A year from now, top track and field athletes will return to Cicero-North Syracuse as it once again hosts the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championship meet.
They’ll hold this year’s state meet at the University at Albany, though, and a full array of talent from C-NS and Liverpool will be there on the Division I (large school) side after their work at last Friday’s Section III state qualifier held at Bragman Stadium.
Twice, Liverpool’s Ore Akinpelu prevailed. In the 400-meter hurdles, Akinpelu put up a time of one minute, 5.34 seconds to pull away from Indian River’s Emma Bonk (1:07.08) and prevail.
Akinpelu also paired with Morgan Chewning-Kulick, Danelle Sims and Yasmeen Griffin to go 3:55.51 in the 4×400 relay to hold off Rome Free Academy (3:56.53) for the top spot.
Juliana Basla was second in the 800-meter run in 2:20.18 to Fayetteville-Manlius’ Olivia Ryan (2:16.91), with C-NS’s Jilliann Norris third in 2:22.18 and Chewning-Kulick sixth. Sims made it to third place in the 400-meter dash in 1:00.08, where the Northstars’ Marie LeRoy was 10th.
C-NS got wins on the boys side from Ed Mahana and Andrew Bearkland. Mahana, in the 400 hurdles, sped to victory in 56.79 seconds, well clear of New Hartford’s Armand Vooris (58.47 seconds) in the runner-up spot. This came after Mahana finished a close second (15.39 seconds) to East Syracuse Minoa’s Jeremy McGrath (15.34 seconds) in the 110 high hurdles.
Meanwhile, Bearkland went to the 3,000-meter steeplechase and got to first place, his time of 9:39.99 beating out West Canada’s Tyler Wright (9:44.31) and Fayetteville-Manlius’ Riley Hughes (9:44.84) for top honors.
In the boys pole vault, with C-NS’s Mark Hentges already qualified, Liverpool’s David Lewis joined him, winning with a clearance of 11 feet 6 inches.
Liverpool’s 4×800 relay quartet of Nick LeClair, Connor Buck, Dylan McCarthy and Dan Muldoon head back to the state meet after posting 7:51.74, which put them in second place behind F-M’s top time of 7:48.31. Ben Petrella went 9:05.07 in the 3,200-meter run, settling for third place.
Donald Frost, Brandon Mayfield, Khalil Wales and Nazir Murray were second (44.55 seconds) to Carthage (44.13 seconds) in the 4×100 relay. LeClair, Muldoon, Peter Gonzalez and Mike Mahan took third in the 4×400 relay (3:25.21) as C-NS’s Zach Kennedy, Jared George, Matt Williams and Allen Garnes finished fourth in 3:28.79. Mahan, on his own, was third (51.04 seconds) in the 400 sprint.
Mayfield battled for the 100-meter dash title, taking second place in 11.43 seconds behind RFA’s Mikeal Teamer (11.34 seconds) as C-NS’s Matt Killian (11.58 seconds) got fifth place.
Jacob Rowell gave Liverpool a third-place finish in the Division I pentathlon with 2,649 points. The Northstars’ Taylor Parry made her way to third place in the 2,000-meter steeplechase in 7:43.34. Annina Marullo was sixth in the 1,500-meter run in 5:03.77, just behind Liverpool’s Abby McNamara (5:02.50) in fifth place.
The Warriors’ Alexis Bittel was second (16.55 seconds) and the Northstars’ Cheyanna Colin third (17.22 seconds) behind F-M’s Gwenn Shepardson (16.29 seconds) in the 100-meter hurdles. Nicole Herringshaw cleared 5’3” in the high jump, a close second to New Hartford’s Maya Hammonds, who won with 5’4”.
Javielle Fanizzi was second for C-NS in the girls long jump, going 17’7 ¼”, an effort topped only by Utica Proctor’s Hilda Jordan, who won with 17’11”. Fanizzi also finished fifth (34’3”), just ahead of teammate Shayla Webb (34 feet), in the triple jump. The Warriors’ Kelley Townley cleared 8’6” in the girls pole vault, managing second place, far back of Central Square’s Bethany Cripps (11’6”).
Also for the Northstars, George Reader cleared 6 feet in the high jump to take third place behind Oswego’s Kyle Crossman (6’2”). Destiny Monica took third place in the girls shot put with a throw of 35’7 ¼”, while Tyler Mosher was fifth in the boys shot put, heaving it 42’8 ½”.
Liverpool saw Sarah Lavalley finish sixth (81’6”) in the girls discus. C-NS also had a girls 4×100 relay team of Sydney Florczyk, Kaitlyn Andersen, McKenna Bradford and Sasha Pulaski who finished eighth in 53.57 seconds.
