Topping an elite field with some of the best athletes in Central New York, the Liverpool boys track and field team emerged with the championship at last Friday’s New Hartford Invitational.
In all, 23 teams competed at New Hartford — and the Warriors fared best, earning 91 points to beat archrival Cicero-North Syracuse, who finished second with 82.5 points.
T.J. Davis brought home a lot of those points. He posted a time of 50.14 seconds and beat Solvay’s Greg Manning (50.81 seconds) to win the 400-meter dash, then needed 22.99 seconds to get third in the 400-meter dash.
To top it off, Davis pulled off the best Section III long jump of the season of 22 feet 6 inches to edge Oneida’s Pat McLaughlin (22 feet 4 1/4 inches) for that title.
Ethan Hickey, Bryan Picciotto, Kevin Harper and Colin Savage teamed up to win the 4×800 relay in a time of 8:10.54, nearly 10 seconds ahead of runner-up Baldwinsville (8:20.44). On their own, Picciotto and Hickey would go 1-2 in the 3,200-meter run, as Piccotto won in 9:42.30 and Hickey got second place in 9:43.19.
Fred Shattell added a third in the mile (4:40.72) and Savage finished third in the 800 in 2:04 flat. Shattell, Mychal Ostuni, Alex Wilke and Andrew O’Leary earned second place in the distance medley relay in 11:17.77, with Harper helping the Warriors’ 4×400 team get fifth, in 3:42.24.
Corey Bundrage joined in the fun, finishing second in the 110-meter high hurdles in 15.71 seconds behind McLaughlin, who won in 15.24 seconds. Eric Osborne cleared 11 feet and tied for second in the pole vault behind CNS’s Craig Barber (13 feet).
Before this, the boys Warriors found success last Wednesday at Utica Proctor, sweeping past theRaiders, 94-47, as Davis and Picciotto led the way.
Davis needed just 22.5 seconds to win the 200-meter dash, following that up with a top long jump of 21 feet 3 inches and a winning high jump clearance of 5 feet 8 inches. Davis, Corey Bundrage, Pedro Torres and Justin Albro needed 46.1 seconds to prevail in the 4×100 relay.
As for Picciotto, he got his turn at the front in the distance races taking the 800-meter run in 2:07.3 and the 3,200-meter run in 10:28.6, with Colin Savage taking the mile in 4:46.3.
Eddie Reynolds ran the 110-meter high hurdles in a top time of 16.5 seconds, helped as Pat Single won the shot put with a toss of 46 feet 6 inches.
Liverpool’s girls team waited to compete until the weekend — but when it did, it earned its own title at Saturday’s Copper City Classic at Rome Free Academy Stadium. In all, the Warriors gained 93 points, holding off the hosts from RFA, who took second with 72 points.
Brigid Heenan ran to victory in the 2,000-meter steeplechase in a time of 7:50.7, while Melissa Riehl gained third place in 8:11.9. Liverpool also won the 4×400 relay as Lauren Scalisi, Skye Borasky, Miranda McConnell and Hannah Anthes posted a time of 4:20.2 to beat Bethlehem by 3.1 seconds.
Trina Bills was a close second (2:25.5) to Bethlehem’s Kristin Peck (2:22.4) in the 800-meter run, and also finished second to Peck in the 1,500-meter run in 5:15.7. Lesley Bowers was second in the 3,000-meter run in 11:38.3. Liverpool was third (10:52.0) in the 4×400 relay.
Emily Chen operated in the pole vault, clearing 9 feet 6 inches and finishing second, while Jennifer Mackenzie cleared 4 feet 10 inches for second place in the high jump. Mary Foley accumulated 2,276 points, finishing just behind RFA’s Channelle McWilliams (2,323 points) in the five-event pentathlon.
