Everything is now set for the top track and field athletes to come to Bragman Stadium next weekend for the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championship meet.
Before all this, they had to go through Friday’s Section III qualifier, where host Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool earned plenty of victories to assure a big presence among the state’s best.
Terrell Coleman tore to a winning time of one minute, 57.60 seconds in the 800-meter run, beating out Carthage star Sam Affolder (1:57.94) as Stephen Schulz got fourth place in 2:00.83. Ben Petrella could not quite win his 3,200-meter duel with Carthage’s Noah Affolder, posting a time of 9:19.77 to Affolder’s 9:18.55, though Petrella will run in the 3,200 at the stat meet.
Coleman and Schulz paired with Petrella and Collin Gwilt in the 4×800 relay, where the Warriors pulled away to win in 8:05.77. C-NS’s Eric Brown, Noah Poirer, David Ware and Zach Wagner were third in Division I and fifth overall in 8:27.22.
Earlier, in the 4×100, Liverpool won a thriller over C-NS. Donald Frost, Brandon Mayfield, Khalil Wales and Nazir Murray hit the line in 43.95 seconds, just ahead of the Northstars’ Jeremiah Willis, Anthony Pauli, Landry Rogers and Matt Kilian, who were second in 44 seconds flat.
On his own, Mayfield took third place in the 100-meter dash in 11.18 seconds, with Kilian fifth in 11.38 seconds. Murray got to third place in the 400-meter hurdles in 59.19 seconds and Kilian was fourth (23.22 seconds) in the 200-meter dash. James Gaffney cleared 11 feet, giving Liverpool a fifth-place finish in the pole vault.
C-NS contended in the 4×400 relay, too as Zach Kennedy, Allen Garnes, Matt Williams and Ed Mahana went 3:26.90, trailing only Baldwinsville’s winning time of 3:25.26. Nate Poirier, in 10:34.86, was just behind the Warriors’ Josh Hickmott, who gained fifth place in Division I in 10:20.34.
Mahana, in 14.78 seconds, nearly won the 110 high hurdles, but East Syracuse Minoa’s Jeremy McGrath (14.77 seconds) prevailed by one-hundredth of a second as Joe Williams took third place in 15.43 seconds. Andrew Bearkland ran the mile in 4:28.17, second behind West Genesee’s David Leff, who won in 4:23.45.
Willis went 22’ 4 ½” in the long jump, getting second place behind Auburn’s Kavon Hunt (23’9 ¾”), but still advancing to the state meet in that event. George Reader went 44’10 ½” for third place in the triple jump and cleared 6’4” for another third-place finish in the high jump. Tyler Mosher threw the shot put 48’2 ½” and got fourth place.
Moving to the girls side, Liverpool won several events here, too.
Tionna Brown was victorious in the 100-meter hurdles in 15.84 seconds, more than a second ahead of Carthage’s Kendra Lawton (16.86 seconds) as C-NS’s Cassie Baldwin 18.54 seconds) was seventh.
Liverpool also got a win in longer races, such as the 1,500-meter run, where Juliana Basla pulled away and, in 4:47.53, was nearly 13 seconds ahead of Jamesville-DeWitt’s Sophia Vinciguerra (5:00.61) as C-NS’s Mia Pestle was fourth in 5:04.96.
Natalie Kurz won the 400 hurdles, going 1:07.49 to hold off Fulton’s Amber Destevens (1:07.78) as Amelia Johnson (1:10,09) beat out Abby Haley (1:10.44) for sixth place. In the discus, Sarah LaValley heaved it 119 feet 1 inch, well clear of the rest of the field.
By a narrow margin, Liverpool missed winning the girls 4×100 as Richardson, Tymiah Harper, Marcia Baskin and Marissa Baskin went 49.25 seconds, inches behind Rome Free Academy’s 49.21. Kelley Townley cleared 9’6” in the pole vault, getting second place as Central Square’s Bethany Cripps won, clearing 11’6”.
In a tight 100 sprint, C-NS’s Sasha Pulaski went 12.43 seconds to hold off Richardson (12.45 seconds), though both qualified for the state meet as Harper got sixth place in just under 13 seconds. Richardson went 25.90 seconds in the 200 and was, again, second, inches behind Auburn’s Nakeya Rogers (25.86), with Harper sixth in 28.08 seconds.
The Northstars’ Shayla Webb dueled Brown in the long jump, and with a top leap of 17’7”, Webb won, but Brown’s 17’6 ¼” gave her the exact distance needed to qualify for the state meet. Alexis Bittel was fifth, going 16’5 ½”. Webb then swept the jumping events by unleashing a top triple jump of 37’9”, something no one really got close to, with Bittel again fifth as she went 34’10”.
During the girls shot put, Destiny Monica threw it 37’10 ¼”, finishing second by a quarter-inch to Rome Free Academy’s Sarah Crockett, who went 37’10 ½’ as Kierrah Butler was third, going 35’8 ¾”. Butler also got fifth place in the discus, going 81’11”.
C-NS had Pulaski, Sydney Florczyk, McKenna Bradford and Amanda Reilly finish fourth in 51.95 seconds, but the Northstars fared better in the 4×400, where Abbey Szumloz, Sarah Davis, Marie LeRoy and Lauren Witek were third in 4:14.31. LeRoy got fifth place in the 400-meter dash in 1:02.67.
Morgan-Chewning-Kulick gave Liverpool a third-place time of 2:20.53 in the 800, with Davis fifth (2:25.76) for the Northstars.
Brittany House had 2,525 points in the five-event pentathlon, sixth overall, but second in Division I behind Jamesville-DeWitt’s Alexandria Payne, who won with 3,111 points. Annina Marullo was third in the Division I 2,000-meter steeplechase in 7:43.11, with the Warriors’ Jillian Stagnitta fourth in 8:02.44.
