Whether it was in sprints, or in field events, or put all together in a five-event pentathlon, the Cicero-North Syracuse boys track and field team found what it needed to beat 22 other sides, including Liverpool, to take last Friday’s Chittenango Invitational.
The Northstars finished with 107 points, while the Warriors had 61 points and tied Central Square for third place behind Baldwinsville’s runner-up total of 78 points.
In that pentathlon, C-NS’s Jason Hughes trailed going into the last event, the 1,500-meter run, but his 666 points in that race gave him 2,554 points overall, enough to pass Romello Mitchell (Fayetteville-Manlius), who was second with 2,490 points.
Meanwhile, Jeremiah Willis won twice for the Northstars, going 11.06 seconds to take the 100-meter dash over a field that included teammate Matt Kilian (11.58) in fifth place. Then, in the long jump, Willis unleashed a top leap of 22 feet 9 ¾ inches , more than two feet ahead of the field as Connor Hayes was fourth, going 19’3 ½”.
Not only that, but Willis, in the 4×100 relay, paired with Kilian, Hayes and Anthony Pauli to prevail in 43.72 seconds to B’ville’s 43.99, with Liverpool having Paul Dewan, Ryan Dewan, Khalil Wailes and Nazir Murray finish third in 44.28 seconds.
Joe Williams got the Northstars a win in the 110 high hurdles in 14.99 seconds, well clear of Carthage’s Justin Runge (15.70) in the second spot. In the 400 hurdles, Williams took second place in 57.48 seconds as Carthage’s Justin Runge (56.23) won. David Ware took third in the 800-meter run in 2:00.66 and Williams was fourth (40’4”) in the triple jump ahead of Liverpol’s Ryan Dewan (40’1 ½”) in fifth place.
Pauli, Kennedy, Allen Garnes and Derek Harned were second (3:34.85) to J-D (3:33.23) in the 4×400 as Liverpool got sixth place in 3:44.28. The Warriors’ Arthur Bittel was second in the shot put, heaving it 43’6 ½” as C-NS got Adam Mosher in fourth place with a throw of 41’5” and Cameron Pisa was seventh. Bittel was eighth in the discus behind teammate Jacob Barnes (110’5”) in seventh place.
Liverpool had Steve Schulz dominate the 3,200-meter run, winning in 9:23.57, more than 16 seconds ahead of the field. Josh Hickmott went 9:44.74 to win the 3,000-meter steeplechase over Niskayuna’s Marty Dolan (9:49.45) as C-NS’s Nathan Poirier (10:19.72) beat out the Warriors’ Emil Videman (10:20.11) for sixth place.
Nathan Reeves won the full-field mile in 4;35.36, with C-NS having Brandon Martin finish fourth in 4:39.12. Wailes, fifth in the 400 hurdles in 59.65 seconds, was second in the 400-meter dash in 50.98 seconds behind Jamesville-DeWitt’s David Fikhman (50.51) as C-NS got Zak Kennedy (52.93) in sixth place.
Ryan Bristow was second in the pole vault, clearing 12 feet. Also, the Northstars had Sam Barber fifth and Joe Tricarico sixth in the 3,200 behind Schulz, while Judah Bailey, clearing 5’6”, was fifth in the high jump as Liverpool’s James Gaffney tied for seventh and teammate Tyler Goss was fourth (11’6”) in the pole vault.
Moving to the girls Chittenango Invitational, Liverpool picked up 98 points, beating everyone in the 15-team field except F-M, who fueled by its sweep of most of the distance races won with 139 points as C-NS, with 50 points, settled into fourth place.
In a close 100 sprint, Kierra Richardson, in 12.95 seconds, edged B’ville’s Lauren Addario (12.96) and Karen Ekure (12.97) at the line, with Grace Kouame seventh for the Warriors, just out of the points. Sarah Lavalley won the discus with a throw of 101’5”.
Windsor Ardner pulled away in the 800, her time of 2:16.60 nearly four seconds ahead of F-M’s Rebecca Walters (2:20.59) as Kristina Moore was fifth in 2;29.65. Richardson, Kouame, Anne Gullo and Amina Sinclair went 51.04 seconds in the 4×100, second to the Bees’ winning 50.66.
In the 400-meter dash Richardson finished third in 1:01.93, with Gullo (1:03.01) fifth and C-NS seeing Ashlyn Slate finish sixth in 1:04 flat. Slate helped the Northstars’ 4×400 side finish fifth in 4:21.87, with Liverpool (4;25.10) in seventh place.
Lauren Fradette, in 17.16 seconds, was second to F-M’s Gwenn Shepardson (16.36) in the 100-meter hurdles, with Kali Hayes fifth in 18.07 seconds and C-NS’s Savannah Kur between them, getting third place in 17.86 seconds.
Meghan Milazzo, going 16’1 ½” in the long jump, was a quarter-inch behind F-M’s Cady Barns (16’1 ¾”) for the top spot as Alexia Ostrander made it to fifth place with a leap of 15’ ½’. In the full-field mile, Vanessa Eberhard was second in 5:25.98, with Madison Neuner third in 5:30.61 as she also took eighth place in the 3,000-meter run.
Natalie Kurz got fifth place in the 400 hurdles in 1:13.28. Eberhard, Ardner, Moore and Jenna Schulz were third in the 4×800 relay in 10:13.77.
C-NS earned two wins in girls field events. Kierrah Butler, in the shot put, threw it 35’ ¾’ to beat a pack that included Liverpool’s Trinity Gray, who was third by throwing it 32’4 ½” as Madyson Oliveri (29’8 ½”) was seventh. Butler also got fifth place in the discus (92’11”) behind Lavalley.
Meanwhile, Shayla Webb was victorious in the triple jump as her best attempt of 36’1 ½” beat Barns (35’1 ¾”) by nearly a foot. Sierra Davis took seventh place.
Liverpool’s Kaitlynn Luong, with 1,883 points, beat out C-NS’s Lexi Gaetz (1,848 points) for fifth place in the pentathlon. The Northstars’ Annina Marullo finished third in the 2,000-meter steeplechase in 7:50.38, with Emily Dembowski ninth and Liverpool’s Rosie Petrella 10th. Abbey Szumloz was eighth in the 400 hurdles.
Marullo, Dembowski, Megan Trubia and Mia Pestle were fourth (10:34.69) in the 4×800, but Pestle, on her own, had a terrific effort in the featured Fleet Feet Mile, where she got to fourth place in 5:03.36 as Jenna Schulz got eighth place (5:15.70) for Liverpool. Malerie Belles gave C-NS a fourth-place finish in the high jump though she, along with teammate Cassie Baldwin and the Warriors’ Sinclair, all topped out at 4’8”.
