With much bigger goals in mind, the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse track and field teams both earned wins during last Thursday’s Section III state qualifying meet at Bragman Stadium.
In particular, the boys Warriors’ 4×800 relay team geared up for a shot at state honors this weekend at Vestal High School by breaking its own sectional mark.
Alex Wilke, Chris Clemons, Colin Savage and Zavon Watkins posted a time of 7:43.62, just better than the old mark of 7:44.46 as Savage (1:52.3) and Watkins (1:51.1) blazed through the last two legs. In the 800-meter run, Savage won again, edging Watkins, 1:56.45 to 1:56.67, as both advanced to the state meet.
Joe Spernyak emerged to take the 110-meter high hurdles in 15.05 seconds, just ahead of Andrew Hoover (Baldwinsville), who was second in 15.15. In the shot put, Jason Osborne won with a toss of 50 feet 8 1/2 inches as CNS’s Jared Thomson took fifth place.
The Northstars had better luck in the girls discus, where Valerie Langevin’s heave of 111 feet 9 inches led to an easy victory. Also, Cameron Shaughnessy won the boys pole vault, clearing 12 feet 6 inches to top teammates Mike Hyde and Brendan Ryan (12 feet each).
Also, in the pentathlon, Jasmine Thompson won the Division I title with the top overall efforts in the 100-meter high hurdles (15.27 seconds), high jump (5 feet 3 3/4 inches) and long jump (16 feet 10 1/2 inches) on her way to 3,025 points. Just behind her, teammate Katie Osborne, in third place with 2,881 points, also qualified for the state meet.
Chris Buchanan, with a time of 9:18.61, held off Fayetteville-Manilus’ Andrew Roache (9:20.64) for the Division I title in the 3,200-meter run. In a dramatic girls 1,500-meter run, eighth-grader Maria Lamontagne led until the last 100 meters, when F-M’s Courtney Chapman passed her.
Still, Lamontagne’s time of 4:33.61 qualified her for the state meet, with Nicole Watterud third in 4:50.26, while Taylor Wendler earned a place at Vestal by finishing second in the 3,000-meter run in 9:56.03. Lamontagne, Wendler, Nicole Campagna and Marissa Colburn were second in the 4×800 relay in 9:27.11.
Liverpool’s Tatiana Gladney just missed winning the shot put, throwing it 36 feet, half an inch behind Jamesville-DeWitt’s Marae Tearney as CNS teammates Mariah Thomson and Casey Wilmer were fifth and sixth, respectively. Rachel Putman, Skye Borasky, Ashley Letteney and Trina Bills were third in the 4×400 relay in 4:04.38.
The two sides both got runner-up finishes in the steeplechase, CNS’s Dan Fritz second in the boys 3,000 in 9:47.05 as Liverpool’s Lesley Bowers did the same with a time of 7:21.92 in the 2,000. Jacqlynn Halstead was fourth in 7:43.93.
Tony Shuler gave the Warriors a fourth-place time of 23.05 seconds in the 200-meter dash. Bills took fifth in the 800 (2:19.55), with Putman in sixth place, while Keewan Rondinello took eighth in the 400-meter dash (53.07 seconds). CNS saw Chris Poniros, Mark Broughton, Andrew Johnson and Shaun Webb take fourth in the 4×100 relay in 45.04 seconds.
Armani Moore was third in the long jump (17 feet 3/4 inch) as CNS’s Jessica Wheeler was second in the pole vault, clearing 10 feet. In boys field events, Liverpool teammates Justin McGriff and Shuler were fifth and sixth, respectively, in the shot put.
