All kinds of athletes from Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse took starring roles during Wednesday night’s Section III state qualifier at SRC Arena.
And with a string of victories, the Warriors and Northstars assured that both would have heavy representation this Saturday for the New York State Public High School Association championship meet at Cornell University’s Barton Hall.
In the Warriors’ case, the wins included several individual titles, starting with Ryheim Lawes, who went 6.63 seconds to edge Solvay’s Nick Cometti (6.72 seconds) in the 55-meter dash.
Moving to the long jump, Lawes was part of a 1-2 sweep where Mark Vanmarter prevailed with a top leap of 22 feet 3 ¼ inches, while Lawes had a top effort of 21’2 ½” for the runner-up spot. In the triple jump, Vanmarter, going 42’1 ¼”, settled for third place.
In yet another 1-2 sweep, C-NS swept the 55-meter hurdles as Morgan Austen, in 7.87 seconds, claimed the final over teammate Pete Girardi, who finished in eight seconds flat.
And the same thing happened in the mile for Liverpool’s tandem of Connor Buck and Dylan McCarthy, who ran together as Buck, in 4:30.89, edged McCarthy (4:30.90) at the line by one-hundredth of a second.
Both Austen and Girardi were already part of a C-NS victory in the opening race of the meet, the 4×400 relay, joining Nate Hilt and Evan Russell as the Northstars, in three minutes, 31.15 seconds, held off Fayetteville-Manlius (3:31.60) for that top spot. Hilt later finished sixth in the 300-meter dash in 38.63 seconds.
Liverpool senior Alex Christensen emerged victorious in the 1,000-meter run, pulling away for a time of 2:33.10, nearly four seconds ahead of Hannibal’s Ben Slate (2:36.90) as teammate Nick LeClair finished sixth in 2:55.05. Jake Rowell was sixth in the 600-meter run in 1:29.35. Christensen, LeClair, Buck and McCarthy finished third in the 4×800 relay in 8:37.06.
Meanwhile, Ore Akinpelu, focusing her energies on the 300-meter dash, pulled away for a victory, her time of 40.33 seconds nearly a full second better than Corcoran’s Patrice Williams (41.18 seconds) at the wire.
Moving to field events, C-NS’s Javielle Fanizzi won the girls long jump, her top leap of 16’10 ½” just enough to hold off F-M’s Christabel Ezidiegwu (16’9 ½”) by an inch as Fanizzi’s teammate, Olivia King, was seventh with 15’7”.
Fanizzi also had a third-place triple jump of 35’2 ¾”, missing out on the state meet by less than two inches as Jamesville-DeWitt’s Patrece Martin (35’4 ½”) took it and Hannah Szumloz (32’7 ¼”) gained seventh place.
Liverpool’s Geoffrey Bell, with a second-place shot put toss of 48’8”, qualified for the state meet with Rome Free Academy’s Robert Adler (55’5 ¼”) as C-NS’s Joe Castaldo, with a top throw of 47’8 ¼”, finished fourth.
In the girls shot put, the Northstars’ Destiny Monica was third with 34’3 ½”, just behind Westhill/Bishop Ludden’s Bella Sterly (34’4 ¾”) for the state qualifying meet berth, and the Warriors’ Nelliah Watkins fourth (32’10”) as RFA’s Mariah Mays threw it 41’10 ¾”.
C-NS had Jilliann Norris finish third in the girls 600 in 1:42.19, just outside of the top two along with Liverpool’s Juliana Basla, who finished fourth, just behind Norris, in 1:42.28. Morgan Mahoney had a fifth-place time of 5:01.23 in the 1,500-meter run.
Connor Osborne, clearing 11’6”, was fourth in the boys pole vault, with teammate Tate LaPorte (10’6”) settling for 10th place as Jamesville-DeWitt’s Zach Liebmann won by topping 14 feet. Nicole Herringshaw was sixth (4’10”) in the girls high jump, with Brittany House (4’8”) in 10th place.
