From Ben Petrella’s victory in the biggest race of the day to a variety of strong efforts elsewhere, the Liverpool boys track and field team would pull away from Cicero-North Syracuse to claim top honors at last Friday’s Chittenango Invitational.
The Warriors finished with 113 points, topping a 22-team field where the Northstars earned 83 points, but had to settle for second place. Altmar-Parish-Williamstown, with 47 points, was far back in third place.
Petrella would not get caught in the featured Fleet Feet Mile. In four minutes, 19.10 seconds, Petrella beat Norwood-Norfolk’s Kyle Fulk by 3.82 seconds, with Stephen Schulz gaining fifth place in 4:30.41.
Elsewhere in distance races, Petrella went 1:59.63 in the 800-meter run, but settled for second place behind his Liverpool teammate, Terrell Coleman, who won in a clocking of 1:58.90 as C-NS’s David Ware was fourth in 2:04.16. Ryan Comstock was second (9:37.38) to West Genesee’s David Leff (9:29.06) in the 3,200-meter run, with Dan Hunt fourth in 10:12.10 and the Northstars’ Brandon Martin sixth in 10:14.67.
Schulz took second place in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 9:44.30, with Josh Hickmott fourth (10:33.01). C-NS got Andrew Bearkland in third place in 10:01.20 between Schulz and Hickmott as Joe Tricarico was sixth (10:49.72) for the Northstars.
Head-to-head, Liverpool won a 4×100 relay thriller over C-NS. Donald Frost, Brandon Mayfield, Kahlil Wales and Nazir Murray went 44.46 seconds to hold off the Northstars’ quartet of Jeremiah Willis, Landry Rogers, Anthony Pauli and Matt Kilian, who was second in 44.64 seconds, just 0.18 seconds behind.
But the Warriors returned to win the other relay, too, seeing Coleman, Collin Gwilt, Peter Gonzalez and Mike Mahan go 3:31.72 to edge Homer (3:32.95) in the 4×400, while C-NS had Zach Kennedy, A.J. Wells, Allen Garnes and Matt Williams get third place in 3;34.82.
C-NS did get the best of the 100-meter dash, seeing Willis, in 11.37 seconds, hold off Mayfield (11.42) and Frost (11.44) in the next two spots as Kilian was sixth in 11.74 seconds. Liverpool countered with Mahan winning the 400-meter dash in 52.35 seconds over West Genesee’s Mark Dellefave (53.26) and the field as Willis later finished fifth in the long jump, going 19’9 ½”.
Ed Mahana nearly won the pentathlon for the Northstars, but in the final event, the 1,500-meter run, he got caught by Marcellus’ Sean Raymond, who won the race in 4:35.04 and earned 712 points to Mahana’s 560. Thus, with 2,847 points, Raymond won and Mahana, with 2,787 points, was runner-up, 60 points behind.
In the triple jump, C-NS’s George Reader’s best attempt of 40’6” got him second place behind Mexico’s Hunter Hellinger (41’4 ¾”), with Reader clearing 6 feet to earn place in the high jump, while Nate Osborne topped 10 feet for sixth place in the pole vault.
For Liverpool, Andrew Stonebarger was third in the discus with a throw of 110’9” and fourth in the shot put, heaving it 39’8” as Arthur Bittel (39’1”) was seventh.
Joe Williams gave C-NS a win in the 400-meter hurdles, edging Homer’s Paddy Fox, 1:01.61 to 1:01.81, and Williams took third place in the 110 high hurdles in 16.24 seconds, edging Liverpool’s Nazir Murray (16.34 seconds), who was fourth. Zach Wagner was fourth in the large-field mile in 4:43.88, two spots ahead of the Warriors’ Collin Gwilt (4:48.45) in sixth place.
Liverpool would also get the best of its rematch with C-NS in the girls portion of the Chittenango Invitational after they tied in a head-to-head regular-season meet. Here, the Warriors had 68 points to the Northstars’ 60, and they claimed the second and third spots behind Fayetteville-Manlius, who won with 147 points.
To complete a boys/girls sweep of the 4×100, the Warriors had Marcia Baskin, Marissa Baskin, Kierra Ricahrdson and Tymiah Harper go 51.66 seconds, with C-NS (55.93 seconds) far back in fifth place.
Kelley Townley prevailed in the pole vault for Liverpool, clearing 9 feet with fewer misses than Jamesville-DeWitt’s Gabrielle Tanksley. C-NS went 1-2 in the girls shot put, where Destiny Monica won by throwing it 36’6” and Kierrah Butler was second with a toss of 35’2” before finishing third (86’6”) in the discus as Kiana Garcia (82’3”) was fifth.
Richardson nearly won the 100 sprint, going 13.19 seconds for second place, inches behind Auburn’s Nakeya Rodgers (13.14 seconds) as Tymiah Harper took third place in 13.21 seconds. In the long jump, Richardson leapt 14’ ½” and gained sixth place.
Juliana Basla, who ran in the Fleet Feet Mile and finished fourth in 5:10.56, gained fifth place in the 400 sprint in 1:02.61, with Morgan Chewning-Kulick eighth, the same as she finished in the Fleet Feet Mile.
Abby Haley went 1:11.34 in the 400 hurdles to finish second behind F-M’s Gwenn Shepardson (1:09.86), with C-NS putting Abby Szumloz in fifth place (1;13.20), a full second ahead of Jilliann Norris (1:14.20) in sixth place.
Haley also was fifth in the 100-meter hurdles in 17.81 seconds as Kristina Moore was sixth (5:51.24) and Mallory Woytowicz seventh (5:51.84) in the full-field girls mile. Windsor Ardner took fifth in the 800 in 2:23.74, again ahead of a C-NS runner, Sarah Davis (2:26.77), who was sixth.
Meghan Milazzo, clearing 4’8”, was second to East Syracuse Minoa’s Jennah Ferrari (4’10”) in the high jump, with C-NS’s Liliana Klemanski fourth by clearing 4’6”.
Also for C-NS, Annina Marullo rolled to second place in the 2,000-meter steeplechase in 7:45.50 behind F-M’s Phoebe White (7:38.45), with teammate Emily Dembowski edging Liverpool’s Jillian Stagnitta, 8:16.98 to 8:17.02, for sixth place, though the Warriors’ Natalie Kurz was fourth in 7:57.74.
Marullo, in 11:05.83, beat out Megan Trubia (11:26.53) for fourth place in the 3,000-meter run, and C-NS would also finish fourth in the 4×400 relay in 4;23.03, more than a second ahead of the Warriors (4:24.17) in fifth place.
Continuing its tough journey through the CNY Counties League, each of C-NS’s teams would find success in last Thursday’s meet against Baldwinsville at Bragman Stadium. The girls Northstars won, 88-53, while the boys defeated the Bees 76-65 to improve to 2-1 on the season.
