Morgan Austen and Pete Girardi went to the top of the standings in the 55-meter hurdles and triple jump, leading the Cicero-North Syracuse boys indoor track and field team to a season-opening victory at Wednesday night’s Jack Morse Holiday Relays at SRC Arena. In a tight race for the top spot, the Northstars picked up 55 points, just enough to hold off Fayetteville-Manlius, who was second with 51.5 points. Liverpool also had a strong meet, getting to third place with 48 points, just ahead of Jamesville-DeWitt (43 points) in the fourth spot. To start out, Austen and Girardi went 1-2 in the 55 hurdles, as Austen prevailed in 8.01 seconds and Girardi was second in 8.20 seconds. Much later, Austen won again in the triple jump, going 40 feet 1/2 inch, while Girardi’s sixth-place attempt of 38’7″ led to another C-NS title. The Northstars were also victorious in the shot put, where Joe Castaldo threw it 50’2 1/2″ to snare individual honors by nearly five feet over Liverpool’s Geoffrey Bell (45’3 3/4″). Ross Mathewson helped C-NS secure 10 points with his throw of 39’6″ as the Warriors’ Chris Granell (36’10”) joined Bell in a second-place effort worth eight points. Where Liverpool stood out was in the long jump, getting its own 1-2 finish as Mark Vanmarter went 20’6″, edging out teammate Ryheim Lawes, who was second with 20’4″. Lawes and Vanmarter, teaming with James Williams and Sanborn Rowell, was a close second (3:52.18) to F-M (3:51.17) in the 1,600 sprint medley, where Nate Hilt, Mark Romanyk, Nick Golembieski and Bryan Bausinger put C-NS in fourth place in 3:56.06. It was about the same for Liverpool in the 4×400, with Lawes, Michael Mahan, Collin Gwilt and Zach Sanborn getting to second place in 3:52.90, again seeing F-M (3:43.49) prevail. The Northstars were second in the distance medley relay as Colin Greenseich, Paul DeGennaro, Evan Russell and Andrew Bearkland posted 11:32.34, just behind Baldwinsville, who won in 11:32.34. Jake Dehm, Brian Traub, Andrew Salmons and Evan Tracy took third place in the 4×800 relay in 9:26.47. C-NS also saw Connor Osborne and Cameron LaBarge get third place in the pole vault, clearing 21’3″ between them. Williams and Brandon Mayfield were third in the 55-meter dash with 14.15 seconds, where Fowler won in 13.75 seconds. By himself, the Warriors’ Nate Guarente gave his side a fourth-place finish in the high jump when he cleared 5’6″. Liverpool took fourth (1:42.64) in the 4×200 relay as Mayfield, Gwilt, Arfasa Haley and Donald Frost took part.