Prevailing on many different fronts, the Cicero-North Syracuse indoor track and field teams had a big presence during last Wednesday night’s state qualifying meet at Manley Field House.
Several Northstars won events and insured a place at this Saturday’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships, to take place again at Cornell University in Ithaca.
As part of the boys meet, CNS won the 4×800 relay as Nathan MacNabb, Jake Whritenour, Kevin Cusworth and Jake Azzoto combined to win that event in a time of 8:14.57, nearly five seconds clear of runner-up Tully.
Over in field events, Andy Kahl won the high jump, clearing 6 feet 8 inches to beat Clinton star Tom Wagner by half a foot. Craig Barber, by clearing 13 feet in the pole vault, finished second to Vernon-Verona-Sherrill’s John Slaven (13 feet 5 inches) but still made it to the state meet as Richie Lickfield finished fourth (47 feet 7 3/4 inches) in the shot put.
Azzoto ran to third in the 600-meter run in 1:23.80, just as MacNabb got fourth in the 1,000-meter run in 2:38.03 and Ty Howington ran to fifth in the 55 hurdles in 8.16 seconds. Ben Brown, Vincent St. James, Tony Rogers and Devin Young combnied to finish fourth in the 4×200 relay in 1:34.19.
On the girls side, Monique Roberts prevailed in the high jump, clearing 5 feet 5 inches as Gina Campagna (5 feet) took second place.
Jasmine Thompson emerged with a victory in the triple jump as the sophomore went 35 feet 8 1/2 inches to beat Chittenango’s Marshay Zamlowski (who won the long jump) by seven inches. McKaye Neumeister was fifth, going 34 feet 4 inches.
On the oval, Neumeister qualified for the state meet with a second-place time of 3:01.45 in the 1,000-meter run. Thompson got second (8.92 seconds) to Liverpool’s Janeeka Benson (8.73 seconds) in the 55-meter hurdles, while Taylor Wender ran to fifth in the 3,000-meter run in 10:34.26.
