Young and quick, the Liverpool boys track and field 4×800 relay team wanted nothing less than victory when it lined up last Saturday at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium during the state championship meet.
And that’s exactly what the Warriors would do, setting a new Section III record in the process as part of a large contingent of local athletes that would vie for honors.
Freshman Zavon Watkins started out in the 4×800, posting a split of 1:57.25. In the second leg, junior Chris Clemons passed Pine Bush’s Zavior Brown with his 1:57.50 split.
Another junior, Alex Wilke, ran the third leg in 1:56.45 and, taking the anchor leg, junior Colin Savage tore through his 800 in 1:52.98.
It added up to a time of 7:44.46 that shattered, by 1.41 seconds, the sectional mark Fayetteville-Manlius set three years ago. Liverpool beat runner-up Half Hollow Hills West by nearly four seconds.
On his own, Savage was sixth in the Division I (large school) 800-meter run in 1:55.52, while Corey Bundrage took 13th in the 110-meter high hurdles in 15.18 seconds.
In girls action, Trina Bills gave Liverpool a fifth-place finish in the Division I 800 with a time of 2:13.77, improving to 2:13.42 for eighth in the Federation race a day later. Brigid Heenan was 12th in the 2,000-meter steeplechase (25th overall) in 7:29.07.
As for the host team from CNS, Jasmine Thompson earned seventh place in the Division I pentathlon with 2,897 points as Amber Passalaqua (Pine Bush) won with 3,319 points.
Chris Buchanan ran to 11th in Division I (15th overall) in the 3,200-meter event in 9:34.58, while Andy Neumeister took 15th in the 400-meter hurdles in 57.73 seconds. Dillon McKee cleared 12 feet in the pole vault.
