Area track and field athletes had a chance to achieve something special when they descended upon Middletown for last weekend’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships.
Already a multi-time state indoor and outdoor champion, Cicero-North Syracuse senior Jeremiah Willis tried to add to those honors in the Division I and Federation long jump and triple jump.
Having gone 49 feet 5 ½ inches to rank second going into the state meet in the triple jump, Willis, on his second attempt, went 49’6 ¾”. Taft Eductional Campus’s Salif Mane won the overall crown with 50’4 ¼”, but Willis was victorious in the NYSPHSAA Division I portion.
Then, in the Federation triple jump event a day later, Willis again finished second, posting 49’1” to Mane’s 49’6”. These two medals made up for Willis struggling in the long jump, where he only went 17’8 on his first attempt and passed from there.
Liverpool brought a large contingent, led on the girls side by Marissa Baskin, who was entered in four events, but had her best chance at an individual medal in the long jump, where she had gone 18’9” this season and was the fourth-best qualifier.
With a top leap of 17’10 ½”, Baskin gained a fourth-place finish as Hilton’s Anaya Dees won with 18’9 ½”. In the Federation long jump on Saturday, Baskin got sixth place with 17’2”.
Baskin, who was 17th in the 100-meter dash in 12.72 seconds, also was with Anne Gullo, Haven Hicks and Riley Norris in the 4×100 relay, where the Warriors were fifth-ranked with 48.61 seconds going into the meet.
Here, though, Liverpool sped to 48.19 seconds on Friday to finish third in NYSPHSAA Division I and then, on Saturday, got fourth place in the Federation race in 48.14 seconds, inches behind Orchard Park for third as Paul Robeson won in 46.74 seconds.
Dueling with Baskin in the triple jump and long jump was C-NS’s Brooke Blaisdell. In the triple jump, Blaisdell gained eighth place with a top attempt of 38’1 ¼” as Baskin was 16th (36’5 ¼”), while in the long jump Blaisdell went 16’6 ¼” to finish 13th.
Jenna Schulz, contending in the 3,000-meter run, finished that race in 9:42.21, climbing all the way to fourth place, though it was North Rockland star Katelyn Tuohy winning in 9:21.90.
Schulz also paired with Madison Neuner, Windsor Ardner and Sydney Carlson in the 4×800 relay, where they finished in 9:16.46 and got ninth place overall, with Fayetteville-Manilus the state champions in 9:04.69 to Shenendehowa’s 9:05.54.
Amina Sinclair had cleared 5’6” in the high jump this spring to share the fourth-place ranking in the state, and she topped 5’5” at Middletown for fourth place in Division I and sixth overall. Half Hollow Hills East’s Soledad Jean won with 5’7”.
Yet another medal came from Madison Neuner in the 2,000-meter steeplechase. Roaring to a time of 6:51.30, she improved her best time of the spring by more than three seconds to finish fourth in Division I and fifth overall.
On the boys side, Liverpool’s Nathan Reeves went 4:23.67 in the mile and joined Carter Rodriguez, Cameron O’Connell and Spencer Ruediger in the 4×800 relay, where the Warriors charged to a time of 7:56.62 for 11th place overall, eighth in Division I.
Meanwhile, Antwan Kelley, who had thrown the discus 161 feet this season, managed 151’8” at the state meet and earned seventh place, while C-NS’s Andrew Culver was 11th in the shot put with 42’11 ¾” and Nathan Poirier ran the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 9:54.73, which put him 11th among Division I runners.
Baldwinsville was part of the boys and girls 400-meter hurdles. In the girls 400 hurdles, Justus Holden-Betts rose to seventh place in 1:07.20, while Sam Kellner, in the boys 400 hurdles, was 19th in 59.33 seconds.
Karen Ekure, running for B’ville in the girls 200-meter dash, gained 13th place in 26.05 seconds, while Lauren Addario earned 11th place in the triple jump, going 37’6 ½” to beat Baskin but finish behind Blaisdell.
