Even in the home venue of its main rival, the Liverpool girls track and field team still found a way to prevail in Thursday’s CNY Counties League National division championship meet.
The Warriors, with 175 points, held off host Cicero-North Syracuse (165 points) to win at Bragman Stadium, in large measure due to the versatility and depth it showed in running events.
Just eight days earlier, on May 8, Liverpool rolled past C-NS 79-52 at LHS Stadium, taking the regular-season league title, and it started to echo that result by sweeping the sprints.
Jazmine Herbert, in 12.64 seconds, topped Baldwinsville’s Gabby Jordan (12.74 seconds) in the 100-meter dash, and was second (26.79 seconds in the 200-meter dash, where Ore Akinpelu won in 26.41 seconds. In between, Catherine Rowell (1:00.86) and Danelle Sims (1:01.24) went 1-2 in the 400-meter dash.
Akinpelu claimed a second title in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:06.47, and she teamed with Herbert, Rowell and Alexus Gersbacher as Liverpool won the 4×100 relay in 49.58 seconds, where C-NS (53.07 seconds) was third. Rowell, Sims, Juliana Basla and Yasmeen Griffin were victorious in the 4×400 in 4:09.80.
Moving to the distance events, Morgan Mahoney, in the 2,000-meter steeplchase, fought off the Northstars’ Nicole Watterud, winning in 7:55.27 to Watterud’s 8:01.02 as Taylor Parry (8:11.27) was fourth for C-NS.
It didn’t stop there for Mahoney, who was second in the 1,500-meter run in 5:02.79 and also second in the 3,000-meter run (10:59.27) behind Abby McNamara, who won in 10:50.80.
Angela Kulpa cleared 9 feet 6 inches for second place in the pole vault. Nellliah Watkins threw the shot put 31’9″ and got second place, while taking third (80 feet) in the discus. Gersbacher earned third place (34’3″) in the triple jump as Tammy Brodie was third in the 100-meter hurdles in 16.75 seconds, adding a fifth in the long jump and sixth in the high jump.
C-NS won three of six field events, two of them by Jade Jenkins, who went 15’9″ in the long jump as Javielle Fanizzi (15’6 1/4″) was seconds, and added a victory in the triple jump with 35’5 1/2″ as Hannah Szumloz (33’5″) was fourth. Jenkins took fourth in the 400 hurdles, where Marissa Colburn was fifth.
Szumloz had already won the 100 hurdles in 16.25 seconds, with teammate Cheyanna Colin getting fourth place. Fanizzi was third in the 200 in 27.02 seconds and fourth in the 100 sprint (12.96 seconds) as Sasha Pulaski got sixth place.
Destiny Monica, with a heave of 34’1″, was victorious in the shot put, where Shannon Hanmer (31’6″) was third, this following Hanmer’s second-place throw of 84’9″ in the discus.
Nicole Herringhsaw took second in the high jump, clearing 5’1″ as B’ville’s Emily Soeder topped 5’5″. Theresa Brown (8’6″) and Whitney Hotchkiss were third and fourth, respectively, in the pole vault.
Parry, Watterud, Maria LaMontagne and Amanda Shuman were second in the 4×800 relay in 10:23 flat, ahead of Liverpool in fourth place, but only managed third in the 4×100 (53.07 seconds) and 4×400 (4:26.82) behind Liverpool.
LaMontagne was fourth in the 800 in 2:31.02, with Shuman sixth, as Jacqlynn Halstead ran to third in the 1,500 (5:03.52) and 3,000 (11:03.10), with Marie LeRoy sixth in the 400 sprint and Jillian Norris fifth in the 3,000.
The scene shifts next Tuesday to Fulton, where the Section III Class AA championship meet takes place and both Liverpool and C-NS take the measure of CNYCL American division champion Fayetteville-Manlius in a battle for top honors.
