Even the fact that it was competing for the second time in four days could not slow the Liverpool boys indoor track and field team down.
The Warriors won four events, two of them by sprint star Ryheim Lawes, and roared to the top spot in Tuesday night’s Bob Grieve Memorial Invitational at SRC Arena.
With 85 points, Liverpool pulled away from Fayetteville-Manlius, who got most of its 66 points from distance running events. Cicero-North Syracuse made its way to third place with 52 points.
Lawes, who swept to victories in the 55 and 300-meter dashes in the Jan. 11 Southern Tier Invitational at Cornell University (the site of the state meet later this winter), prevailed in both events again when he returned to Onondaga Community College’s oval.
In the 55, Lawes finished in 6.64 seconds, with Fowler’s Delee Williams (6.82 seconds) settling into second place. Then, in the 300, Lawes was dominant, his time of 36.96 seconds nearly a full second ahead of Corcoran’s Davon Evans (37.80 seconds) by the time the nine heats were done. C-NS’s Nate Hilt finished fourth in 38.18 seconds.
Building upon Lawes’ efforts, the Warriors also prevailed in the 4×800 relay, where Nick LeClair, Dylan McCarthy, Connor Buck and Alex Christensen finished in eight minutes, 17.52 seconds, with runner-up Central Square (8:29.73) more than 12 seconds behind.
And the Warriors gained 16 points from the long jump, where Mark Vanmarter, with a top leap of 19 feet 8 1/4 inches, held off East Syracuse-Minoa’s Tom Grayer (19’6 1/4″) as Lawes, finishing with 26 individual points, was third with a top leap of 19’6″. Nate Guarante contributed a second-place high jump of 5’8″, trailing Corcoran’s Charles Stokes, who won with a leap of 6 feet.
Liverpool also was fourth in the 4×200 relay as Vanmarter, Brandon Mayfield, Peter Gonzalez and James Williams finished in 1:38.79, ahead of C-NS (1:41.04) in sixth place, and the Warriors were also sixth (3:50.68) in the 4×400 relay as Gonzalez, Collin Gwilt, Arfasa Hasey and Michael Mahan took part.
Christensen nearly won the 600-meter run, his time of 1:26.91 putting him in second, just behind West Genesee’s Jack Erhard, who won in 1:26.72. McCarthy was third in the mile in 4:34.02, while Buck finished fifth in 4:38.48 and C-NS’s Bryan Bausinger was seventh. LeClair (2:43.96) and Jacob Rowell (2:44.50) were fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 1,000-meter run.
C-NS won that 4×200 relay as the quartet of Hilt, Pete Girardi, Evan Russell and Morgan Austen finished in 3:34.98, more than five seconds ahead of runner-up Baldwinsville (3:39.99).
Then, on his own, Austen went 8.01 seconds to finish more than half a second ahead of F-M’s Kyle Barber 8.53 seconds) in the 55-meter hurdles. Austen added a sixth-place triple jump of 38’11 1/2″.
A shot-put battle between C-NS’s Joe Castaldo and Liverpool’s Geoffrey Bell went to Castaldo, who had a top throw of 45’7 3/4″ held off Bell (45’6″) by less than two inches, with the Northstars’ Nick Golembieski (43’10 1/2″) in fourth place.
In the pole vault, Connor Osborne finished second, clearing 11′ 9, a height only Jamesville-DeWitt’s Zach Liebmann bettered as he cleared 12’6″ to win it. Colin Greenseich made his way to fourth place in the 3,200-meter run in 10:10.66.
The girls edition of the Grieve meet, which took place one night later, saw Liverpool finished third, with 44 points, trailing F-M (85.66 points) and West Genesee (57 points). C-NS managed just 18 points and tied for ninth.
Ore Akinpelu, also a double winner at Cornell on Jan. 11, only finished second in the 55 sprint, in 7.66 seconds, behind CBA’s Anna Schug (7.47 seconds), while C-NS’s Javielle Fanizzi (7.82 seconds) took sixth place. It was the same in the 600, where Akinpelu got a time of 1:39.28, but WG’s Laura LEff (1:38.69) held on for the win, leaving Akinpelu in second place.
Morgan Mahoney ran 3,000 meters in 10:39.04, second to Skaneateles’ Kaitlyn Neal (10:34.57), while Abby McNamara was fifth in 11:03.03. McNamara later finished sixth (5:07.76) in the 1,500-meter run as Nelliah Watkins, throwing the shot put 31’2 ½”, took second behind Westhill/Bishop Ludden’s Bella Sterly, who won with 32’7”.
Juliana Basla, Jillian Stagnitta, Kristina Moore and Malia Wallace were third in the 4×800 in 10:30.15, with C-NS’s quartet of Annina Marullo, Taylor Parry, Jilliann Norris and Andrea Stout fourth in 10:37.92. Basla, on her own, beat out Morgan Chewning-Kulick for sixth place in the 1,000 in 3:14.14.
For the Northstars, Cheyanna Collins finished third in the 55 hurdles in 9.75 seconds, while Hannah Szumloz got third in the triple jump with a top leap of 32’11” as Julia King (31’2 ½”) was sixth. Liverpool fit into sixth place in the 4×400 in 4:37.84 as Hejal Patel, Khadijah Clarke, Kristen Jevis and Maia Henry took part. Henry also was seventh in the 600 behind Akinpelu.
