By the smallest margin possible, the Liverpool girls track team missed out on the CNY Counties League regular-season championship, denied by Fayetteville-Manlius in a 71-70 decision during last Wednesday’s first-place showdown at LHS Stadium.
Knowing how strong the Hornets were in distance races, the Warriors had to make up ground in field events – and did, winning five of six, starting with Kelley Townley clearing 9 feet 6 inches to claim the pole vault.
Sarah Lavalley threw the discus 114’5” and prevailed there, while Trinity Gray threw the shot put 30’10”. Meghan Milazzo had a first-place long jump of 16’ ¾” as Alexia Ostrander went to the top in the high jump, clearing 5 feet.
Meanwhile, Kierra Richardson gave Liverpool its lone wins on the oval, going 12.86 seconds in the 100-meter dash and 26.30 seconds to take the 200-meter dash. F-M swept the distance races and also had Gwen Shepardson finish first in the 100-meter hurdles (16.16 seconds) and 400-meter hurdles (1:08.52).
Liverpool’s boys track team salvaged a split by handling F-M 83-58, getting two titles from Nazir Murray, who ran the 400 sprint in 54.01 seconds and then turned to the 400 hurdles and won that race, too, in 1:00.29.
Tyler Goss, who was first in the 110 high hurdles in 17.34 seconds, also prevailed in the pole vault, clearing 11’6”. Paul Dewan had a top triple jump of 38’11 ¼” as Jacob Barnes threw the discus 124 feet and Arthur Bittel’s shot put toss of 45 feet beat out Barnes, who went 42’2”.
Brandon Mayfield made his way to first place in the 100 sprint in 11.68 seconds. Steve Schulz ran the mile in 4:24.0, while Josh Hickmott got to first place in the 800 in 2:00.8.
Meanwhile, at Bragman Stadium, Cicero-North Syracuse’s boys track team dropped its own first-place CNYCL showdown, falling to Baldwinsville 74-67 as the Bees claimed all but two of the individual races, including a sweep of the distance events where Ben Timmons claimed both the mile (4:37.51) and 3,200 (10:02.13) to lead the way.
Even the work of Jeremiah Willis could not turn that around, though Willis did tear through the 100 in 11.25 seconds and unleashed a top long jump of 22’9” before going 42’9” to win the triple jump.
Joe Williams contributed a 110 hurdles victory in 14.62 seconds, while Ryan Bristow cleared 12’6” in the pole vault. Zak Kennedy, Allen Garnes, Matt Kilian and Ryan Williams went 3:32.01 to win the 4×400.
The C-NS girls also lost to B’ville, but both Northstars sides would join some of Liverpool’s start in venturing to Baldwinsville’s John Arcaro Classic on Friday and record top-five team finishes as the boys Bees and the F-M girls won their respective divisions.
Willis, in 22.45 seconds, prevailed in the 200 as Kilian got fourth place in 23.18 seconds and was fourth in the 400 sprint in 53 seconds flat. In the long jump, Willis unleashed a top leap of 23’4”, more than two feet clear of the field, and he claimed the triple jump by going 46’10”, more than four feet ahead of anyone else.
Alex Hepel cleared 11 feet for fifth place in the pole vault. C-NS also finished fourth in the 4×800 in 9:00.27 as Nathan Poirier was fifth in the mile in 4:37.92 and Joe Tricarico needed 10:16.57 to finish fifth in the 3,200. Brandon Martin was ninth in the 800.
Both of the C-NS girls wins came in field events, including the shot put, which Kierrah Butler claimed with a top toss of 33’11 ½”. Sierra Davis, already third in the long jump with 16’3 ¾”, had a triple jump of 35’9 ¼” to beat F-M’s Cady Barns (35’9”) by a quarter of an inch.
Abbey Szumloz took fourth place in the 400 hurdles in 1:12.93, with Emily Dembowski fifth in the 3,000 in 11:41.49. Ashlyn Slate was seventh and Amanda Reilly ninth in the 400 sprint. Reilly improved to eighth place in the 200. Szumloz, Slate, Jamie Wagner and Marissa Bukowski were sixth (4:33.29) in the 4×400.
Liverpool’s Cullen McLaughlin was third in the boys 3,000-meter steeplechase in 10:33.40. Justin Chrisjohn and Tom Tobin were sixth and seventh, respectively, in the 400 hurdles, while Nick Brancato got sixth place in the 3,200. The Warriors were fifth in the 4×100 and sixth in the 4×400. Jacob Barnes was sixth in the discus, throwing it 121’9”.
In girls action, Milazzo cleared 5 feet to finish second behind B’ville’s Adrianna Straughter (5’2”) in the high jump, and took sixth place in the 100 hurdles. Gray was second to Butler in the shot put with a throw of 31’10 ½” and Madyson Oliveri was fourth, going 30’7 ¾”. Mackenzie Case tied for fifth in the pole vault, clearing 8 feet.
Kristina Moore, Olivia Chapman, Mallory Woytowicz and Vanessa Eberhard were third in the 4×800 in 10:15.72, with C-NS fifth. Eberhard got third place in the 1,500 in 4:57.72, while Moore was fourth in the 800 (2:28.16). Woytowicz was seventh in the 3,000.
While all this was going on, Liverpool’s top track stars were testing themselves against an elite field in the Loucks Games at White Plains – and Lavalley, in particular, stood out, winning the girls discus with a throw of 115’11” to edge Natick’s Kassidy Gallagher (114’6”) for the victory.
Richardson nearly made the finals in the 100, but did join with Annie Gullo, Marissa Baskin and Amina Sinclair to earn fourth place in the 4×100 in 52.44 seconds. Madison Neuner was 10th and Natalie Kurz 12th in the 400 hurdles. Jenna Schulz was 12th in the 3,200-meter run.
Ty Brownlow was fifth in the boys mile, posting 4:24.04 as Stephen Schulz was sixth in the 3,200 in 9:03.17. Bittel was 10th in the boys discus with a 120-foot effort and 11th in the shot put.
