With every point and every placement important, the boys track and field Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division championships held Thursday at Liverpool came down to the final race on the card.
And in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, Cicero-North Syracuse senior Nathan Poirier won in nine minutes, 56.98 seconds, edging Liverpool’s Nick Brancato (9:59.57) as Baldwinsville had Colin Delaney finish fourth in 10:20.81 and Connor McManus finish sixth.
The 10 points C-NS earned here, and the five earned by B’ville, was crucial, because when the team scores were tallied, the Northstars, even without Jeremiah Wright in the lineup, had 125 points to beat the Bees’ total of 121 points, with the Warriors (101 points) in third place.
Nate Osborne dazzled for the Northstars in the pole vault, clearing 13 feet 3 inches as B’ville’s Aidan Priest was second with 11’6” and Matt Carr got third place for C-NS, topping 10 feet.
Sam Nessel got another important win for C-NS in the 400-meter dash, going 51.78 seconds to beat out B’ville’s Connor Waldron (52.03) and Michael Lawrence (52.34) in the second and third spots. Christian Carlin was fourth in 53.09 seconds.
C-NS also had Joe Tschopp finish second in the pentathlon with 2,309 points, just ahead of B’ville’s Tom Hagopian (2,203 points) in third place. Isaiah Wright was second in the 110 hurdles in 16.29 seconds, with Carlton Garnes (16.94) fourth, Wright also getting a fourth-place long jump of 19’8 ½”.
Poirier, in addition to his steeplechase win, got third place in the mile in 4:32.61, with R.J. Davis fifth in the 3,200-meter run. Elijah Knight and Andrew Culver were fifth and sixth, respectively, in the discus.
Going 1-2 in the 400 hurdles, B’ville had Sam Kellner prevail in 59.88 seconds, with Nick Kruger second in 1:00.82. Kruger also got third place in the 110 hurdles in 16.46 seconds and then, with Lawrence, Waldron and Jon Formoza, won the 4×400 relay in 3:32.85 to the 3:35.31 posted by C-NS as Liverpool (3:37.26) was third.
Mike Letizia was victorious in the 200-meter dash, going 23.43 seconds to beat out Nessel (23.84), though C-NS had Josh Adams get fifth place in 23.97 seconds. Letizia also was fourth in the 100-meter dash in 11.48 seconds, with Nessel sixth.
Jack Michaels was second in the 3,200 in 9:47.36 and fourth in the mile in 4:32.70. The Bees were fourth in the 4×100 relay in 45.56 seconds, with C-NS (45.98) fifth as Steven Miller finished fourth in the discus with 113’1”.
Liverpool won a thrilling 4×800 relay when Cameron O’Connell, Nathan Reeves, Carter Rodriguez and Spencer Ruediger posted 8:07.75 to beat out B’ville’s quartet of Lawrence, Kellner, Jon Formoza and Garrett Vannatta in 8:08.84, with C-NS (9:02.46) far back in third place.
Reeves, on his own, rolled to a victory in the 800-meter run in 2:00.61, beating out Poirier (2:02.79) in second place and C-NS teammate Evan Breitbeck (2:03.07) in third place. B’ville had Formoza finish fourth in 2:03.34.
The Warriors swept the throwing events, Antwan Kelly unleashing a discus throw of 152 feet, more than 24 feet ahead of any rival, while Jacob Barnes, third in the discus (123’7”), threw the shot put 47’1” to hold off C-NS’s Andrew Culver, who was second with 46’4”.
Aiden Wroblewski added a third-place high jump of 5’10” as C-NS’s Rich Paparo was sixth, clearing 5’6”. Andrew Spring was fourth in the pole vault, clearing 10 feet, while Michael Nigro (40’2 ½”) beat out Jack Pento (39’8 ¾”) for fourth place in the triple jump.
Ryan Cartwright got third place in the 3,200 in 9:51.80. Jack Pento took fourth place in the 400 hurdles in 1:01.43. Jake McGowan ran the mile 4:35.77 to finish fifth, with Paul Dewan fifth in the long jump (19’7 ½”), Connor Fahy fifth in the 400 sprint and Amaru Lewis sixth in the 200.
