In different locales, the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool indoor track and field teams found their own kinds of success as the regular season began to wind down.
The boys Northstars again beat a local field in the Fred Kirschenheiter Memorial Invitational at Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena, while the Warriors went to New York City’s Armory and had some big moments at Saturday’s New Balance Games.
Liverpool’s Zavon Watkins won the Varsity Boys Invitational 1-Mile Run at the Armory, as his time of four minutes, 14.52 seconds was enough to topple Chariho’s Mike Marsella (4:15.27) and 12 other runners.
As if that wasn’t enough, Watkins also helped the Warriors win the 1,600 sprint medley. In a 32-team field, Liverpool posted a time of 3:36.45, edging Columbus (3:36.53) by 0.08 seconds.
C-NS also sent some competitors to the Armory, where the girls won the high jump relay with combined leaps of 9 feet 8 inches and took third (9 feet 6 inches) in the pole vault, plus sixth in the triple jump and seventh in the high jump.
Elsewhere, the Northstars were fifth in the sophomore 4×400 relay in a time of 4:34.35. C-NS also had a 4:27.91 in the overall 4×400 and were 24th (10:22.37) in the 4×800 relay. Liverpool took ninth (4:22.95) in the 1,600 sprint medley.
All of this followed Friday’s Kirschenheiter meet, where C-NS won its second boys event in five days, earning 63.5 points as Fayetteville-Manlius (48.5 points) took the second spot.
Mike Hyde dazzled in the pole vault, the C-NS senior clearing 14 feet 3 inches to take that event as Tate Laporte (10 feet) was fifth. The Northstars also won the 4×200 relay as Frank Volino, Avery Yarn, Mark Broughton and Keenan Miller put up a time of 1:34.86, more than two seconds clear of the field.
Joe Castaldo threw the shot put 42 feet 9 inches and finished in second place. Joel Brousseau cleared 5 feet 10 inches for third place in the high jump, with Morgan Austen fourth (39 feet 7 1/4 inches) in the triple jump.
On his own, Volino had a third-place time of 8.19 seconds in the 55-meter hurdles. Neil Gill (9:49.96) and Anthony Lupia (9:52.04) were third and fourth, respectively, in the 3,200-meter run. Broughton took fifth in the 55-meter dash. Lupia, Gill, Colin Greenseich and Paul DeGennaro were fourth (8:55.24) in the 4×800.
Meanwhile, in the girls meet, Liverpool’s Nicole Barrett finished second in the pole vault, clearing 8 feet 6 inches, topped only by Kaela Fiutak (Skaneateles), who won by clearing 9 feet 9 inches.
The Warriors also had Leah Dixon take sixth in the 55 hurdles in 10.34 seconds and Morgan Mahoney get sixth in the 3,000-meter run. Kyla Bills added a sixth in the 1,000-meter run and Nelliah Watkins earned sixth in the shot put.
