One more head-to-head boys track and field clash between Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool would settle the Section III Class AA championship – and it would go in the Northstars’ favor.
During Wednesday’s sectional meet at Bragman Stadium, C-NS, accumulating 152.33 points, got away from the Warriors, whose total of 122 points still amounted to a comfortable second-place finish as Baldwinsville (77 points0 was far back in third place.
Ed Mahana was back to win twice, starting with the 110 high hurdles, where he roared to victory in 15.16 seconds and Joe Williams (15.36 seconds) made it a 1-2 finish. Liverpool’s Nazir Murray was fourth in 16.35 seconds.
It was even more lopsided in the 400 hurdles, where Mahana roared to a time of 56.76 seconds, nearly three seconds better than Murray’s 59.75 seconds, while Joe Williams got third place in 1:00.74 and Ryan Williams (1:02.34) was sixth.
Jeremiah Willis won, too, doing so with a top long jump of 21 feet 4 inches. No one else broke the 21-foot mark as Landry Rogers was fourth, going 20’2 ½”, and George Reader was fifth with 20’1”.
While paired with Rogers, Matt Kilian and Anthony Pauli, Willis helped C-NS win the 4×100 relay in 44.06 seconds, inches ahead of Liverpool, who had Murray, Brandon Mayfield, Khalil Wailes and Donald Frost go 44.15 seconds.
C-NS claimed another relay in the 4×400, seeing Mahana, Allen Garnes, Zach Kennedy and Matt Williams go 3:27.55 to pull away from Central Square (3:29.27) as Liverpool, with the quartet of Murray, Mike Mahan, Terrell Coleman and Collin Gwilt, finished third in 3:30.41.
Willis also got second place in the 100-meter dash in 11.22 seconds behind B’ville’s Sam Mahar (11.14 seconds), who also won the 200-meter dash in 22.46 seconds. Reader tied for the best long with Auburn’s Kavon Hunt, each of them clearing 6 feet 4 inches, but Hunt did so with fewer misses, so Reader settled for second place as Tyler Hughes was fifth, clearing 5’8”, and Joe Williams (5’6”) was sixth.
In that same 200, Willis, in 22.81 seconds, beat out Frost (23.07 seconds) for third place and Mayfield was sixth in 23.22 seconds, two spots ahead of Kilian. Mayfield was third in the 100 sprint in 11.24 seconds, ahead of Kilian (11.34 seconds) in fourth place.
In the triple jump, Reader went 42’8 ¼”, again in the runner-up spot behind F-M’s Chibu Ezidegwu, who won with 43’8 ½”. Tyler Mosher, throwing the shot put 47’11”, was second to Rome Free Academy’s Lindell Reed, who heaved it 54’4 ¾”. Mosher also was ninth in the discus.
The Northstars’ Jason Hughes made a big comeback in the pentathlon to charge into third place with 2,594 points as F-M’s Connor Florczyk beat B’ville’s Nate Jaquint by one point, 2,667 to 2,666, with Liverpool’s Jacob Barnes fifth as he got 1,869 points.
Andrew Bearkland needed 10:18.82 for fourth place in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, with Nate Poirier fifth in 10:28.64. Bearkland also finished fourth in the mile in 4:25.67. Zach Kennedy was fourth in the 400-meter dash in 52.26 seconds, with Matt Williams sixth in 53.02 seconds as Mahan (53.69 seconds) settled for eighth place.
Liverpool did maintain its control of distance races, thanks to Ben Petrella, who was part of three victories. In the mile, Petrella went 4:21.16 to pull away from Fayetteville-Manlius’ Bryan Geehrer (4:23.17) as Stephen Schulz (4:26.48) held off Ryan Comstock (4:27.32) for sixth place.
Moving to the 3,200-meter run, Petrella was victorious in 9:25.48 over another F-M runner, Patrick Perry (9:28.76), while Comstock got fourth place in 9:43.40 and Dan Hunt was sixth in 10:14.44. And in the 3,000 steeplechase, Schulz was second (9:47.22) to Geehrer (9:40.55), with Josh Hickmott third in 10:07.10.
Earlier, in the 4×800 relay, Petrella, Coleman, Schulz and Gwilt went 8:18.81 to pull away from C-NS’s quartet of Garnes, David Ware, Noah Poirer and Eric Bowen, who were second in 8:23.08.
Coleman won the 800-meter run in 1:59.26, edging Petrella (1:59.58) as Ty Brownlow was fourth in 2:00.36 and Garnes sixth in 2:04.36, two spots ahead of Ware (2:06.23), who got eighth place.
James Gaffney cleared 11 feet in the pole vault, getting second place over C-NS’s Nate Osborne, though he also topped 11 feet as Ward Couillard (10 feet) was sixth. Arthur Bittel did not get a throw in the discus, though his 42’7” in the shot put got him seventh place.
