Jeremiah Willis already had the Cicero-North Syracuse boys indoor track and field school record in the long jump put away by going 23 feet 3 inches earlier this winter. Now he sought after a bigger prize during Saturday’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championship meet.
Traveling to Staten Island’s Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex, Willis was the second seed going into the state meet, and though he could only manage a top leap of 22’3 ¾”, it was good enough for fourth place overall and third in the NYSPHSAA standings as Saratoga Springs’ Nick Cavotta won with a 23-foot attempt.
Willis also joined Anthony Pauli, Zak Kennedy and Matt Kilian to run in the 4×200 relay for C-NS, and would claim a second medal. From a season-best time of one minutes, 32.80 seconds, C-NS went to 1:32.18 in the qualifying round and then, in the finals, blazed to 1:31.15 to finish fourth. South Shore prevailed in 1:29.04.
Joe Williams also medaled for C-NS, doing so in the 55-meter hurdles. He qualified for the finals in 7.74 seconds and improved to 7.73 seconds in that round, seventh overall and fifth in the NYSPHAA division, not far from the 7.54 Colonie’s Jeremiah House posted in the latter of those two divisions to finish first.
For Liverpool, the highlight was seeing Stephen Schulz contend in the mile and Ty Brownlow do the same in the 3,200-meter run.
Schulz had gone 4:18.12 in the mile during the season, making him the fifth seed for the state meet, and he went 4:18.62 here, half a second slower, but still finishing third as Corning’s Kevin Moshier won in 4:13.79. Josh Hickmott also ran in the mile and was strong, too, getting 11th place in 4:21.61.
Moving to the 3,200, Brownlow was pushed by Fayetteville-Manlius’ Patrick Perry for local honors, but Brownlow finished on top, his 9:18.41 far faster than what he had done during the season and fourth overall as Perry was fifth in 9:20.32 and Brighton’s Paul Dellinger won in 9:13.99.
Brownlow and Hickmott were in the 4×800 relay with T.J. Praschunus and Cullen McLaughlin, and they finished 11th in 8:30.69. Brandon Mayfield was in the 55-meter dash, getting 25th place in 6.78 seconds. Paul Dewan competed in the triple jump and went 38’11” to get 33rd place.
Moving to the girls state meet, both C-NS and Liverpool had plenty of contenders on hand, too, and none did better than Shayla Webb, who went to the medal podium in the triple jump.
Webb, by a quarter-inch, bettered her top leap of the season and, with 37 feet ¾ inch, gained fifth place overall, fourth in the NYSPHSAA portion. Westhampton Beach’s Sarena Choi won both the state and Federation titles by going 39’6 ¼”. In the long jump, Webb went 16’6” and finished 18th as Liverpool’s Marissa Baskin was 27th, going 16 feet.
Mia Pestle, taking part in the 1,500-meter run, gained sixth looked to improve upon her best time of 4:48.91 this winter and doing so by finishing seventh overall (sixth in the NYSPHAA race) in 4:42.76. Cassie Baldwin was in the 55-meter hurdles and got 23rd place in 9.38 seconds.
The Warriors had two runners in the state meet, with Windsor Ardner in the 600-meter run and Kierra Richardson taking part in the 55-meter dash. Ardner did quite well, rising to 13th place in 1:38.14 as Richardson, with her time of 42.45 seconds, got 22nd place.
Also for Liverpool, Kelley Townley cleared 9’6” in the pole vault to finish 21st as Gates-Chili’s Erica Ellis won by topping 13 feet.
