Switching from SRC Arena to Colgate University’s Sanford Field House seemed to work for Cicero-North Syracuse’s boys indoor track and field team.
The Northstars made its way to second place at Tuesday night’s George Constantino Memorial Invitational, picking up 48 points. Only Fayetteville-Manlius, with 58 points, fared better as Liverpool, with 21 points, shared ninth place with Marcellus.
As F-M piled up points in distance events to account for most of its winning margin, C-NS would challenge them by excelling in sprints, relays and field events.
Shawn Webb would prevail in the 300-meter dash, as his time of 38.17 seconds topped West Genesee’s Pete Richardson (38.55 seconds) and the rest of the field.
Later, in the 4×400 relay, Webb was part of another winning effort, teaming with Mark Broughton, Nick Erwin and Nathan Hilt as, in a time of 3:42.12, the Northstars held off Jamesville-DeWitt (3:43.34) for first place. Broughton also was fourth (6.90 seconds) in the 55-meter dash.
Morgan Austen got 16 points by himself. In the 55-meter hurdles, the C-NS junior was second, in 8.17 seconds, to Oswego star Cory Keefe (7.82 seconds), while Liverpool’s Gaurab Bhattacharya was third in 8.68 seconds.
In the triple jump, Austen went 39 feet 10 ½ inches, again a runner-up as Mexico’s Brandon Kisselstein (40’3 ½”) prevailed. Anthony Lupia contended in the mile, getting to third place in 4:34.48.
Liverpool got most of its points from field events. Travis Chewning-Kulick actually tied for the top spot in the pole vault with J-D’s Zach Leibmann, both clearing 12 feet, but Leibmann did so with fear misses, to Chewning-Kulick got second place.
Geoffrey Bell chimed in with a third-place shot put toss of 43’5”, with Garub Warriors saw Nick LeClair take sixth place in the 3,200-meter run in 10:19.13, with Dylan McCarthy eighth. Alex Christensen gained seventh place in the mile.
Back at SRC Arena a night later for the girls portion of the Constantino meet, it was Liverpool working its way to second place in the team standings, earning 51 points to top everyone except F-M, who won again with 90 points. C-NS, with 26 points, finished sixth.
Again, Ore Akinpelu proved the Warriors’ biggest star. The Liverpool sophomore held off Cazenovia’s Ashley Winn, 41.85 seconds to 41.93, for a victory in the 300-meter dash, and combined with Yasmeen Griffin, Catherine Rowell and Danielle Sims to win the 4×400 in 4:17.93, more than seven seconds ahead of F-M (4:21.93) in the runner-up spot.
Angela Kulpa, clearing 8’6” in the pole vault, finished second behind West Genesee’s Nina Zesky (10 feet). Rowell, on her own, went 33’1 ¼” in the triple jump, sliding into third place, while Tammy Brodie added a third in the long jump, going 15’8 ½”, and took seventh in the high jump.
Jazmine Herbert was fifth (7.80 seconds) in the 55 sprint, where Alexus Gersbacher was seventh. Juliana Basla was sixth (1:45.54) in the 600 as the Warriors were also seventh in the 4×200, just out of the points.
Javielle Fanizzi gained 12 of C-NS’s 26 points by herself. Fanizzi had a second-place triple jump of 33’11”, just behind F-M’s Christabel Ezidiegwu (34’3 ¼”), while teammate Jade Jenkins (32’1”) was fourth. Fanizzi would add a fourth-place long jump of 15’3 ¾”.
C-NS went to fourth place in the 4×800 relay as Emily Dolan, Alexandra Pirro, Victoria Pirro and Amanda Shuman posted a time of 10:42.84. The Northstars also had Nicole Watterud finish sixth (11:24.99) in the 3,000-meter run as Destiny Monica rose to sixth in the shot put.
