ONONDAGA COUNTY – Knowing that a showdown with Cicero-North Syracuse loomed during the April school break, the Liverpool track and field teams wanted as much confidence as possible going into it.
In last Wednesday’s head-to-head meet against West Genesee, the Warriors earned a sweep, the boys earning a 97-44 victory over the Wildcats and the girls prevailing by a nearly identical margin of 98-43.
Liverpool’s boys got three victories from NyQuez Madison, who edged Dylan Frost, 11.62 seconds to 11.63, in the 100-meter dash, went 18 feet 5 1/2 inches in the long jump and 38’4 1/4” in the triple jump to take that event, too.
Taj Ryan also had a big meet, beating out Brayden Smith, 18.19 seconds to 18.57, in the 400-meter hurdles while clearing 5’4” in the high jump. Roman Murray took the 800-meter run in 2:03.07 and the 1,600 in 4:32.72 as Brady Ruediger won the 3,200 in 10:33.91.
Having won the 400 hurdles in 1:02.07 to edge the 1:02.46 from WG’s Nick Lamanna, Maltrin Ramadani also helped Murray, Josh Vang and Evan Slater run the 4×400 in 3:45.76 as Murray, Brady Ruediger, Josh Vang and Nate Aurello got 8:34.84 in the 4×800.
In the girls meet for Liverpool, Layla Pearl Collins stood out, clearing 8’6” in the pole vault and also prevailing in the 100 hurdles in 17.78 seconds for a second title.
Mikayla Greene, who won the 200 in 26.58 seconds to Mia Wright’s 26.75, paired with Wright and Maddie Devendorf in both winning relays, Nahla Battle-Crenshaw helping take the 4×100 in 49.92 as Taylor Page assisting in a 4×400 time of 4:06.24.
Page won on her own, too, going 2:18.95 in the 800 as Devendorf took first in the long jump with an impressive 16’2 3/4”. Taima Tearney cleared 4’8” in the high jump to beat out Audrey Jenkins’ 4’6” as Eseroghene Uloho threw the shot put 30’9 3/4” and Kaitlyn Hotaling, in the 3,000, went 11:05.18 to beat Charlotte Warner’s 11:20.21.
As for C-NS, it went to Henninger and won 89-42 on the boys side, with Rhett Andrews going 2:05.8 in the 800 and 4:37.6 in the 1,600 as David Henry ran the 400 sprint in 53.5 seconds. Moving to the pole vault, Henry managed to clear 10 feet.
Anthony Johnson, having taken the 100 sprint in 11.4 seconds, had a top triple jump of 41 feet. Matt Jordan topped 5’4” in the high jump and Dante Melfi (3,200, 10:24.3) prevailed, as did Andrew Potter going 18.5 in the 110 hurdles.
