A full Cicero-North Syracuse boys track and field team made its way to last Friday’s New Hartford Invitational and flourished, earning 118 points to beat runner-up Baldwinsville (71 points) as Liverpool finished third with 63 points.
Jeremiah Willis led the effort, going 22.67 seconds to take the title in the 200-meter dash and also winning the long jump with a top leap of 20 feet 5 ½ inches. Willis also got third place in the 100-meter dash in 11.41 seconds and paired with Anthony Pauli, Landry Rogers and Matt Kilian to claim the 4×100 relay in 44.42 seconds over Watertown (44.59 seconds) and the field.
Ed Mahana gave the Northstars a sweep of his two best events, roaring to a winning time of 15.11 seconds in the 110 high hurdles as Liverpool’s Nazir Murray was fourth in 16.14 seconds. Then, in the 400-meter hurdles, Mahana went 57.09 seconds to hold off New Hartford’s Tom Mulvihill (57.25 seconds) for the top spot.
George Reader continued his winning ways in the high jump, clearing 6 feet 2 inches as no one else would go above 5’10”. In the triple jump, Reader went 41’3 ¾” to beat a field that included Tyler Days, who was fourth by going 40’ ½”.
Pauli and Rogers returned in the 1,600 sprint medley, joining Justin Silfer and David Ware as C-NS won in 3:49.49 to West Genesee’s 3:51.21. Tyler Mosher had a third-place shot put toss of 45’5”.
In both sprints, Wilils finished ahead of the Warriors’ Brandon Mayfield, who was fifth in 11.53 seconds after qualifying for the final in the same 11.41 Willis got a round later. Mayfield also took fifth in the 200 in 23.82 seconds, though, again, that was slower than the 23.44 seconds that got him to the final.
C-NS’s Zach Kennedy got to third place in the 400-meter dash in 52.30 seconds, beat out by Liverpool’s Mike Mahan, who was second (52.17 seconds) to B’ville’s Kieran Sheridan (51.44 seconds). Andrew Bearkland was third in the mile in 4:30.16.
Where Liverpool did find success was in longer relays. Ben Petrella, Nick Davis, Terrell Coleman and Collin Gwilt went a blistering 8:04.55 in the 4×800 to beat the field by more than 20 seconds as Mayfield joined Donald Frost, Peter Gonzalez and Dontra Miller to edge Watertown, 1:35.01 to 1:35.10, in the 4×200 relay.
In the distance medley relay, Petrella, Coleman, Mahan and Ty Brownlow went 10:26.56, far ahead of C-NS, who still saw Bearkland, Matt Williams, Zach Wagner and Eric Bowen go 11:12.48 to edge out New Hartford (11:14.27) for second-place points.
Coleman, Gonzalez, Davis and Josh Hickmott were second (3;35.22) to Jamesville-DeWitt (3:33.71) in the 4×400, with Hickmott and Davis helping Paul Dewan and Nathaniel Keyes get third place in the sprint medley in 3;54.41. Andrew Stonebarger landed in fifth place in the discus with a throw of 123’1”. Frost was seventh in the triple jump.
A day later, the C-NS girls track and field team competed at Rome Free Academy’s Copper City Classic, earning 79 points to finish third, just behind host RFA (81 points) in the runner-up spot, each of them trailing Bethlehem, from Section II, who won with 107 points.
Shayla Webb nearly swept the jumping events. In the long jump, Webb prevailed by going 16’11 ½” to finish well clear of runner-up Samantha Gifford (Bethlehem), who went 16’1 ½”. Then, in the triple jump, Webb went 36’6 ¾” and got second place behind Watertown’s Janiesia Crockett (37’1”).
The Northstars had just one track victory – from Annina Marullo, who dominated the 2,000-meter steeplechase as she posted a time of seven minutes, 39.99 seconds and no one else broke the eight-minute mark as teammate Emily Dembowski finished second in 8:08.07.
Brittany House, with 2,462 points, was a close second to West Canada Valley’s Cora Maxwell (2,532 points) in the pentathlon, overtaken in the final event, the 800-meter run. Kierrah Butler threw the shot put 33’7 ½ to tie Marcellus’ Johanna Sylcox for second place behind RFA’s Sarah Crockett (36’10 ¼”) as Butler also was fourth (96’6”) in the discus.
Sarah Davis contended in the 800-meter run, going 2:25.68 to finish second behind Central Valley Academy eighth-grader Camryn Stone, who won in 2:22.90. Abbey Szumloz needed 1:11.37 to finish third in the 400 hurdles. Liliana Klemanski was fifth in the triple jump (32’4”) and eighth in the high jump, clearing 4’8”.
Marie LeRoy was fifth in the 400 sprint in 1:03.54, while Megan Trubia was eighth in the 3,000-meter run. LeRoy helped C-NS’s 4×400 relay team make it to fourth place in 4:15.30, while the Northstars finished fifth in the 1,600 sprint medley in 4:58.73, its only other top-five relay effort.
