Points found, and points lost, had much to do with how last Wednesday’s Section III Class AA championship meet at Bragman Stadium unfolded.
Cicero-North Syracuse, who won the CNY Counties League National division regular-season title, had enough on hand to counter the challenge of Fayetteville-Manlius and its deep pool of distance runners. Liverpool, led by Penn State-bound Zavon Watkins, had plenty to offer, too.
When it was done, though, the Warriors, with 89 points, and the Northstars, with 81 points, both trailed the Hornets, whose 99 points were mostly gained through claiming a pair of relays and going 1-2-3-4 in the 3,200-meter run and 1-3-4 in the mile.
In two key contests, C-NS got hurt. Normally a strength, the pole vault turned when Cameron Shaughnessy, who has cleared 13 feet 6 inches this spring, could not clear a height. This opened it up for Watertown’s Mike Lopresti, who won with 13 feet as Cameron LaBarge (11’6”) was second.
Meanwhile, in the 110 high hurdles Frank Volino appeared to be the favorite when Oswego Cory Keefe took a false start and was out in the semifinals. But Volino fell late in the race and got disqualified. His appeal was denied.
Volino’s teammate, Morgan Austen, won the 110 hurdles in 15.56 seconds, while Volino did go on to win the 400 hurdles in 56.67 seconds, holding off, among others, Liverpool’s Keewan Rondinello, who was third in 58.06 seconds. C-NS teammates Sam Nassar (59.40 seconds) and Austen (59.68 seconds) were fifth and sixth, respectively.
Watkins had a mixed effort. He held off Baldwinsville’s Alec Peinkofer to win the 800-meter run in 1:56.88, but didn’t clear a height in the high jump and, in the mile, settled for second place in 4:20.09 as F-M’s Nick Ryan blazed to victory in a personal-best 4:09.61. Watkins, Dan Muldoon, Sean Brais and Anthony Ostuni was third in the 4×800 relay in 8:13.41, with C-NS (8:34.46) in fifth.
Liverpool also earned a title in the shot put, where Nick Leedom threw it 49’4 ¾”, nearly a foot better than Rome Free Academy’s Philip Caruso. Leedom’s teammate, Geoffrey Bell, was fifth with 44’10 ¼”.
The Warriors’ Bryson Mayes impressed in the 100-meter dash, taking second (11.12 seconds) to Utica Proctor’s Chris Simmons (10.95 seconds), and getting closer in the 200-meter dash with 22.17 seconds, runner-up to Nottingham’s Tayquon Hightower (22.11 seconds).
C-NS and Liverpool went head-to-head in the 4×100 relay. Mark Broughton, fourth in the 100 and fifth in the 200-meter dash, teamed with Shaughnessy, Avery Yarn and Shawn Webb (who was sixth in the 200) to win in 43.51 seconds as the Warriors’ quartet of Lawes, Rondinello, Steve Fiorello and Ryan Ronk earned second in 44.11 seconds.
Rondinello earned second place in the 400-meter dash in 51.15 seconds, just behind West Genesee’s Luke Potash (50.70 seconds), and he teamed with Ronk, Fiorello and Brockton Barton to get third place in the 4×400 relay in 3:30.74. Nassar, Webb, Christian Oliver and Nathan Hilt put C-NS (3:34.19) in fourth place.
Also for Liverpool, Brandon Horton picked up 2,450 points in the pentathlon, putting him in second place behind Oswego’s Ben Harrington (2,609 points).
Neil Gill had a strong showing for C-NS in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, working his way to second place in 10:13.33, and he also finished sixth (10:24.59) in the 3,200-meter run.
The Northstars had Khalil Stevens and Joel Brousseau tie for third in the high jump, each clearing 6 feet. Bryson Mayes had a fourth-place triple jump of 41’7 ¾”, while teammate Joe Castaldo got sixth in the discus with 118’1”.
