STATEN ISLAND – Rarely in its history had the Cicero-North Syracuse indoor track and field team benefited from the kind of talent it brought to Staten Island’s Ocean Breeze complex for Saturday’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships.
And the Northstars flourished throughout the meet, especially the duo of junior Camron Ingram and sophomore Anna Eells, both of whom earned state titles and multiple medals before it was all done.
Ingram was unstoppable in the 55-meter hurdles. As the Section III record-holder with 7.18 seconds, Ingram cruised through qualifying in 7.53 and then, in the final, went 7.20 to easily prevail over the second-place 7.42 of Middletown’s Quillar Baidy.
Eells would emerge triumphant in the triple jump and do so with a dramatic flourish. Trailing going into the last jump, she unleashed a final attempt of 39 feet 10 inches and passed the 39’5” put up earlier by Guilderland’s Tatum Cramer.
Also the top qualifier going into the high jump, Eells cleared 5 feet 6 inches here which didn’t quite reach the 5’8” she got earlier this season but still gave her third-place honors as it was Minisink Valley’s Ella Michelitch topping 5’8” to win.
Ingram reached the finals of the 55-meter dash and ultimately finished third in 6.40 seconds. He was just behind the winning 6.35 of Rochester McQuaid’s Rhoan Kaulder and 6.36 of Fayetteville-Manlius standout Nick Domashenko
Another C-NS medal came in the girls Division I (large school) 4×800 relay where Katy Harbold, Sophia Graham, Cameron Sisk and Gabby Putman made their way to fourth place in 9:22.88 beating the 9:27.73 of F-M, who settled for eighth place.
Graham also medaled in the public-school portion of the 600-meter run where her 1:35.87 set a season mark and put her fifth in that division, ninth overall.
Harbold took 18th place in the 1,000-meter run in 3:01.71 as Murray helped Section III’s team finish fifth in the distance medley relay posting 10:20.70, while Callie Bednarski, Alexa Belknap, Gianna Melfi and Evelyn Maglente were 13th in the Division I 4×400 relay in 4:10.38.
Countering this, Liverpool would take third place in the girls 4×200 relay as Nahlia Battle-Crenshaw, Maddie Devendforf, Mikayla Greene and Mia Wright finished in 1:41.58 to beat the fourth-place 1:42.05 the Northstars got from Stephanie Todd, Grace Murray, Aaliyah McDonald and Jaydin Mackey.
Wright used a time of 39.77 seconds in the 300-meter dash to qualify for the finals, where she ultimately got 11th place in 40.71 but was in the public-school top 10 as Baldwin’s Breanne Barrett won in 37.74.
The Warriors’ Taylor Page improved to a time of 4:41.65 at 1,500 meters and finished 10th overall. Devendorf went to the long jump where she finished 26th with a top leap of 16 feet.
Eeels joined Jaydin Mackey and Aaliyah McDonald in the 55-meter hurdles, where Mackey would take 12th place in 8.39 to edge the 8.41 from Eells in 14th place and 8.44 from McDonald in 15th place. In the 55 sprint Mackey posted 7.34 for 28th place.
Anthony Johnson was a medal contender in the boys triple jump having gone 45’9” this season to enter the state meet in eighth place among qualifier, but only got 41’1 1/4” here to finish 27th.
C-NS also had the boys 4×800 quartet of Tyler Graham, Dominic Petrera, Dante Melfi and Joe Massett finish 19th overall in 8:17.31 while Graham was 26th in the 600 in 1:25.45. The 4×200 quartet of Antwan Maxwell, Parker Laws, Angel Cuencas and Christian Kahrs got 15th place in Division I posting 1:33.25.
