It didn’t matter that the Liverpool boys track and field team had beaten Cicero-North Syracuse head-to-head in the regular season. Nor did it matter that Thursday’s CNY Counties League National division championship meet took place at LHS Stadium.
The Northstars still won it, getting 183 points to top the Warriors’ total of 144.5 points as Liverpool nearly saw Baldwinsville (144 points) catch them for the runner-up spot.
So much of the C-NS point total was built up in field events, starting in the high jump, where George Reader topped 5 feet 10 inches for a victory and Zach Kennedy was third, topping 5’6”. Liverpool’s Nate Guarente tied for fourth, also topping 5’6”.
Going 1-2 in the long jump, C-NS saw Jeremiah Willis win it with a leap of 21’4” as Landry Rogers was second with 20’2”, gaining C-NS 18 points as Liverpool was unable to earn points in that event.
Tyler Mosher would win the shot put by tossing it 46’1”, half a foot ahead of B’ville’s Gabe Horan as the Warriors had Arthur Bittel (38’10”) in fifth place and Jacob Garnes in seventh place. Bittel also was fifth in the discus, throwing it 101’8” ahead of C-NS’s Kaleb Woodcock (99’7) in sixth place and Garnes (97’4”) in seventh.
Also, Nate Osborne got second place in the pole vault, clearing 11 feet to only trail B’ville’s Griffin Lynch (11’6”) as Ward Couillard tied for third, topping 11’6” ahead of Liverpool’s James Gaffney (10’6”) in fifth place.
Only once did the Warriors win a field event – in the triple jump, where Donald Frost put up a top leap of 40’11” to beat Henninger’s Yarell Johnson (40’6 ½”) as Reader settled for third place, going 40’4 ¾”, and Liverpool’s Paul Dewan was fourth, going 40’ ¼”.
Again winning twice, C-NS star Ed Mahana would run the 110 high hurdles in 14.80 seconds, part of a 1-2 effort with Joe Williams (15.27 seconds), and then dominated the 400-meter hurdles, roaring to a time of 56.65 seconds to leave Liverpool’s Nazir Murray second in 1:00.40 as Williams took fourth in 1:01.37.
Andrew Bearkland earned C-NS’s other victory on the oval, going 10:23.01 to pull away from Liverpool’s Josh Hickmott (10:28.93) and win the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Joe Tricarico was third in 10:35.70 as the Warriors saw Cullen McLaughlin finish fifth in 10:53.10.
Zach Kennedy was third in the 400-meter dash in in 51.85 seconds, with Matt Williams fourth (52.18 seconds). Together, they, along with Mahana and Allen Garnes, finished a close second (3:28.80) to B’ville (3:28.17) in the 4×400 relay, with Liverpool’s Terrell Coleman, Tyler Goss, Nick Davis and Collin Gwilt third in 3:38.13.
Liverpool still had the upper hand in distance races, starting with the 4×800 relay, where Ben Petrella joined Coleman, Davis and Gwilt would get a time of 8:20.95 to finish on top and C-NS’s quartet of Eric Bowen, Noah Poirer, Zach Wagner and David Ware settled for third place in 8:26.13.
Petrella would win twice on his own, going 4;25.78 in the mile to hold off Bearkland (4:27.76) as Ryan Comstock got third place in 4:29.12 and Zach Wagner was sixth (4;51.94) for the Northstars.
Moving to the 3,200-meter run, Petrella held off West Genesee’s David Leff, 9:31.65 to 9:33.63, to win that race, while Comstock was third in 9:36.10, leaving C-NS runners Brandon Martin (10:01.61) and Nate Poirier (10:04.57) in the fourth and fifth spots.
Stephen Schulz took his turn in the 800-meter run, winning in 2:00.98, with C-NS having Bearkland third in 2:02.36 and Ware fourth in 2:05.82 ahead of Gwilt (2:07.75) in fifth place.
Brandon Mayfield needed 11.19 seconds to edge Jeremiah Willis (11.22 seconds) and win the 100-meter dash, with Donald Frost fifth in 11.40 seconds behind the Northstars’ Matt Kilian (11.32 seconds).
And in the 4×100 relay, Frost, Murray, Mike Mahan and Khalil Wales went 44.13 seconds to top the C-NS team of Willis, Kilian, Landry Rogers and Anthony Pauli, who were second in 44.28 seconds.
In the 200-meter dash, Mayfield got second place in 23.31 seconds behind B’ville’s Sam Mahar (22.68 seconds), while Mahan was fourth in 23.69 seconds and Matt Williams was fifth (23.75 seconds) on the C-NS side. Mahan had to settle for fifth place in the 400 in 52.94 seconds, with Davis fourth in 53.52 seconds. Murray was fifth in the 110 hurdles in 16.01 seconds, with Goss (17.78 seconds) sixth.
