While the Liverpool boys indoor track and field team could not quite catch Fayetteville-Manlius and earn the Section III Class AA championship, Ryheim Lawes did establish himself as the top individual performer of the event.
During Tuesday night’s Class AA meet at SRC Arena, the Warriors picked up 101.5 points, topping everyone except the Hornets, who relied on its deep pool of distance runners to earn most of its 121 points and get to the top. Cicero-North Syracuse was fourth with 46 points.
Lawes started his big day by winning the 55-meter dash in 6.55 seconds, with teammate Brandon Mayfield (6.90 seconds) grabbing fifth place. In the 300-meter dash, Lawes, in 36.20 seconds, beat Corcoran’s Davon Evans (37.25 seconds) by more than a second.
To cap it off, in the long jump, Lawes and teammate Mark Vanmarter went 1-2 in a closely fought long jump. Going 21 feet 7 ½ inches, Lawes edged Vanmarter (21’6 ½”) by just one inch.
Vanmarter added a second-place triple jump of 42’10 ¾”, topped by Rome Free Academy’s Josh Reed, who went 44’5” for the victory, while Vanmarter cleared 5’8” in the high jump for fourth place, with Nate Guarente fifth (5’4”) and C-NS’s George Reader in sixth place.
C-NS’s Morgan Austen, fourth in the long jump (19’7 ¾”), made up for it by winning the 55-meter hurdles in 7.92 seconds, with fellow Northstar Pete Girardi (8.25 seconds) in the second spot.
Girardi also got sixth place in the triple jump and, in the 4×400 relay, paired with Austen, Evan Russell and Bryan Bausinger as C-NS got second place in 3:38.34, just behind Baldwinsville (3:34.30) but beating Liverpool’s third-place clocking of 3:39.82.
Liverpool’s Connor Buck was third in the 3,200-meter run in 9:35.11, ahead of Dylan McCarthy in sixth place. Alex Christensen got to third place in the 1,000-meter run in 2:36.57, with Nick LeClair (2:38.07) sliding into fourth place.
McCarthy added a fourth in the mile (4:36.14) as Christensen was also fifth in the 600-meter run. That pair, combined with Buck and LeClair, took third place in the 4×800 relay in 8:27.45, with C-NS (8:40.24) in fifth place. The Warriors took fifth in the 4×200 relay in 1:39.31.
C-NS’s Tate LaPorte nearly won the pole vault as he cleared 11 feet, a number topped only by F-M’s Justin Jones, who won by clearing 11’3”. Liverpool’s David Lewis tied for fifth.
Over in the girls sectional Class AA meet, it was C-NS making its way to third place, earning 69.5 points, while Liverpool was fifth (46 points), both of them behind F-M’s winning total of 142 points.
Javielle Fanizzi led the Northstars, making her comeback in the long jump, where she went 16’11 ½” on her last jump to prevail over West Genesee’s Brianna Richardson (16’ ¾”) as Olivia King finished fifth and Hannah Szumloz finished sixth. Fanizzi added a third in the triple jump, going 34’4”, this time with Szumloz fifth and King sixth.
Whitney Hotchkiss, clearing 7’6”, was second to West Genesee’s Abby Uczen (9’9”) in the pole vault. Nicole Herringshaw added a second-place high jump of 5 feet, while Brittany House (4’6”) earned fifth place.
Destiny Monica’s shot put toss of 32’9 ½” got her in second place behind RFA’s Mariah Mays (40’10 ¾”) as Liverpool teammates Nelliah Watkins (31’8 ½”) and Jasmine Hall (30’2 ¾”) were fourth and fifth, respectively.
Szumloz took third place in the 55 hurdles in 9.44 seconds, with Cheyanna Collins (9.59 seconds) in fifth place. Jilliann Norris, Taylor Parry, Andrea Stout and Annina Marullo gave C-NS a third-place finish in the 4×800 in 10:22.41, ahead of Liverpool (10:27.96) in fourth place. The Northtars also grabbed fourth place (1:55.13) in the 4×200.
Ore Akinpelu again won events for the Warriors, topping Auburn’s Shahnika Williams, 7.56 seconds to 7.63, in the 55 sprint final, where the Northstars’ Sasha Pulaski was sixth in 7.81 seconds.
Later, in the 300 sprint, Akinpelu, in 41.09 seconds, got past Corcoran’s Patrece Williams (41.24 seconds) for another vicotry Akinpelu added a third-place time of 1:41.91 in the 600, where C-NS’s Jilliann Norris was fifth.
Morgan Mahoney was fourth in the 3,000-meter run in 10:43.91 and fifth in the 1,500-meter run. Morgan Chewning-Kulick got fifth place in the 1,000 in 3:09.89, ahead of C-NS’s Taylor Parry (3:10.43) in sixth. The Warriors, in 4:23.92, beat out the Northstars (4:29.12) for fifth place in the 4×400.
