Even with all the wins it accumulated in sprints and field events, the Liverpool girls track and field team would fall just short of snatching the Section III Class AA championship from Fayetteville-Manlius Wednesday at Bragman Stadium.
The Warriors finished with 131 points and led most of the way before the Hornets, with its strength in distance races, gained more than 40 points from two events to finish at 143 points. Host Cicero-North Syracuse had 94 points to get third place.
Liverpool had built that lead through the sprints, where Kionna Richardson gathered up 32 points. Richardson went 12.54 seconds to top C-NS’s Sasha Pulaski (12.69 seconds) and win the 100-meter dash, while teammate Tymaiah Harper was fourth in 12.90 seconds.
Richardson, Harper, Marcia Baskin and Marissa Baskin roared to a win in the 4×100 relay in 49.87 seconds to Rome Free Academy’s 50.32, with no one else close. C-NS had to settle for sixth place as Pulaski, McKenna Bradford, Sydney Florczyk and Amanda Reilly finished in 52.32 seconds.
In between those races, Richardson nearly won the 200-meter dash, as she and Auburn’s Nakeya Rogers both finished in 26.01 seconds, but Rogers won by five-thousandths of a second as Pulaski got third place in 26.34 seconds.
Meanwhile, Richardson also got fourth place in the 400-meter dash in 1:01.71. Natalie Kurz was third in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:08.11, with teammate Abby Haley fourth in 1:09.72 and Amelia Johnson (1:11.90) seventh.
Tionna Brown, in 15.85 seconds, edged F-M’s Gwenn Shepardson (15.86) by one-hundredths of a second to prevail in the 100-meter hurdles, while Alexis Bittel was fifth in 17.31 seconds and C-NS’s Cassie Baldwin (16.35 seconds) was between them.
Liverpool’s Sarah Lavalley would win the discus with a throw of 122 feet 1 inch, just ahead of Rome Free Academy’s Sarah Crockett, who was second with 119’8”.
Meghan Milazzo and C-NS’s Liliana Klemanski both cleared 4’10” in the high jump, but Milazzo was second because of fewer misses as Baldwinsville’s Adrianna Straughter won, clearing 5’2”. Brown was sixth, topping 4’8”.
Moving to the pole vault, the Warriors’ Kelley Townley cleared 9’6” for second place and Mackenzie Case was sixth (7’6”), though each of them chased Central Square’s Bethany Cripps, who won by clearing 12’6”.
In the 4×800 relay, Windsor Ardner, Morgan Chewning-Kulick, Vanessa Eberhard and Juliana Basla were third in 9:47.10 as F-M prevailed. Basla also took third place in the 1,500-meter run in 4:45.02 behind the Hornets’ Kaitlyn Neal (4:34.76) and Samantha Levy (4:44.26), and that pattern repeated itself in the 3,000-meter run, Basla getting third place in 10:31.53 behind Neal (9:32.27) and Levy (10:31.53).
Chewning-Kulick was third in the 800-meter run in 2:20.50, later running in the 4×400 relay with Haley, Johnson and Sophia Prince, the Warriors making it to fourth place in 4:16.34.
C-NS had a strong effort anchored by Brittany House, who pulled away to win the pentathlon. With 2,723 points, House finished well clear of Rome Free Academy’s Tiffany Thomason (2,376 points) and the field as Liverpool’s Lauren Fradette (1,907 points) beat out Kaitlinn Luong (1,872 points) for seventh place.
Shayla Webb won twice in the jumping events. With a top long jump of 17’9”, Webb edged Brown, who was second for the Warriors with 17’8 ¼”, less than an inch behind as Bittel (16’5 ¼”) took sixth place.
The triple jump was a bit more decisive, but Webb still needed a leap of 36’2 ½” to beat out F-M’s Cady Barns, who went 35’9”. Bittel stepped up for Liverpool, taking third place with a best attempt of 35’2 ½”.
In the shot put, Destiny Monica had a second-place throw of 37’5 ½”, just a quarter-inch behind Crockett, who won with 37’7 ¾” as Kierrah Butler was third with a toss of 36’4” and also was third (98’3”) behind Crockett and Lavalley in the discus.
Annina Marullo took third place in the 2,000-meter steeplechase in 7:45.96, just behind F-M’s Palmer Madsen (7:44.48) for the runner-up spot. Emily Dembowski, in 7:47.92, beat out Kurz (7:48.08) for fourth place as Jillian Stagnitta was seventh in 7:58.78 and Mallory Woytowicz was 10th.
Abbey Szumloz made it to fourth place in the 400 hurdles in 1:10.44, with Sarah Davis sixth in the 800 in 2:25.18. Dembowski, Jilliann Norris, Megan Trubia and Headen Wilson were fifth (10:30.78) in the 4×800 as Hayley Schwarz was fifth (8 feet) in the pole vault.
