Both of the West Genesee track and field teams took a swing at Cicero-North Syracuse last Wednesday afternoon — and both would miss.
In the case of the boys Wildcats, even being on its home track in Camillus could not keep the Northstars from winning its 20th straight league meet in a 93-48 decision.
Still, there were plenty of individual highlights. Steve Houghmaster beat all the CNS distance runners, taking the mile in a swift 4:25.6 and also claiming the 800-meter run in 2:03 flat.
Meanwhile, Zac Karpinski (10.9 seconds) and Jeremy Jones (11.0 seconds) went 1-2 in the 100-meter dash. Karpinski also prevailed in the 200-meter dash in 22.5 seconds as Jones won the long jump, going 21 feet 8 1/4 inches.
Karpinski, Jones, Greg Kurtz and Christos Dimkos teamed up to win the 4×100 relay in 44.8 seconds, while Jon Richardson came close in both the 110 high hurdles (16.0 seconds) and 400 hurdles, where he finished in 58.7 seconds as Alex Neumeister (58.4 seconds) won.
Up at Bragman Stadium, WG’s girls team lost to CNS 98-43 as it couldn’t keep that group of Northstars from its 43rd straight league win.
Katie Bott and Carly Graham still won five events between them. Bott took the 400-meter dash (1:01.8), beat the field in the 200-meter dash (26.7 seconds) and added a top time of 1:09.8 in the 400 hurdles.
Graham, for her part, ran 1,500 meters in 4:48.9 and also won the 800-meter run in 2:26.2. Brianna McGraw contributed a victory in the 100-meter dash in 13.2 seconds.
Back on April 25, Graham had blazed to a split of 2:21.5 as she helped Graham, Colleen Smith and Kristin Waters take the 4×800 relay at the Warrior/Hawk Invitational at Central Square in a time of 10:05.1.
Both of WG’s teams participated in Friday meets — the boys going to the New Hartford Invitational, the girls to the Coaches Association Invitational at Chittenango.
In the boys meet at Sauquoit Valley (New Hartford’s track is getting replaced), WG earned 58 points and finished third. Only Baldwinsville (71 points) and CNS (69 points) fared better.
Karpinski put the Wildcats on top in the 200, as his time of 23.26 seconds nudged past Baldwinsville’s Sean Bernstein (23.34 seconds) and the rest of the field. Karpinski was also sixth in the 100.
WG’s 4×800 team of Houghmaster, Richardson, Billy Gabriel and Tom Hopkins finished second, in 8:15.93, as Liverpool won in a blistering 7:57.66.
Houghmaster, Richardson, Gabriel and Andy Incaudo were second (11:09.51) to B’ville (10:57.98) in the distance medley. In the sprint medley relay, Lafaver, Houghmaster, Dimkos and Kurtz finished second (3:44.08) as Liverpool won in 3:42.44.
On his own, Richardson was fourth in the 400 hurdles in 1:00.69. Jake Lafaver ran to third in the 400-meter dash in 50.63 seconds, while Sam Reedy took third place in the mile in 4:39.96. Jones had a third-place long jump of 20 feet 9 3/4 inches.
In the Chittenango meet, WG earned fifth place in a 15-team field, earning 39 points. By herself, Smith got 10 of those points when she won the 2,000-meter steeplechase in 7:58.79, the only girl to break the eight-minute mark.
Jessica Andrianos pushed her way to second place in the discus with a toss of 100 feet 1 inch, three feet behind Sauquoit Valley’s Kristen Linder. She was also fourth in the shot put 30 feet 1/2 inch) as Vanessa Mangovski got third with 31 feet 8 3/4 inches.
Amy Hannahan was fourth in the 800-meter run in 2:30.77. WG was fifth in the 4×100 (54.39 seconds) and distance medley relay (14:33.96).