On the heels of claiming the Section III Class AA championship, the Liverpool boys indoor track and field team could not repeat that act during last Wednesday’s CNY Counties League National division championship meet, also at Manley Field House.
The Warriors had a strong total of 102 points — but Baldwinsville topped that mark, earning 122 points to win team honors. A bit further back, Cicero-North Syracuse claimed 68 points and finished fourth.
Zavon Watkins showed terrific versatility, as he sprinted to a 300-meter victory in 36.97 seconds, where Damien Brown was fifth. CNS’s Jared Walther, sixth in the 300, would beat the field in the 1,000-meter run in 2:45.29, with the Warriors’ Mychal Ostuni in fourth.
Moving to the mile, Watkins tore to a time of 4:35.11, leading the field as Colin Savage (4:42.28) finished second and the Northstars’ Dan Fritz was fourth in 4:47.85.
In the 600-meter run, Chris Clemons won in 1:31.72, with Anthony Lupia giving CNS a third-place clocking of 1:36.62. Another Northstar runner, Chris Buchanan, was third in the 3,200-meter run in 9:58.55, with Ken Ryan in fifth place and Ostuni sixth.
Joe Spernyak just missed winning the 55-meter hurdles, with 8.22 seconds to the total of 8.21 posted by B’ville’s Andrew Hoover. Tony Shuler was fifth in the 55-meter dash.
Even without its best side in the 4×800 relay, Liverpool prevailed as Savage, Clemons, Ostuni and LaQuan Kitchen earned a winning time of 8:54.38, with the CNS quartet of Dan Fritz, Mike Kavanagh, Alex Bottorff and Ken Ryan second in 9:06.07. Over in the 4×400 relay, Savage, Clemons, Watkins and Shuler won in 3:27.35, with the Northstars fourth in 3:55.37.
In field events, Liverpool ruled in the shot put, where Jason Osborne had a winning toss of 48 feet 4 inches as the Northstars’ Jared Thomson was third (47 feet 3 1/4 inches). Butt CNS saw Brendan Ryan win the pole vault, the only athlete to clear 10 feet 6 inches as the Warriors’ Joe Alvarado (9 feet 6 inches) gained third place.
The Northstars’ Demetrius Oliver cleared 5 feet 8 inches to finish second in the high jump, as Liverpool saw Justin McGriff take fourth (40 feet 1 1/2 inches) and Alvarado fifth in the triple jump. Kitchen was sixth in the long jump and helped the Warriors finish fourth (1:38.29) in the 4×200 relay, ahead of CNS in fifth place.
