Only by the margin of a single point did the Cicero-North Syracuse indoor track and field teams miss sweeping a large field of challengers from Section III and elsewhere during last Friday night’s Utica Challenge Invitational.
Competing at the brand-new Hutton Dome at Utica College, the boys Northstars prevailed with 84 points, with Colonie (70 points) second. But in the girls meet, C-NS, with 56 points, finished second, a single point behind Rome Free Academy (57 points), part of a crowded group of contenders that included Liverpool, who landed in fifth place with 50 points behind Clinton (54 points) and Amsterdam (51 points).
Unlike most of the meets this season, points were handed out to top eight finishers, rather than top six, giving everyone, including C-NS and Liverpool, more opportunities to get on the board, with fourth-through eighth-place finishes counting a bit more than usual.
To start its winning effort, the C-NS boys prevailed in the 4×400 relay, where Zach Kennedy, Matt Williams, Allen Garnes and Ed Mahana went three minutes, 32.59 seconds to blow out runner-up Colonie (3:40.21) and the rest of the field. Garnes, Zach Wagner, Noah Poirier and Andrew Bearkland were fourth in the 4×800 relay in 8:43.07.
Later, Kennedy, in the 300-meter dash, earned third place in 37.43 seconds. Williams went on to take fourth place in the 600-meter run in 1:29.09, with Garnes (1:30.83) in eighth place.
Mahana pushed to win the 55-meter hurdles, but in 8.07 seconds was second to Colonie’s Jeremiah House (8.02 seconds) as Ryan Williams (8.83 seconds) finished ninth.
Jeremiah Willis took third in the 55-meter dash in 6.78 seconds, with Matt Kilian sixth in 6.89 seconds. Both Willis and Kilian were in the 4×200 relay, helping Tyler Days and Anthony Pauli post 1:35.21, a close second behind Schuylerville’s winning 1:34.29.
Bearkland ran the mile in 4:31.81, putting himself in third place. Nathan Poirier (10:00.76) and Joe Tricarico (10:13.60) were fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 3,200-meter run behind Liverpool’s Ryan Comstock, who was third in 9:54.22.
C-NS’s David Ware got seventh place in the 800-meter run in 2:12.18 as Liverpool’s Josh Hickmott was eighth in the 500-meter run in 1:16.05 and Ben Rivers was ninth in the 1,000-meter run, with Peter Gonzalez ninth in the 300 and the Warriors eighth in the 4×800.
George Reader was second in the high jump, clearing 6 feet 1 inch, an effort only Oswego’s Kyle Crossman topped as he cleared 6’5”. Tyler Mosher was fourth in the shot put with a toss of 42 feet, with Liverpool’s Arthur Bittel seventh (39’7 ¾”) as Elijah Weiss finished ninth in the weight throw. George Reader had a sixth-place long jump of 19’8” as Willis (18’10 ½”) gained 11th place. Days was eighth in the triple jump, going 38’8”.
On the girls side for C-NS, Cassie Baldwin took second place (9.14 seconds) behind Jamesville-DeWitt’s Alexandria Payne (8.87 seconds) in the 55-meter hurdles, with Brittany House sixth in 9.58 seconds. Sasha Pulaski get third place in the 55-meter dash in 7.66 seconds.
In the 4×200, C-NS was third as Pulaski, McKenna Bradford, Sydney Florczyk and Shayla Webb finished in 1:55.89. Sarah Davis, Annina Marullo, Emily Dembkowski and Jilliann Norris got fourth place in the 4×800 in 10:13.05, with Liverpool sixth in 10:50.07. Webb was fifth in the long jump, going 15’4” as Baldwin finished 11th, and Webb had a sixth-place triple jump of 32’2 ¼”.
Dembkowski was seventh in the 3,000-meter run in 11:15.36, edging out Liverpool’s Jillian Stagnitta (11;15.47), who finished eighth. Davis, Norris, Marie LeRoy and Jamie Wagner were fifth in the 4×400 relay in 4;14.80, with Davis sixth (1:45.06) and Norris seventh (1;45.27) in the 600 and LeRoy 10th in the 300.
Destiny Monica got third place in the shot put with a throw of 33’5 ¼”, not far from Clinton’s Aneesa Lewis (33’11 ½”) in the top spot, with Monica also eighth in the weight throw thanks to a toss of 27’4”.
Liverpool got a win from Juliana Basla, who went 1,000 meters in 3:00.39 to pull away from West Genesee’s Carly Benson (3:05.32) and the field as C-NS’s Annina Marullo was sixth in 3:11.80. Kelly Townley took second in the pole vault, clearing 9’6” as Averill Park’s Alana Carroll cleared 11’1” to win it.
Later, Basla reached third place in the 800 in 2:20.39, with teammate Morgan Chewning-Kulick getting fifth place in 2:30.04. Vanessa Eberhard took fifth place in the 1,500-meter run in 4:56.03, while Natalie Kurz was fifth (1:31.09) and Amelia Johnson ninth (1;34.55) in the 500.
Some of the C-NS and Liverpool athletes went to SRC Arena for Sunday’s John Arcaro Memorial Invitational and earned some top finishes there, too.
For example, in the evening session C-NS was second to Fayetteville-Manlius on the girls side and third on the boys side, again with the Hornets on top.
In the boys 4×400, Kilian, Ryan Williams, Anthony Pauli and Luke DiPirro edged out F-M, 3:48.11 to the Hornets’ 3:48.61, with C-NS also fourth (1:44.10) in the 4×200. Willis was second (6.78 seconds) to Henninger’s Devin Redden (6.71 seconds) in the 55 sprint, and went 37.90 seconds in the 300 to finish second behind CBA’s Tom SanGiacomo (37.46 seconds).
Brandon Martin took second in the mile in 4:45.24. Williams got third place in the 55 hurdles in 8.69 seconds. Lucas Sharron was sixth in the 600. Elijah Weiss threw the shot put 40 feet, getting second place as Tyler Mosher (38’3”) finished sixth. Kennedy cleared 5’6” in the high jump and tied for sixth.
In the girls evening session, House got second place in the 55 hurdles in 9.47 seconds to Hannibal’s Tayler Dence (9.44 seconds), later finishing second in the triple jump with 31’ ¾” behind F-M’s Cady Barns (31’2”) and tied for second in the high jump, clearing 4’8”.
Monica won the shot put, throwing it 32’6” as Dayna Losito (27’5”) was fifth. Trubia was fourth in the 1,000 and 3,000, with Julia Rupp sixth in the 3,000 and Pestle fifth in the 1,000. C-NS got to third place in the 4×800 in 11:17.04 and also was third (4:36.17) in the 4×400.
Liverpool took part in the afternoon session of the Arcaro meet, finishing fourth on the girls side (where West Genesee won) and fifth on the boys side (where Baldwinsville finished on top).
Alexis Bittel won the girls 55 hurdles in 9.24 seconds and second in the triple jump (33’9”), with Tymiah Harper fourth in the 55 sprint in 7.94 seconds. The Warriors were fourth in the 4×400 in 5:13.09, fourth in the 4×200 in 1:57.72 and fifth in the 4×800 in 11:31.53. Divya Duraisamy cleared 7 feet for fourth place in the pole vault. Trinity Gray was sixth in the shot put and Megan Milazzo sixth in the high jump.
On the boys side Nick Davis, Gaganjot Sekhon, Ben Zinger and Nathan Reeves won the 4×800 in 9:19.83, with Gonzalez, Donald Frost, Khalil Wales and Mike Mahan third in the 4×400 in 3:50.20, with the Warriors sixth (1:46.38) in the 4×200.
Davis, on his own, took fifth in the 600 in 1;31.54, while Frost was fifth in the triple jump (38’4 ½”). Andrew Stonebarger and Arthur Bittel were fifth and sixth, respectively, in the shot put and Nate Guarente took fifth in the high jump.