CICERO – Once more the Cicero-North Syracuse girls track and field team made sure the Section III Class AA championship did not leave home.
Liverpool put up a strong challenge in Monday’s sectional meet at Bragman Stadium, but the Northstars, with 162 points, got away from the 126.5 put up by the Warriors.
Anna Eells set the pace for C-NS, her sensational freshman season continuing with a sweep of three field events and another third-place finish that amounted to 36 points.
Eells won the high jump, where she cleared 5 feet 6 inches, and had a top long jump of 18′ 3/4″ as the Northstars had Selena Moreno fourth, Samantha Moreno fifth and Morgan Hayes sixth. Finally, in the triple jump Eells went 39’2″ to Hayes’ second-place 36’3 1/2″, with the Moreno sisters in fourth and fifth place.
Key sprint points for C-NS came from Jaydin Mackey, who in 12.31 seconds won the 100-meter dash over four Liverpool challengers – Mikayla Greene (12.38), Maddie Devendorf (12.48), Mia Wright (12.63) and Nahla Battle-Crenshaw (12.65).
And when that Liverpool quartet tried to repeat its May 16 SCAC Metro meet victory in the 4×100, C-NS denied them as Mackey, Hayes, Stephanie Todd and Grace Murray going 48.38 seconds to edge Liverpool’s 48.42.
Greene got even in the 200-meter dash, beating Mackey by one-hundredth of a second, 25.47 seconds to 25.48, while Wright prevailed in the 400-meter dash, going 58.58 to the 59.28 from B’ville’s Kamryn Barton, with C-NS’s Alexa Belknap fourth and Camryn Jacob sixth.
The Warriors also won the 4×400 relay when Wright, Greene, Devendorf and Taylor Page went 4:01.46 to beat out the 4:04.24 from the Northstars’ quartet of Murray, Belknap, Jacob and Todd.
This came after Page beat the field in the 800-meter run going 2:19.61 and got second in the 1,500-meter run in 4:57.86, with Kailtyn Hotaling third in 5:04.84. Layla Pearl Collins prevailed in the pole vault, clearing 10 feet as no one else even reached 9 feet.
Murray got her turn at the top in the 400 hurdles, her 1:03.84 nearly six seconds clear of the field as Aaliyah McDonald (1:11.21) was fourth. Jasmine Ayre claimed the pentathlon for C-NS, earning 2,423 points to outlast a field that included Liverpool’s Alannah Edwards, who was fifth with 1,926. Camilla MacNaught went 7:54.42 to finish second in the 2,000 steeplechase.
Though it didn’t win the 100 hurdles, the Northstars still got 17 points as Mackey in 14.72 seconds, was close behind Utica Proctor’s Chennia Locke (14.65), with Eells third (14.84), Hayes fifth (14.91) and McDonald sixth (15.49). Cameron Sisk added a fourth-place finish in the 800-meter run as Annie Capone was fourth and Natta Luangaphay fifth in the pole vault.
Liverpool’s Charlotte Warner added a fourth in the 2,000 steeplechase in 8:01.87, with Addison Ziegler sixth as she also was fifth in the 400 hurdles. Audrey Jenkins was fifth and Georgia Jwaskiewicz sixth in the high jump.
Meanwhile, in the boys sectional Class AA meet C-NS had a strong runner-up finish, its 123 points only trailing the 173.5 from Baldwinsville, while Liverpool was third with 77 points.
Winning twice, C-NS’s Joe Main threw the shot put 49’11 1/4″, beating the field by more than four feet, and also was victorious in the discus with 145’2″ that was nine feet clear of his challengers.
Completing a pentathlon sweep for the Northstars, Andrew Potter took it with 2,779 points. Freshman Jaiden Tagliarino stepped up and won the 110 hurdles in 16.03 seconds, while Anthony Johnson stepped up with a winning triple jump of 42’6 1/2″.
Davine Bennett got second in the 100-meter dash in 11.17 seconds as Derick Hicks (11.38) was fourth. Rhett Andrews took second (4:38.27) and Dante Melfi third (4:44.33) in the 1,600-meter run and Dan Henry was second in the 400 sprint in 51.45.
In the 3,000 steeplechase, Tyler Graham went 10:31.91 to gain second place, with Nolan Zinsmeyer sixth. Christian Kahrs went 23.50 for fourth place in the 200 and Andrews was sixth in the 3,200-meter run. Colin Daley topped 10’6″ for fifth place in the pole vault.
Ny’Quez Madison returned to action for Liverpool and unleashed a winning long jump of 21’8 1/2″, more than a foot ahead of anyone as C-NS had Zuriel Dickerson fifth and Johnson sixth. In the triple jump, Madison’s 41’5 1/2″ was second to Johnson.
And the Warriors won on the track, too, when Roman Murray tore to a time of 1:56.87 to edge B’ville’s Paul Clark (1:56.97) in the 800, with Graham fourth in 1:58 flat and Melfi sixth. Antonio Rivera contended in the 200, his 22.77 just behind the 22.65 from West Genesee’s Dylan Frost as Rondell Cunningham was fifth in 23.88.
Murray, Nate Aurello, Joshua Vang and Ian Sherlock went 8:35.07 in the 4×800 to finish second as C-NS (9:01.07) was third to go with a third (44.22) in the 4×100 ahead of the Warriors’ fourth-place 45.13, Vang adding a fifth in the 1,600 in 4:49.20.
Brayden Smith went 17.10 seconds in the 110 hurdles for third place and added a third in the 400 hurdles in 1:00.67, while Brady Ruediger got fourth place in the 3,200 as Taj Ryan finished fifth in the pentathlon with 2,242 points.
