Nicole Watterud and Mariah Thomson gave the Cicero-North Syracuse girls track and field teams its lone wins during Tuesday’s Section III Class AA championships at Bragman Stadium.
And that lack of wins may have hurt the Northstars, who despite 135 points had to settle for second place behind Fayetteville-Manlius, who rode its domination of distance running to gain most of its 162 points. Liverpool, with 56 points, settled into fourth place.
Watterud broke the Hornets’ hold in the 2,000-meter steeplechase, the junior finishing in seven minutes, 17.71 seconds to beat F-M’s Alana Pearl (7:23.59) by nearly six seconds as teammate Taylor Parry (7:30.64) was fourth.
Thomson continued her dominance in the shot put, throwing it 35 feet 9 ¾ inches to beat Rome Free Academy’s Mariah Mays by nearly two feet. In the discus, Thomson’s 100-foot toss was second to Mays, who won with 112’6”.
Katie Osborne kept getting close, and kept getting thwarted by Utica Proctor’s Kierra Arthur. Osborne went 17’ ½” in the long jump, second to Arthur (17’4”), and in the 100 hurdles Osborne’s time of 15.15 seconds again was runner-up as Arthur won in 14.68 seconds. Justine Seliger was third (16.45 seconds) and Hannah Szumloz (16.51 seconds) was fourth.
Not only that, but Osborne cleared 5’2 in the high jump to finish second to RFA’s Dana Husband (5’4”), and also had to settle for third place in the triple jump with 35’ ¼”, with Javielle Fanizzi fifth in 34’6 ¼”.
Fanizzi did better in the 400 hurdles, where she was second in 1:08.39 behind Liverpool’s Ore Akinpelu, who won in 1:06.26. Jade Jenkins was third (1:08.61) and Seliger (1:09.60) took ninth place.
Jessica Wheeler cleared 9’6” in the pole vault, the same as West Genesee’s Abby Uczen, but Uczen had fewer misses, so Wheeler took second place.
Maria LaMontagne was fourth in the 1,500-meter run in 4:49.86 as F-M had a 1-2-3 sweep. It was the same in the 3,000-meter run, where Jacqlynn Halstead (10:25.88) and LaMontagne (10:45.28) were behind a trio of Hornets. Halstead, Parry, Watterud and Marissa Colburn were second in the 4×800 relay in 9:58.52, but F-M won in 9:34.84.
Nicole Herringshaw, with 2,284 points, was a close second to West Genesee’s Emily Barriere (2,329 points) in the pentathlon, a difference of 37 points after five events. Herringshaw did best in the high jump, where she cleared 4’9 ¾” for top honors.
Akinpelu, aside from her 400 hurdles win, helped Liverpool found some success, too, in the 4×100 relay, where she joined Connie Torres, Catherine Rowell and Jazmine Herbert to earn a victory in 49.33 seconds, edging Baldwinsville (49.64 seconds) at the wire. Akinpelu, Torres, Rowell and Yasmeen Griffin were second in the 4×400 relay (4:00.44) to F-M, who won in a quick 3:56.52.
On her own, Herbert was third in the 100 sprint in 12.25 seconds. Angela Kulpa was third in the pole vault (9 feet), ahead of Shae Shenandoah and Nicole Barrett (8’6” each), while Tammy Brodie took third in the long jump with 16’11”.
