Battling 90-degree heat and the pressure of wanting to advance to this weekend’s state meet at Middletown High School, track and field athletes from Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse would earn a series of victories in Thursday’s Section III state qualifier at Bragman Stadium.

In particular, the Warriors cleaned up in sprints, starting with Ryheim Lawes, who took the 100-meter dash in 10.94 seconds, the only sub-11 second clocking, and went on to win the 200-meter dash in 22.13 seconds, more than a second ahead of Rome Free Academy’s Leroy Brown.

Liverpool’s girls did well, too. Ore Akinpelu, who had already won the 400-meter hurdles in 1:06.58, paired with Catherine Rowell, Alexus Gersbacher and Jazmine Herbert to run the 4×100 relay in 49.08 seconds, just ahead of Baldwinsville (49.71 seconds) and the field.

It was the same in the 4×400, where Yasmeen Griffin joined Akinpelu, Rowell and Herbert and, again, Liverpool (3:58.06) held off B’ville (3:59.10) for the top spot. To top it off, Angela Kulpa cleared 10 feet 6 inches and won the pole vault, with C-NS’s Theresa Brown in fifth place.

The boys Warriors won two field events. Travis Chewning-Kulick soared above the field in the pole vault, clearing 13 feet 6 inches as Jamesville-DeWitt’s Zach Liebmann (13 feet) was second. Mark Vanmarter advanced to the state meet with a top long jump of 22 feet 5 ½ inches, beating Indian River’s Darrius Bryan by five inches.

Joe Castaldo gave C-NS a victory in the Division I shot put, as his top throw of 52 feet 5 ¼ inches beat Westhill/Bishop Ludden’s Corey Wilkinson (51’2 ¾”) and the field. Castaldo also was third in the discus with 133’5”, with Liverpool’s Chris Granell (125’8”) in fifth place.

In the Division I (large school) pentathlon, the Northstars’ Morgan Austen and the Warriors’ Tammy Brodie both prevailed. Austen was tops overall with 3,207 points, holding off Watertown’s Matt Olney (3,144 points), while Brodie got 2,696 points in the girls event, just ahead of RFA’s Tricia Loso (2,645 point) as C-NS’s Brittany House got 2,404 points.

C-NS’s Mark Broughton was fourth (23.72 seconds) in the 200, and in the 4×100 relay he, along with Shawn Webb, Steve Mirizio and Nathan Hilt, hit the line in 43.30 seconds, just behind RFA, who won in 43.04 seconds. Destiny Monica was second in the shot put with 34’3 ¼”, with Shannon Hanmer fifth in the discus.

The Warriors saw Gaurab Bhattacharya finish second (15.98 seconds) to Oswego’s Cory Keefe (14.92 seconds) in the 110 high hurdles, with Alex Christensen second in the 800-meter run in 1:58.37 and Ben Petrella second (9:38.41) in the 3,200-meter run. Morgan Mahoney was second in the girls 3,000-meter run in 10:43 flat as Juliana Basla was third in the girls 800 in 2:19.03.

C-NS saw Pete Girardi take third in the 400 hurdles in 56.76 seconds, while Avery Yarn made his way to third in the 400-meter dash in 51.22 seconds. Javielle Fanizzi (16’6 ½”) and Hannah Szumloz (16’2 ½”) were third and fifth, respectively, in the girls long jump.

Neil Gill was fourth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 10:45.32, with Szumloz (16.54 seconds) and Cheyanna Colin (16.83 seconds) third and fourth, respectively, in the 100-meter hurdles. Jade Jenkins had a third-place triple jump of 35’10” as Fanizzi finished seventh and Szumloz ninth. Nicole Herringshaw took sixth place in the high jump.