Spreading its production around, the Liverpool girls indoor track and field team put together a second-place finish during Wednesday night’s Section III Class AA championship meet at SRC Arena.
Overall, the Warriors picked up 80 points, offering the only real threat to Fayetteville-Manlius, who still repeated as sectional champions as it finished with 114.33 points. Cicero-North Syracuse also had a strong showing, getting fourth place with 63 points.
Going 1-2 in the pole vault, the Warriors saw Angela Kulpa clear 9 feet for the title and Shae Shenandoah (8 feet) earn the runner-up spot. C-NS’s Theresa Brown was third as Whitney Hotchkiss gained fifth place.
Liverpool was victorious in the 4×200 relay, where Ore Akinpelu, Catherine Rowell, Jazmine Herbert and Danelle Sims finished in a time of 1:49.08, nearly two seconds clear of runner-up Baldwinsville (1:51.02). Akinpelu also helped Danelle Sims, Yasmeen Griffin and Catherine Rowell get to third place in the 4×400 relay in 4:17.27, with C-NS (4:31.10) in sixth.
Morgan Mahoney made her way to second place in the 3,000-meter run in 10:25.57, with Abby McNamara (10:44.11) in fourth place. Juliana Basla was fourth in the 600-meter run in 1:42.97. Mahoney, McNamara, Basla and Jillian Stagnitta were fourth in the 4×800 relay in 10:26 flat, C-NS (10:41.30) settling into fifth place.
Javielle Fanizzi led C-NS as she swept the long jump and triple jump. In the long jump, Fanizzi went 16’2 ¼”, with Liverpool’s Tammy Brodie third (15’6”) and C-NS’s Jade Jenkins fifth. Brodie, in the high jump, cleared 4’9” for third place.
Moving to the triple jump, Fanizzi had a best attempt of 35’3”, half a foot better than West Genesee’s Brianna Richardson (34’9”), with Liverpool’s Alexus Gersbacher (34’5 ¼”) in third place. Jenkins again took fifth place.
Fanizzi added a third-place time of 9.38 seconds in the 55-meter hurdles, ahead of teammates Hannah Szumloz (9.50 seconds) and Jenkins (9.58 seconds) in fifth and sixth, respectively.
C-NS had Destiny Monica throw the shot put 33’2 ¼” for third place, with Liverpool’s Nelliah Watkins sixth. Amanda Shuman took fourth place in the 1,000-meter run in 3:12.84, while Nicole Watterud finished fifth (10:47.42) in the 3,000 and sixth in the 1,500-meter run.
In the boys sectional Class AA meet, C-NS, with 59.33 points, would get third place, with Liverpool (37 points) settling into fifth place, both of them trailing F-M’s top total of 110 points.
For the Warriors, Travis Chewning-Kulick had an impressive victory in the pole vault, clearing 12 feet 6 inches to beat Baldwinsville’s Logan Maar (11’) as C-NS’s Tate LaPorte (10’) was sixth. Geoffrey Bell gave Liverpool a second-place shot put throw of 46’4”, with the Northstars’ Joe Castaldo (43’10 ¾”) getting third place.
Though it didn’t win an event, C-NS had Morgan Austen finished second, in eight seconds flat, behind Oswego’s Cory Keefe (7.60 seconds) in the 55 hurdles, with Liverpool’s Gaurab Bhattacharya in fifth place. Austen’s teammate, Bryson Mayes, was second in the triple jump, going 41’7 ¼” behind Central Square’s Dan Fehrman (43’6 ½”).
C-NS also saw Shawn Webb, Mark Broughton, Avery Yarn and Nathan Hilt take second place in the 4×400 in 3:35.33, with Baldwinsville (3:30.67) getting to the top spot. That same quartet was third in the 4×200 (1:34.26) as Broughton, on his own, got second (37.32 seconds) in the 300 sprint and Yarn (37.72 seconds) finished fourth.
Liverpool had Connor Buck, Alex Christensen, Nick LeClair and Dylan McCarthy get to third in the 4×800 in 8:29.68, with C-NS seeing Anthony Lupia, Neil Gill, Bryan Sibble and Evan Russell fourth in 8:32.77.
Buck was fourth in the 3,200-meter run in 9:53.55, while Christensen was fifth (2:36.14) in the 1,000. Lupia earned fourth place (4:33.57) in the mile. Zach Harris gave Liverpool a fourth-place high jump of 5’8” as Mayes (5’6”) tied for sixth.
All of these athletes return to SRC Arena on Wednesday for the Section III state qualifier, where most of the spots in the March 2 state championship meet at Cornell University’s Barton Hall will get determined.
