Whether it was the male or female side, the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool track and field teams could not separate from each other in Wednesday’s Section III Class AA championship meet at Bragman Stadium.
In the boys and girls meets, the Northstars and Warriors had similar point totals, but both ended up chasing Fayetteville-Manlius, whose depth in distance running events led to a sweep of both of the sectional meets.
They were together because bad weather last Tuesday postponed the girls AA meet, originally set for Fulton. So they moved it to C-NS 24 hours later, and managed to finish most of the events, though three (the girls 4×400 relay and 2,000-meter steeplechase, and boys 4×100 relay) had to be held over until Thursday and completed at Rome Free Academy Stadium.
When all was done in the girls AA meet, Liverpool had 93 points and a second-place effort, with C-NS getting 83 points for third place and F-M (133 points) on top.
Liverpool star sophomore Ore Akinpelu pulled away to win the 400-meter hurdles in 1:05.97, more than two seconds clear of the field as the Northstars’ Madison Kolakowski was sixth. Then, in the 200-meter dash, Akinpelu hit the finish line in 25.88 seconds, with Catherine Rowell third in 26.64 seconds and Jazmine Herbert in fifth place.
Akinpelu, Herbert, Rowell and Alexus Gersbacher held off Baldwisville, 49.23 seconds to 49.58, to claim the 4×100 relay. Then, going to RFA on Thursday, Akinpelu and Rowell, joined by Yasmeen Griffin and Jessica Turner, won the 4×400 in 3:59.3, exactly a second ahead of Baldwinsville (4:00.3) as C-NS finished sixth.
Herbert, on her own, took third in the 100-meter dash in 12.68 seconds, while Rowell was fourth (58.84 seconds) in the 400-meter dash. Gersbacher was fifth in the triple jump.
Juliana Basla took fifth in the 800-meter run in 2:20.96, while Morgan Mahoney was fourth in the 3,000-meter run (10:33.18) and sixth in the 1,500-meter run. C-NS’s Jacqlynn Halstead got sixth in the 3,000 behind Mahoney, while Halstead’s teammate, Nicole Watterud, was fifth (7:40.6) in the 2,000 steeplechase held over to Thursday at RFA.
For the Northstars, Javielle Fanizzi won the long jump, going 16 feet 8 inches as Liverpool’s Tammy Brodie (16’4 ½”) was second and Jade Jenkins was fifth. In the triple jump, Fanizzi went 35’2” to finish second and Jenkins (34’11 ¾”) was third.
Hannah Szumloz was second in the 100-meter hurdles in 16.24 seconds, with teammate Cheyanna Colin fifth and Liverpool’s Tammy Brodie (16.90 seconds) in between them in fourth place. Brodied also got fifth in the high jump (4 feet 10 inches), just behind C-NS’s Nicole Herringshaw (5 feet), who finished fourth.
Brittany House was second in the pentathlon with 2,552 points, with Marissa Colburn (2,213 points) fourth. C-NS was fifth in the 4×800 relay in 10:18.61, with Liverpool (10:47.42) sixth. Destiny Monica took third in the shot put (32’1”) as Shannon Hanmer, sixth in that event, rose to third in the discus, going 96’6” as Candice Segars was sixth.
Meanwhile, in the boys AA meet C-NS got the runner-up spot with 87 points behind F-M’s winning total of 143 points, with Liverpool (76 points) settling into third place.
Liverpool had Ryheim Lawes win the 200 sprint in 21.92 seconds, inches ahead of Utica Proctor’s Chris Simmons (22.00 seconds), while in the 100 Lawes, in 10.94 seconds), was right behind Simmons (10.87 seconds) at the line.
C-NS countered with strength in field events like the shot put, where Joe Castaldo won with a heave of 51 feet 10 ¾ inches (no one else did better than 49 feet), while adding a sixth in the discus, an event where the Warriors’ Chris Granell (133’1”) was third.
Morgan Austen took second (15.37 seconds) behind Oswego star Cory Keefe (14.79 seconds) in the 110 high hurdles, with Liverpool’s Gaurab Bhattacharya fifth. Austen added a fourth (57.36 seconds) in the 400 hurdles, where Pete Girardi was third in 56.56 seconds, and Austen also took fourth (41’10 ½”) in the triple jump, with Bryson Mayes (41’10 ¼”) was fifth.
Neil Gill needed 10:00.98 to gain second place in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, also teaming with Bryan Bausinger, Paul DeGennaro and Bryan Sibble as C-NS was second (8:23.82) to F-M (8:19.14) in the 4×800, where Liverpool was sixth.
In the 4×100 relay held over until Thursday, Avery Yarn, Shawn Webb, Jalen Jenkins and Steve Mirizio were second in 44.5 seconds to RFA, who won in 43.0 seconds. C-NS also was fourth in the 4×400 relay in 3:37.95 as Anthony Lupia took sixth in the 800. Yarn got fourth place in the 400 sprint in 51.26 seconds.
Liverpool won in the pole vault, where Travis Chewning-Kulick cleared 13 feet 1 inch, leaving the runner-up, C-NS’s Tate LaPorte (11 feet), and the field far behind.
Brandon Horton finished second in the pentathlon, with 2,517 points, while C-NS’s Jesse Lucchetti was fifth. Ben Petrella ran the mile in 4:29.91, finishing third, and also took third (9:38.28) in the 3,200-meter run, where Connor Buck (9:39.53) was fourth, while Alex Christensen got to third in the 800 in 1:57.01.
The Warriors’ Mark Vanmarter had a top long jump of 22’ ½”, which put him in third place in an event where Lawes (21’2 ¾”) was sixth. Zach Harris added a sixth in the high jump.
