In the make-up of a pair of rained-out April 10 CNY Counties League meets, the Liverpool track and field teams swept the West Genesee Wildcats, kicking off a busy and productive week.
It was a lopsided girls meet at LHS Stadium, won by the Warriors 102-39, with Tammy Brodie at the forefront. Brodie ran to a top time of 17.1 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles, went 16 feet 1 ½ inches to win the high jump and cleared 5 feet to prevail in the high jump.
Nelliah Watkins swept the throwing events, heaving the shot put 31’1” and the discus 77’9”, while Alexus Gersbacher had a top triple jump of 22’1”.
Abby McNamara was first in the 3,000-meter run in 11:22.2., also helping Juliana Basla, Morgan Chewning-Kulick and Morgan Mahoney take the 4×800 relay in 10:19.2. Ore Akinpelu backed up her victory in the 400-meter dash (1:00.3) by joining Jazmine Herbert, Catherine Rowell and Alexis Bittel as Liverpool took the 4×100 relay in 51.8 secondsl.
During the boys meet in Camillus, Liverpool took out WG 86-54, led by Ryheim Lawes’ trio of triumphs. Lawes went 19’6” to win the long jump, ran the 100 sprint in exactly 11 seconds and took the 200-meter dash in 23.2 seconds.
It didn’t stop there, either, as Lawes also teamed with Gaurab Bhattacharya, Trevor Monk and Brandon Horton for first place in the 4×100 relay in 46.3 seconds. Liverpool also prevailed in the 4×800, where Alex Christiensen, Ben Petrella, Landon Veney and Connor Buck had a time of 8:27.0.
In other distance races, Christiensen was first in the 800-meter run in 2:04.5, this before Petrella needed 10:15.5 to take the 3,200-meter run. Nick LeClair won the mile in 4:43.5.
Moving to field events, Horton went 37’7 ½” to prevail in the triple jump as Christian Grannell threw the discus 141’8” for another title. Travis Chewning-Kulick rolled to victory in the pole vault, clearing 12’6”. Nate Guarente topped 5’4” and won the high jump.
Then both of the Warrior teams would earn second-place finishes in Friday’s Chittenango Invitational, the boys with 75 points, the girls with 66 points, each of them trailing Fayetteville-Manlius, who swept the team events.
In the boys meet, Lawes won the 100-meter dash, his time of 11.10 seconds comfortably ahead of Niskayuna’s Jordan Ivery (11.47 seconds) and 49 other sprinters.
Lawes, fifth in the long jump with a leap of 18’11”, also took second in the 200 (22.75 seconds) to Rome Free Academy’s Josh Reed (22.59 seconds) as teammate Mark Vanmarter was fourth in 23.82 seconds after taking eighth in the long jump.
Christiensen tore to a time of 1:57.85 in the 800 for third place, just behind F-M’s Charlie Beeler (1:57.03) and Rome Free Academy’s Erik Winberg (1:57.77), and teamed with Veney, LeClair and Dylan McCarthy to get second place (8:43.09) to F-M (8:23.74) in the 4×800.
Bhattacharya rose to third place in the 110 high hurdles in 16.44 seconds, while Zach Harris cleared 5’6” for third place in the high jump. Chris Granell got to third (132’4”) and Joe Duffus was fifth (122’3”) in the discus as Anthony Miller was fifth in the shot put with 45’6”.
Horton was fifth in the five-event pentathlon with 2,096 points, while Jacob Rowell was sixth (11:07.45) in the 3,000 steeplechase. LeClair was eighth in the mile Brockton Barton was ninth in the 400 sprint in 54.97 seconds.
For the girls Warriors, Akinpelu pulled away to win the 400 hurdles, her time of 1:07.66 bettering the runner-up, Hamilton’s Clara Jones (1:09.90), by more than two seconds. And in the 4×400, Akinpelu, teaming with Rowell, Yasmeen Griffin and Danelle Sims, sped to victory in 4:10.38, with F-M second in 4:14.37.
Brodie contended for the title in the girls pentathlon, winning the high jump (4’11 ¾”) and long jump (15’2 ¾”) portions, but ending up in second place with 2,513 points, not far behind Phoenix’s Haylie Virginia, who won with 2,626 points.
Kulpa cleared 9 feet for second place in the pole vault behind West Genesee’s Abby Uczen, who cleared 10 feet. Gersbacher, in the triple jump, went 33’9”, which was second to F-M’s Christabel Ezidiegwu, who went 34’6 ¼”.
Basla got third place in the 800 in 2:23.32, with Danelle Sims going 1:01.29 for third place in the 400 sprint. Jillian Stagnitta made her way to fourth place in the 2,000-meter steeplechase in 8:19.67 as Mahoney, in the featured Fleet Feet Mile, finished fourth in 5:21.14.
Herbert, in 27.85 seconds, earned sixth place in the 200, while Basla, Stagnitta, Chewning-Kulick and Emily Butler were sixth in the 4×800. Leah Dixon was ninth in the 100 hurdles.
