As they have done throughout the winter, the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse girls indoor track and field teams finished near the top of the standings during Wednesday night’s George Constantino Memorial Invitational at SRC Arena.
Having seen both girls and boys meets postponed by weather late in the first week of 2014, everyone was eager to compete again, and the girls would go first.
Liverpool, with 44.6 points, got third place in the 25-team field. C-NS, with 36.6 points, settled into fourth place. They both trailed Fayetteville-Manlius, who won with 81.6 points, and West Genesee, whose 52 points meant the runner-up spot.
By far, the Warriors’ most impressive effort came in the 4×800 relay. Kristina Moore, Juliana Basla, Morgan Chewning-Kulick and Maia Henry won that race in 10 minutes, 25.47 seconds was well clear of runner-up East Syracuse-Minoa (10:33.31) as C-NS (11:06.85) settled for seventh place.
The Warriors’ Ore Akinpelu won again in the 300-meter dash, her time of 41.35 seconds well clear of the field as CBA’s Anna Schug (42.82 seconds), beaten in a near dead-heat in the 55-meter dash by Fowler’s Nytasia Survia, was second here, too.
Also for Liverpool, Nelliah Watkins threw the shot put 33 feet 3 ¼ inches) and that was good for second place behind Nottingham’s Shayna Santarelli-Hansen (38’8 ½”). Sarah Pflanz, clearing 7 feet, joined C-NS’s Paige Critella in a large tie for fifth in the pole vault.
Morgan Mahoney also ran well, as she was third in the 1,500-meter run in 5:02.68, with teammate Abby McNamara taking fifth place in 5:09.44. Mahoney added a fourth in the 3,000-meter run in 10:56.08 as Basla got to sixth in the 600-meter run in 1:46.90.
C-NS’s Taylor Parry rose to third place in the 1,000-meter run in 3:14.55, ahead of McNamara (3:18.69), who again finished fifth. Javielle Fanizzi needed a leap of 15’11 ¾” to finish third in the long jump, while Nicole Herringshaw cleared 5 feet for third place in the high jump, where Brittany House was seventh.
Cheyanna Collins was fourth in the 55-meter hurdles in 9.69 seconds, while Sasha Pulaski took sixth in the 55-meter dash in 7.83 seconds. Hannah Szumloz was sixth (32’3 ¼”) in the triple jump.
Pulaski, Szumloz, Hannah Nickels and Kaitlyn Anderson were fifth in the 4×200 relay in 1:56.95, just ahead of Liverpool’s quartet of Akinpelu, Danelle Sims, Yasmeen Griffin and Gates Hardy (1:57.93) in sixth place. Anderson joined Rachel Wisely, Bethany Mitchell and Kristin Schug to take fourth in the 4×400 relay in 4:39.77, where Liverpool (4:42.73) was seventh.
Each of Liverpool’s teams was back in action Saturday at the Southern Tier Invitational, held on the same Barton Hall track at Cornell University where they’ll stage the state championship meet on March 1 – and each of them would pick up some victories.
Akinpelu, on the girls side, and Ryheim Lawes, on the boys side, swept the sprints. In the girls 55 sprint, Akinpelu prevailed in 7.41 seconds, and then in the 300 she needed 40.22 seconds to again go to the top of the Section III standings in that event.
Meanwhile, Lawes needed 6.54 seconds for his victory in the 55 sprint, going on to prevail in the 300 in 35.70 seconds. Also, Geoffrey Bell emerged with a victory in the shot put as his top toss of 50’11” beat the field, and he had a top weight throw of 44’9”.
Mark Vanmarter went 39’2” in the triple jump and 21’3 ½” in the long jump, while Connor Buck ran 3,200 meters in 9:46.99 ahead of Dylan McCarthy (9:50.56). Alex Christensen posted a 1,000-meter time of 2:38.95, beating Buck (2:45.73) as Jacob Rowell ran the mile in 4:50.80.
On the girls side at Cornell, Mahoney ran 3,000 meters in 10:38.57, but was behind McNamara in the 1,000 as McNamara got a time of 3:12.82. Basla posted 1:45.86 in the 600-meter run.
