With his trademark finishing kick, Liverpool’s Zavon Watkins earned two more victories, and nearly a third, during Friday’s Section III Class AA championship meet at SRC Arena.
It was all part of a wild evening where the Warriors, with 74 points, finished just behind Cicero-North Syracuse (75 points) for the runner-up spot as Fayetteville-Manlius, with 97 points, claimed sectional team honors.
Six days removed from his spectacular comeback to win the mile at the Millrose Games in New York City, the Penn State-bound Watkins pulled away to take the 600-meter run in 1:27.18 and used another late comeback to top F-M star Nick Ryan, 2:34.90 to 2:35.82, in the 1,000-meter run.
And Watkins nearly got a triple, in the 300-meter dash, finishing in 36.41 seconds, just behind F-M’s Austin Perez (35.91 seconds) as the Warriors’ Ryheim Lawes got third place in 37.27 seconds and Keewan Rondinello (37.69 seconds) was fourth.
Lawes and Rondinello joined Steve Fiorello and Ryan Ronk as, in the 4×200 relay, Liverpool won a classic duel with C-NS in a time of 1:33.45, leaving the quartet of Mark Broughton, Avery Yarn, Keenan Miller and Frank Volino second in 1:33.76.
In the 4×400, Rondinello, Lawes, Fiorello and Jeff Conley were third in 3:33.82, with the Warriors sixth in the 4×800 and the Northstars fifth.
Again, Mike Hyde dominated the pole vault for C-NS, clearing 13 feet 6 inches to prevail as teammate Cameron LaBarge was second (12 feet) and Cameron Shaughnessy was fifth.
For the Northstars, Volino got to second place in the 55-meter hurdles in 7.92 seconds. Anthony Lupia took second in the mile in 4:33.60. Neil Gill was third in the 3,200-meter run in 9:50.59, where Liverpool’s Adam Zinger was fifth.
Joel Brousseau cleared 5 feet 8 inches in the high jump, the same as Bryson Mayes as they tied for fourth, Mayes adding a fifth in the triple jump and sixth in the long jump behind Liverpool’s Ethan Vanmarter in fifth place.
Also for C-NS, Joe Castaldo was fourth (40 feet 9 ¾ inches) and Austin George sixth in the shot put. Ken Ryan got fifth in the 1,000 as Broughton and Milller were fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 55-meter dash.
The girls Class AA meet saw C-NS accumulate 128 points, but F-M, with its virtual sweep of the distance races, countered with 141 points and finished on top. Liverpool was third with 52 points.
Thwarted on the oval, the Northstars countered with a sweep of the field events. Katie Osborne, with a long jump of 16 feet 11 ¼ inches, edged teammate Javielle Fanizzi (16 feet 10 ¾ inches) by half an inch, with Brittany Murphy third and Jade Jenkins fourth.
In the 55 hurdles, it was another top-four sweep with Osborne in the lead, the senior going 8.76 seconds, leaving Jessica Wheeler second (9.53 seconds), Justine Seliger third and Jenkins fourth.
Osborne also won the high jump, clearing 5 feet 4 inches with fewer misses than Rome Free Academy’s Dana Husband, while Shannon McCarthy was fifth.
Mariah Thomson chimed in with a first-place shot put toss of 35 feet 3 ¾ inches, while Jessica Wheeler cleared 9 feet to win the pole vault, where McCarthy was fourth. Fanizzi won the triple jump with 33 feet 10 inches as Jenkins was third (33 feet 6 ¾ inches) and Hannah Szumioz fifth.
Though F-M earned most of the top spots in the distance races, Taylor Parry did sneak into fourth place in the 1,000 in 3:08.69, while Maria LaMontagne was sixth in the 1,500-meter run. C-NS’s quartet of Katie Laris, Emily Dolan, Shannon Bausinger and Marissa Colburn were second in the 4×800 in 10:18.39, with Liverpool in fifth place.
The Warriors’ success could be found in the 4×200 as the quartet of Ore Akinpelu, Jazmine Herbert, Connie Torres and Catherine Rowell edged Nottingham, 1:50.14 to 1:50.17, for the top spot.
On her own, Akinpelu, in 1:38.35, was just behind F-M’s Heather Martin (1:38 flat) in the 600 and also got second in the 300 sprint in 42.92 seconds behind Baldwinsville’s Gina Carnovale (42.51 seconds), where Torres was sixth.
Nicole Barrett took second in the pole vault (8 feet 6 inches) behind Wheeler. Herbert took third in the 55 sprint in 7.72 seconds, while Tammy Brodie was fourth (4 feet 10 inches) in the high jump and Neillah Watkins was fifth in the shot put and Rowell got sixth in the triple jump.
Many of these athletes would have a quick turnaround, returning to SRC Arena Wednesday night for the sectional state qualifier, a chance to earn spots in the March 3 state meet at Cornell University.
