All season long, the Cicero-North Syracuse indoor track and field teams mostly looked up at Liverpool in the standings during a variety of meets held at SRC Arena.
But when it came time to decide the Section III Class AA championships Wednesday night, the Northstars beat the Warriors in both the girls and boys divisions, earning second-place finishes.
In the girls meet, C-NS had 81 points and Liverpool 75.16 points, each of them behind Fayetteville-Manlius and its winning total of 121.66 points.
Earning 24 points in the high jump alone, C-NS saw Nicole Herringshaw win by clearing 5 feet, while Cassandra Baldwin was second and Brittany House third, each of them topping 4’8”.
House, in 9.29 seconds, held off F-M’s Gwenn Shepardson (9.39 seconds) to win the 55-meter hurdles. Liverpool’s Alexis Bittel (9.72 seconds) was fourth.
Javielle Fanizzi grabbed a victory in the long jump, going 17 feet 9 ¾ inches to beat Auburn’s Shanikah Williams (17’2 ¾”) and the field. Fanizzi also was second (35’8”) to F-M’s Christabel Ezidegwu (36 feet) in the triple jump, where Liverpool’s Alexis Bittel (33’8 ¼”) was fourth, and Fanizzi was fourth in the 55-meter dash in 7.66 seconds.
The two girls teams each won one relay. C-NS won the 4×800, seeing Jilliann Norris, Taylor Parry, Madison Gross and Annia Marullo post a time of 10:07.08 to get to first place as Liverpool’s quartet of Maia Henry, Kristina Moore, Abby McNamara and Morgan Chewning-Kulick was second in 10:12.15.
But Liverpool won the 4×400 as Ore Akinpelu, Yasmeen Griffin, Danelle Sims and Hejal Patel went 4:08.39 to beat Baldwinsville (4:10.32) as C-NS finished sixth. Later in the meet, Griffin, Patel, Sims and Natalie Kurz were third in the 4×200 relay in 1:53.61. Patel also tied for sixth in the high jump.
Individually, Akinpelu won the 300-mter dash in a 1-2 effort with Sims, as Akinpelu finished in 41.62 seconds and Sims (43.12 seconds) held on for second place, Griffin taking fourth place in 44.49 seconds.
Earlier, in the 55-meter dash, Akinpelu was second in 7.60 seconds behind Nottingham’s Ke’arra Allen (7.49 seconds). C-NS had Norris finish second in the 600-meter run in 1:41.38 behind F-M’s Olivia Ryan (1:38.12).
Juliana Basla took fourth place in the 1,000-meter run in 3:06.02, with Parry fifth (3:07.58) and the Chewning-Kulick (3:21.85) sixth, this after Chewning-Kulick took fifth place (1:43.42) in the 600. Basla was fourth in the 1,500-meter run in 5:03.75, just ahead of the Northstars’ Mia Pestle (5:10.15) in fifth.
Elsewhere in field events, Liverpool’s Kelley Townley was fourth in the pole vault, clearing 7’6”, while C-NS’s Destiny Monica took fifth place in the shot put with a toss of 32’4 ½”.
The boys sectional AA meet resembled the girls meet, with C-NS taking second place by earning 75 points, Liverpool settling for third place with 65 points and, again, F-M (117 points) in the top spot.
Much of that came from field events, and George Reader earned 28 points there. Reader was victorious in the high jump, topping 6 feet, while Zach Kennedy was sixth (5’4”) behind Liverpool’s Nate Guarante (5’6”) in fifth place.
Then Reader managed a second-place long jump of 19’11 ¼”, trailing only RFA’s Brian Slaughter (21’3”) in first place, but then Reader beat the field in the triple jump, going 40’8 ¾” as no other competitor reached the 40-foot mark.
In the pole vault, the Northstars’ Mark Hentges won by clearing 13 feet, with teammate Mitchell Brown topping 11’6” to finish second. Tyler Mosher made it to the top in the shot put, as his best throw of 45’9 ¼” beat Rome Free Academy’s Alex Cianfrano (44’8 ½”) by more than a foot.
Liverpool got plenty of points from distance runners, but only won in the 4×800, where Connor Buck, Dylan McCarthy, Nick LeClair and Dan Muldoon went 8:21.28 to pull away from Baldwinsville (8:28.58) and the field. Evan Tracy, Paul Dehm, Allen Garnes and Andrew Bearkland put C-NS (8:54.54) in fourth place.
Individually, Petrella was second the 3,200-meter run (9:26.07) and third in the mile in 4:31.31, each time finishing behind F-M’s Bryce Millar.
Muldoon, in 1:26.39, was second to F-M’s Kyle Barber (1:24.97) in the 600, with McCarthy fourth in 1:27.36 and Garnes seventh. Buck was third in the 3,200 in 9:31.79 and fourth in the mile in 4:33.18. McCarthy (2:37.43) and LeClair (2:38.76) were fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 1,000.
Donald Frost (seventh in the triple jump), Peter Gonzalez, Jamie Gadaleta and Collin Gwilt were third for the Warriors in the 4×400 in 3:41.84, with C-NS seeing Garnes, Matt Williams, Collin Ryan and Ed Mahana getting to fifth place in 3:42.88. Kennedy, Daquan Mathis, Corey Mitchell and Matt Kilian were fifth in the 4×200 relay in 1:40.75.
Mahana ran the 55 hurdles in 8.33 seconds, second to B’ville’s Evan Donhauser (8.09 seconds), with Nick Payrot fifth in 9.06 seconds. Liverpool’s Brandon Mayfield was fifth in the 55 sprint in 6.90 seconds. Gonzalez was fifth (38.18 seconds) and Muldoon sixth in the 300.
