Just two days after the Cicero-North Syracuse girls indoor track and field team claimed top honors at the CNY Counties League National division meet, the boys Northstars took their turn – and won by a bigger margin.
CNS blitzed the CNYCL field with 153 points. Only Rome Free Academy, in second place (105 points), even came close to the Northstars’ total.
Unlike some teams that had athletes missing due to spring break, the Northstars were at full strength and earned all kinds of first-place finishes.
And it started with the 4×400 relay, where Jeff Azzoto, Tony Rogers, Brandon Marlow and Shaun Hyde won in 3:36.11, fending off Baldwinsville (3:36.96) at the wire. Azzoto didn’t stop there, also winning the 600-meter run in 1:24.48 as Jeff Whirtenour took third in 1:28.77.
Nathan MacNabb won the 1,000-meter run in 2:43.14, then just missed winning the mile, his time of 4:37.76 inches behind B’ville’s Seth Jackson (4:37.71) as Chris Taddeo (4:53.46) finished fifth. Chris Buchanan (10:17.51) and Kevin Cusworth (10:21.22) ran their way to second and third, respectively, in the 3,200-meter run.
In the 4×800 relay, CNS won again as Whritenour, Azzoto, Cusworth and MacNabb got together and, in a time of 8:27.30, beat B’ville (8:31.60) by more than four seconds.
Moving to the sprints, Ty Howington got second in the 55-meter hurdles (8.24 seconds) and Keenan Williams finished fifth (8.68 seconds), while Vincent St. James ran to fourth in the 55-meter dash in 6.80 seconds. St. James, Rogers, Ben Brown and Devin Young got second in the 4×200 relay in 1:35.00 as RFA (1:34.06) prevailed.
Andy Kahl continued to rule in the high jump, clearing 6 feet 6 inches this time around as Devin Mertens (5 feet 8 inches) was fourth. Tony Mitton beat Craig Barber in the pole vault by clearing 10 feet 6 inches, something Barber (10 feet) couldn’t do.
Over in the triple jump, Kahl was second, with an attempt of 42 feet 7 inches, while Young finished fifth with 36 feet 6 inches. Kahl also got fourth (18 feet 10 3/4 inches) in the long jump. Richie Lickfield had a third-place shot put toss of 46 feet 9 inches while Dan Minahan (45 feet 4 inches) finished fifth.
