As the days wound down in May, the Cicero-North Syracuse boys track and field team vied to win another Section III Class AA championship meet.
Going for it on Wednesday afternoon, the boys Northstars prevailed on its home track at Bragman Stadium, earning 112.5 points. Liverpool got second, with 93 points.
This took place even though Liverpool won more events — seven, to CNS’s total of three. The Northstars made up for it by piling up high finishes in most of the events.
Andy Kahl, by himself, accounted for 21 points. Kahl won the high jump, clearing 6 feet 3 inches to hold off Corcoran’s Laquan Rouse (6 feet 3 inches), then added a third in the triple jump (42 feet 1 3/4 inches). He was also fourth in the 400-meter dash (52.19 seconds) and fifth place in the long jump with 20 feet 10 inches.
Ty Howington stepped in to win the 110-meter high hurdles, holding off Liverpool’s Corey Bundrage, 15.23 seconds to 15.36, with Keenan Williams in fifth place. And Richie Lickfield won the discus with a toss of 138 feet 10 inches, to go with his fifth in the shot put. Jeff Crooks, with a discus toss of 130 feet 5 inches, was third behind Lickfield.
Gaining 18 points in the pole vault alone, Craig Barber, Eric Sykora and Dillon McKee all cleared 11 feet for second, third and fourth place behind Liverpool’s Eric Osborne, the only athlete to clear 11 feet 6 inches. Carl Patzer helped with a fourth in the pentathlon, earning 2,070 points.
Elsewhere on the oval, Tony Rogers ran to second in the 400-meter dash in 51.94 seconds, beaten only by Liverpool star T.J. Davis (50.47 seconds), while Kevin Cusworth needed 10:21.77 for a third-place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Nathan MacNabb ran to fourth in the mile in 4:29.04 and Alex Neumeister was sixth in the 400 hurdles.
CNS had a second in the 4×400 relay as Rogers, Shaun Hyde, Mike Fiume and Jake Whritenour had a time of 3:33.50. Devin Young, sixth in the 200-meter dash, joined Ben Brown, Chuck Haven and Brandon Marlow for a third-place time of 43.91 seconds in the 4×100 relay as Matt Perkins, Nick Velasco, Nick Dunbar and Chris Taddeo got fourth in the 4×800 (8:25.48).
Among the meet’s highlights were T.J. Davis (Liverpool) and Andre Britton (Henninger) each winning twice — Davis in the 400-meter dash and long jump, Britton in the 100 and 200-meter sprints.
F-M’s Alex Hatz ran the mile in 4:16.42 and James Thurn (Central Square) tore through the 400 hurdles in 53.73 seconds and will make another run at the sectional record during next week’s state qualifier at Bragman Stadium.
