With summer heat arriving in Central New York, the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse boys track and field teams both sought the highest honors Wednesday at Bragman Stadium during the Section III Class AA championship meet.
The Warriors picked up 99 points, while the Northstars got 88 points. That left them in second and third place, respectively, as Utica Proctor, with high finishes in all kinds of events, prevailed with 110 points.
On Liverpool’s side, the 4×800 relay team, defending its state championship, was spectacular again as Zavon Watkins, Colin Savage, Alex Wilke and Chris Clemons posted a time of seven minutes, 46.90 seconds, more than five seconds ahead of runner-up Fayetteville-Manlius.
Savage would lead a 1-2 finish in the 800-meter run, winning in 1:59.32 as Watkins (1:59.83) was second, half a second behind. In the mile, Savage took a respectable second in 4:21.99 and Watkins claimed third place (4:25.95) as F-M star Alex Hatz won in 4:17.19.
Meanwhile, Joe Spernyak went to the front in the 110-meter high hurdles, prevailing in 14.88 seconds, the only sub-15 second clocking. Spernyak added a third-place time of 58.26 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles.
Jason Osborne gave Liverpool a victory in the shot put, his toss of 50 fee 4 1/2 inches the only throw past 50 feet in the event.
Clemons, Wlike, Keewan Rondinello and Justin McGriff were third in the 4×400 relay (3:32.47). Rondinello also was third in the 400-meter dash (53.68 seconds), with McGriff third in the triple jump with 41 feet 10 inches, just ahead of Tony Shuler (41 feet 8 3/4 inches) in fourth.
Shuler also was fourth (23.60 seconds) in the 200-meter dash. Anthony Brais took fifth in the 3,200-meter run in 10:06.34 and Mychal Ostuni was fifth (10:51.80) in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
CNS saw Chris Buchanan pull away to a victory in the 3,200-meter run in 9:30.85, more than eight seconds clear of F-M’s Andrew Roache, as he also helped the Northstars take sixth in the 4×800 in 8:40.88 as it also was sixth in the 4×400.
In the pole vault, CNS went 1-2, as Michael Hyde and Brendan Ryan both cleared 12 feet and Hyde won with fewer misses. Carl Patzer was second in the high jump, his clearance of 6 feet 2 inches just one inch worse than Baldwinsville’s Brian Kane.
Jared Thomson, with a toss of 49 feet 10 1/2 inches, was second to Osborne in the shot put, then added a third in the discus with a throw of 133 feet 3 inches. Dan Fritz finished second in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 9:57.10, with Stephen Rathbun fourth in 10:43.70.
Andrew Johnson, sixth in the high jump, was third in the 200-meter dash (23.45 seconds) and teamed with Chris Poniros, Ryan Connor and Mark Broughton to finish third in the 4×100 relay in 44.94 seconds. Mike Kavanagh was sixth in the 800, just ahead of teammates Alex Bottorff and Josh Sinay, as Jared Walther took seventh in the mile.
