feet 1 3/4 inches), Craig Barber took fourth in the pole vault by clearing 11 feet 6 inches, and Andy Neumeister had a fifth-place triple jump of 40 feet 1 inch.
F-M, meanwhile, had a lot of its own success, especially in the sprints.
Jamal Johnson earned his second consecutive sprint sweep. He used a time of 6.58 seconds to edge past Henninger’s Andre Britton (6.60 seconds) in the 55-meter dash, then ran the 300-meter dash in 37.35 seconds to hold off CNS’s Jeff Azzoto (37.48 seconds) and win that event, too.
Tommy Gruenewald needed to fight hard in the 1,000-meter race to beat Marcellus star Chris Stogsdill, posting a time of 2:30.33 as Stogsdill finished second, in 2:30.75. Geoff King was third, in 2:36.24, as Gruenewald also got a fourth-place finish (1:27.04) in the 600-meter run.
Eric Thomson managed F-M’s best finish in field events, clearing 11 feet 6 inches to finish third in the pole vault as Tully’s Kenny Bucaro (12 feet 6 inches) came out on top. Andy Sargrad got fourth place (10:11.14) in the 3,200-meter run.
Of the three relays, the Hornets did best in the 4×800, where Andy Vossler, Josh Allen, Steve Burns and Louis Pascarella combined for a third-place time of 3:46.33.
