Given the way he had left every kind of field behind, both here and in meets across the Northeast, it figured that Liverpool’s Zavon Watkins would do the same during Saturday’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association indoor track and field championship meet at Cornell University.
Watkins stormed into Barton Hall and, individually, earned the gold in the boys 1,000-meter run. In a time of two minutes, 31.06 seconds, the super sophomore finished well clear of Alney Tobias (Lansingburgh), who was second in 2:32.67. Another Section III runner, Jesse Garn (Marcellus), was third in 2:32.93.
The 4×800 relay would belong to Liverpool, too. Chris Clemons, Alex Wilke and Colin Savage ran the first three legs and Watkins, in the anchor leg, finished it off as, in a time of 7:59 flat, the Warriors held off St. Anthony’s (7:59.64) for the top spot on the podium.
Cicero-North Syracuse’s Chris Buchanan also stood out, earning fourth place in the mile in a time of 4:24.44, not far from Alex Hatz (Fayetteville-Manlius), who won in 4:20.07 to add to a 3,200-meter title he also earned in the state meet.
Elsewhere for Liverpool, Joe Spernyak earned 19th place in the 55-meter hurdles in 8.07 seconds, while CNS’s Jared Thomson was 18th in the shot put with 46 feet 1/2 inch.
During the girls state meet at Cornell, CNS senior Taylor Wendler contended in the 3,000-meter run, putting up a time of 10:10.88 that left her in fourth place. Aisling Cuffe (Cornwall) won in a blistering 9:36.95.
Meanwhile, eighth-grader Maria Lamontagne impressed with a 10th-place showing in the 1,000-meter run in 3:00.31. Nicole Campagna and Nicole Watterud joined Rachel Zajdel (CBA) and Liz Pieri (Jamesville-DeWitt) to finish eighth in the intersectional distance medley in 10:48.82.
Jasmine Thompson reached the semifinals of the 55-meter hurdles and was 14th overall in a best time of 8.88 seconds seconds as teammate Katie Osborne was 18th in 8.93 seconds. Also, Thompson was 24th (15 feet 5 inches) in the long jump as Jessica Wheeler took 20th in the pole vault and Dana Rinaldi got 21st in the 1,500-meter race walk.