A single point kept the Liverpool boys track and field team from winning last Thursday’s CNY Counties League National division championship on its home track.
With a total of 147 points, the Warriors finished just behind Fayetteville-Manlius, who seized the top spot with 148 points. Cicero-North Syracuse had a strong showing, too, getting to third place with a total of 126 points.
And all of this happened despite Mark Vanmarter cleaning up in field events. Vanmarter cleared 6 feet 2 inches to win the high jump, half a foot ahead of the field, including C-NS’s Nick Antonello, who was third (5’8”) as teammate Joe Antonello was third and Liverpool’s Nate Guarente sixth.
Moving to the long jump, Vanmarter fought the winds and went 21 feet ½ inch, beating C-NS’s Morgan Austen, who was second with 19’10”, as well as the Warriors’ Donald Frost in fourth place (18’1”) and the Northstars’ George Reader (17’11”) in fifth place.
Finally, Vanmarter conquered the triple jump, unleashing a top attempt of 42’2 ¾” which was a foot and a half better than F-M’s Kyle Barber (40’7”).
Twice in relays, Liverpool finished second to F-M, a four-point difference. Alex Christensen, Collin Gwilt, Dan Muldoon and Zach Munski posted 3:30.99 in the 4×400, but the Hornets won in 3:29.71.
In the 4×800, Muldoon, Nick LeClair, Dylan McCarthy and Ben Petrella had a time of 8:32.84, but F-M pulled away to win in 4:12 flat. Vanmarter, Brandon Mayfield, Peter Gonzalez and James Williams went 46.30 seconds in the 4×100 relay, again in second, but Baldwinsville (45.84 seconds) won that race. C-NS got to third place in the 4×800 in 8:40.05 and was fourth (3:38.13) in the 4×400.
LeClair did win in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in a time of 10:17.41, with McCarthy fourth (10:32.27) and the Northstars’ Chris Hannan fifth. Muldoon needed 2:01.82 to get second place to F-M’s Andrew Berge’ (2:00.96) in the 800-meter run, where Alex Christensen was third in 2:02.11 and C-NS’s Bryan Bausinger was sixth.
Brandon Mayfield, in 12.13 seconds, was second to Baldwinsville’s Brian Mahar (12.08 seconds) in the 100-meter dash, adding a fifth in the 200-meter dash behind teammate Peter Gonzalez (24.66 seconds) in fourth place.
Connor Buck was third in the mile in 4:31.78, with Christensen fourth (4:36.63) and C-NS’s Andrew Bearkland fifth in 4:38.21. Moving to the 3,200-meter run, Buck got fourth place in 9:57.19 and Petrella gained third place in 9:43.32, with Colin Greenseich giving C-NS a sixth-place finish.
C-NS did go 1-2 in the 110 high hurdles, with Pete Girardi, in 15.43 seconds, edging Austen (15.55 seconds) for the top spot, though in the 400 hurdles Girardi lost a tight race to F-M’s Kyle Barber, 55.51 seconds to Barber’s 55.49, with Austen third in 58.66 seconds.
Joe Castaldo swept the throwing events for the Northstars, heaving the discus 143’1” to top the Liverpool duo of Geoffrey Bell (140’11”) and Chris Grannell (137’8”), where Logen Lickfield was sixth. In the shot put, Castaldo threw it 50’10 ½”, again with Bell second with 49’6 ¾”, as Tyler Mosher gave the Northstars a third-place throw of 45’4”.
Mark Hentges chimed in with a victory in the pole vault, clearing 12 feet as Connor Osborne was third with 11 feet and Liverpool’s David Lewis (10 feet) got fourth place.
Girardi also was third in the 400-meter dash in 51.77 seconds, with teammate Jeremy Rivera sixth, and got to fifth in the triple jump (37’9 ½”) in the triple jump behind Vanmarter, with Austen in third place, going 38’8”.
C-NS went from this event to hosting its own invitational meet on Saturday and winning it with a total of 133 points. St. Joseph’s (Buffalo) was second with 85 points.
With yet another sweep of the throwing events, Castaldo heaved the discus 137’8” to beat Indian River’s Tyler Wright (137’5”) by three inches, while in the shot put Castaldo’s top throw of 48’8 ¾” topped Mosher (45’10 ½”), who took second place.
Austen held off Girardi, 15.44 seconds to 15.51, in the finals of the 110 high hurdles, and they switched place in the 400 hurdles, Girardi winning in 56.71 seconds and Austen (58.54 seconds) in the runner-up spot, while Girardi got second place in the 400 sprint in 51.66 seconds and Austin was third (19’6 ½”) in the long jump and fourth in the triple jump.
Jeremy River, Jared George, Matt Williams and Collin Ryan got to second place in the 4×400 relay in 3:36.58, with the Northstars third in the 4×800 (9:04.33) and fifth in the 4×100.
DeGennaro, in 4:33.83, gained second place in the mile, while Greenseich took third in the 3,200 (10:04.66), Bearkland took fourth in the 3,000 steeplechase and Bausinger was fourth in the 800. Hentges, clearing 12 feet, got second place in the pole vault, with Osborne (10 feet) fourth.
