Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse’s boys track and field teams found themselves in a spirited duel with Utica Proctor last Monday at Bragman Stadium with the CNY Counties League National division championship on the line.
Finally, the Warriors came out on top, 144 points to the Raiders’ 142, while the host Northstars fit in right behind them in third place with 136 points.
Close wins over Baldwinsville gave Liverpool some crucial points. In the 4×800 relay, Anthony Brais, Alex Wilke, Mychal Ostuni and Colin Savage finished in 8:24.91, just ahead of the Bees (8:25.52) at the wire. CNS was fourth in 8:40.62.
Just the same, in the 110-meter high hurdles Joe Spernyak,
in 15.25, won, with B’ville’s Andrew Hoover (15.34) in second place. Spernyak added a second (58.60 seconds) in the 400-meter hurdles, with Justin McGriff (1:01.16) in fourth.
In a sweep of the top three spots in the 800-meter run (worth 24 points by itself), Zavon Watkins prevailed in 1:59.32, Wilke was second (2:00.25) and Savage took third in 2:01.24.
Savage and Watkins went 1-2 in the mile, as Savage prevailed in 4:24.91 and Watkins (4:25.31) fit in just behind. In the 400-meter dash, Keewan Rondindello won in 52.90 seconds. Working together, Rondinello, Watkins, Wilke and Spernyak tore through the 4×400 relay in 3:27.66, more than four seconds ahead of the field.
Tony Shuler, fourth in the triple jump as McGriff finished third (41 feet 10 inches), got fifth in both the 100 and 200-meter sprints, with Anthony Brais fourth in the 3,200-meter run.
CNS pulled off its own 1-2-3 finish in the pole vault, where Michael Hyde cleared 12 feet as Brendan Ryan and Cameron Shaughnessy (11 feet 6 inches) shared second place and Liverpool’s Tim Roche was fifth.
Jared Thomson nearly swept the throwing events for the Northstars, winning the discus with a heave of 135 feet 8 inches and taking second (47 feet 3 1/2 inches) to Liverpool’s Jason Osborne (49 feet 4 1/4 inches) in the shot put, where Osborne’s teammate, Paris Stenson, was fourth. CNS’s Cameron Doray was third in the shot put (45 feet 6 1/2 inches) and sixth in the discus.
In the pentathlon, Mohammed Nassar gave CNS a second-place finish, with 2,346 points, as Liverpool’s Brandon Horton (1,828 points) was third. Carl Patzer cleared 6 feet and was third in the high jump, ahead of Andrew Johnson (fourth) and Dave Jackowski (sixth).
Johnson, Matt Ryle, Ryan Connor and Mark Broughton combined for second (44.72 seconds) to Proctor (44.36) in the 4×100 relay, where Liverpool (with McGriff, Shuler, Steve Fiorello and Ryan Ronk) was third in 45.40 seconds. In the 4×400, Eric Munoz, Dan Fritz, Shayne Mitchell and Brian Linsky were third in 3:37.33.
Chris Buchanan ran to second in the 3,200 (9:47.46) and had a third-place time of 4:26.21 in the mile. Johnson earned second in the 200 (23.31 seconds), while Dan Fritz took second in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (10:12.06) and Steve Rathbun (10:45.9) was fourth, ahead of Liverpool teammates Ostuni and Brandon Rudd. Anthony Lupia and Ken
Ryan got fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 3,200.
Jared Walther claimed fourth in the 800 (2:03.88), as Munoz got fourth in the long jump (19 feet 2 3/4 inches) Keenan Williams was fifth in the 110 high hurdles. Matt Kavanagh got fifth in the 400 hurdles and Ryle sixth in the 100-meter dash.