Throughout the winter, the Liverpool boys indoor track and field team had picked up a string of victories against CNY Indoor Track Association opponents.
But that changed in Tuesday night’s Fred Kirsschenheiter Memorial Invitational, where the Warriors, without sprint star Ryheim Lawes, finished second to Fayetteville-Manlius.
Liverpool had 74 points and did take second place, but F-M (87 points), with lots of success in distance races and a pair of relay titles, finished in front. Cicero-North Syracuse, with 38 points, tied West Genesee for fourth as Solvay (51 points) had a surprising third-place effort.
Still going 1-2 in the mile, the Warriors gained 18 points when Connor Buck, finishing in four minutes, 32.76 seconds, pulled away from Alex Christensen, who still managed to take second place in 4:37.40. C-NS’s Brian Bausinger was fifth in 4:39.09.
Mark Vanmarter added his own victory in the long jump, going 20 feet 8 inches, the only competitor past 20 feet as Solvay’s Garrett Lee (19’3 ¼”) was second.
Moving to the triple jump, Vanmarter went 40’11” and nearly won again, but Solvay’s Isaiah Lee (40’11 ¾”) was just a bit better, leaving Vanmarter in second place. Vanmarter also was second in the long jump, clearing 5’8” as Corcoran’s Charles Stokes (6 feet) prevailed.
Another shot put duel between Liverpool’s Geoffrey Bell and C-NS’s Joe Castaldo went in Bell’s favor, Bell throwing it 48’4 ¾” as Castaldo, in second place, had a top toss of 47’ ¾”.
With Lawes absent from the sprints he has won all winter, Brandon Mayfield stepped up in the 55-meter dash and finished fourth, in 6.90 seconds, part of a tight bunch at the top where Fowler’s Delee Williams (6.79 seconds) prevailed.
Buck, Dylan McCarthy, Jacob Rowell and Nick LeClair worked their way to third place in the 4×800 relay in 8:41.03, with C-NS (8:58.88) in seventh place. Liverpool also was seventh in the 4×200 relay (1:41.08), just behind Cazenovia (1:40.86) for a points spot, as Rowell got seventh place (1:31.36) in the 600-meter run.
C-NS got its own 1-2 finish in the 55-meter hurdles, where Morgan Austen won in 7.96 seconds, fending off Pete Girardi, who was a close second with 8.03 seconds.
Austen, Girardi, Evan Russell and Nate Hilt got to second place in the 4×400 relay in 3:39.06, behind only Baldwinsville (3:35.07) as Christensen, Buck, Tyler Luciano and Collin Gwilt put Liverpool in fifth place in 3:47.69.
Two days later, in the girls Kirschenheiter meet, Liverpool again finished second, picking up 45 points – and again F-M was on top, with 89.5 points, nearly double the Warriors’ output as C-NS, with just 16 points, tied for ninth place.
Ore Akinpelu was victorious in the 55 sprint, finishing in 7.60 seconds to hold off Rome Free Academy’s Mariah Johnson (7.71 seconds) at the line. Then Akinpelu made it a sprint sweep in the 300, getting to 41.23 seconds to beat APW’s Skylar Pastor (41.62 seconds) and the field.
Morgan Chewning-Kulick made it to third place in the 1,000-meter run in 3:14.43, while Morgan Mahoney took fourth in the 1,500-meter run in 5:01.63, with Juliana Basla (5:02.72) sixth. Basla, Mahoney, Chewning-Kulick and Abby McNamara made it to third place in the 4×800 relay in 10:18.29.
Maia Henry got fifth place in the 600-meter run in 1:45.43, with C-NS’s Jilliann Norris seventh and Liverpool’s Kristina Moore eighth, as Jillian Stagnitta got to 10th place in the 1,000. McNamara was seventh in the 3,000-meter run.
C-NS saw Destiny Monica win the shot put, as her throw of 33’6” beat Westhill/Bishop Ludden’sBella Sterly by half a foot, with Liverpool’s Nelliah Watkins (31’6 ½”) in third place and the Northstars’ Shannon Hanmer in seventh place.
Hannah Szumloz finish fourth in the triple jump, going 32’11” as teammate Julia King was eighth. Cheyanna Collins finished fifth in the 55 hurdles in 9.80 seconds as Nicole Herringshaw tied for sixth in the high jump. Liverpool took eighth place in the 4×400 and 4×200 relays as the Northstars settled for 10th place in the 4×200.
