Even with the regular-season CNY Counties League National division title in hand, the Cicero-North Syracuse boys track and field team could not quite add a post-season crown.
During last Thursday’s CNYCL National meet at Bragman Stadium, the Northstars earned 145 points — but Baldwinsville, avenging a May 5 defeat on that same oval, pulled out the victory with 150.5 points.
In a 1-2-3 sweep of the pole vault, Dillon McKee won, clearing 12 feet, while Eric Sykora took second (11 feet 6 inches) and Brendan Ryan cleared 11 feet for third place.
CNS also dominated the shot put, as Jordan Thompson won, tossing it 47 feet 9 inches, and Jared Thomson (45 feet 7 inches) finished second. Thompson also gained fifth place in the discus.
The 4×400 relay was a classic. Brandon Marlow, Alex Neumeister, Zach Brown and Mike Fiume finished in a time of 3:28.79, holding off Liverpool (3:28.81) by two-hundredths of a second. Malik Merritt, Ben Brown, Vince St. James and Chuck Haven combined for second in the 4×100 relay in 44.35 seconds.
In the 800-meter run, Jared Walther nearly won, his time of 2:01.55 just one-hundredth of a second behind B’ville’s Tim Chambers, who prevailed in 2:01.54. Walther, Wes Kufel, Nick Dunbar and Matt Perkins finished third in the 4×800 relay in 8:31.36. Dan Fritz was fourth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (10:57.98) behind three B’ville runners.
Fiume, on his own, was second in the 400-meter dash in 50.91 seconds as Jake Whritenour (52.13 seconds) finished fourth, with Marlow fourth in the 200-meter dash (23.21 seconds) and Zach Brown sixth.
Chris Buchanan had a strong meet, as he took second in the mile (4:25.69) and ran to third in the 3,200-meter run in 9:59.91, Neumeister got third in the 400 hurdles in 58.71 seconds.
Eric Munoz earned third in the triple jump, going 41 feet 6 inches, with Carl Patzer third in the high jump (6 feet) and sixth in the long jump. Demetrius Oliver had 1,988 points in the pentathlon and finished third, with Devon Mertens fifth in the high jump.