Just 24 hours after its male counterparts went to the top of the standings, the Liverpool girls indoor track and field team did the same during Thursday’s CNY Counties League National division championships at SRC Arena.
Cicero-North Syracuse did quite well, too, but the Warriors, with 151 points, inched away from the Northstars, who with 102 points had to hold off Baldwinsville (98 points) for second place.
Liverpool went 1-2 in the 1,000-meter run, where Juliana Basla prevailed in 3:05.99 and Morgan Chewning-Kulick was second in 3:11.69. C-NS had Annia Marullo fourth (3:20.91) and Taylor Parry fifth in 3:25 flat.
Not stopping there, Basla went to the 1,500-meter run and, in 5:02.76, earned her second title over C-NS’s Mia Pestle, who was second in 5:04.67. Jillian Stagnitta was fourth in 5:27.96.
Of the three relays, Liverpool won just once, in the 4×200, where Ore Akinpelu, Danelle Sims, Yasmeen Griffin and Hejal Patel got a time of 1:51.06, well clear of B’ville (1:53.89) as C-NS, with Abbey Szumloz, Kaitlyn Andersen, Elizabeth Warrath and McKenna Bradford, had to settle for fourth place in 2:02.34
Basla, Chewning-Kulick, Kristina Moore and Abby McNamara were second in the 4×800 relay in 10:19.84 to West Genesee (9:53.31) as C-NS saw Marullo, Parry, Jilliann Norris and Madison Gross finish third in 10:38.61.
But Stagnitta gave Liverpool a victory in the 3,000-meter run in 10:55.24, getting away from B’ville’s Maizy Ludden (11:00.10) as McNamara was fourth (11:50.60). The Northstars’ Megan Trubia and Giovanna Pascarella were fifth and sixth, respectively.
Alexis Bittel won a close 55-meter hurdles for Liverpool, edging out C-NS rival Brittany House, 9.60 seconds to House’s 9.64. Danelle Sims was second (43.50 seconds) and Yasmeen Griffin third (44.17 seconds) to B’ville’s Hailey Couchman (42.99 seconds) in the 300-meter dash, where C-NS saw Abbey Szumloz (48.25 seconds) take fifth place.
Griffin, Patel, Sims and Natalie Kurz were third in the 4×400 relay in 4:17.24, with House, Szumloz, Lauren Witek and Courtney Mahan putting C-NS (4:38.21) in fourth place.
C-NS got three wins from Javielle Fanizzi, starting in the 55-meter dash, where in 7.51 seconds she held off Akinpelu (7.59 seconds) as the Warriors’ Erin Straub finished fourth (8.22 seconds). Akinpelu also was second (1:42.29) to West Genesee’s Carly Benson (1:39.35) in the 600-meter run, where Norris (1:44.00) beat Moore (1:47.32) and took fifth place.
In the long jump, Fanizzi went 17’8 ¼”, well clear of the field as Bittel was fifth (15’ ¾”) and House (14’10 ¼”) was sixth. Finally, Fanizzi’s top triple jump of 36’1 ¾” earned another title, ahead of Bittel (33’10 ¾”) in second place.
The Northstars also went 1-2 in the high jump, where Nicole Herringshaw beat the field by half a foot, clearing 5’2” to leave Cassandra Baldwin second as she topped 4’8”. Patel was fourth and Amy Zurawski fifth for the Warriors, each of them clearing 4’6”.
Even in field events, though, Liverpool snatched a pair of victories. JeNiece Gallishaw’s shot put toss of 32’3 ¼” beat out West Genesee’s J’Nazia Anderson (32’1 ¾”) by an inch and a half as Herringshaw (28’1 ½”) was fifth.
Then Kelley Townley won the pole vault, clearing 7 feet with fewer misses than C-NS’s Whitney Hotchkiss as no other league competitor could reach those heights.
