by Kurt Wheeler
SYRACUSE – The Cazenovia girls indoor track team scored in every event as they piled up 107 points to outdistance Baldwinsville and Jamesville-Dewitt (80 each) and 15 other teams to win the morning session of last Saturday’s John Arcaro Memorial Invitational at SRC Arena.
The contest was the final “relay” meet of the season where the top two finishers from each team combine their performances for a relay score.
Cazenovia’s winning total of 107 points out of a possible 150 during the 15-event competition included three first-place and three second-place finishes.
Susie Pittman led the team as she earned their top individual finish of the day, clearing a season-best of 8 feet 6 inches in the pole vault to combine with Caitlyn Smithers (7’6”) for first place as a team. Faith Wheeler was close behind at 7 feet as the Lakers took three of the top six places in the event.
Pittman (4’6”) also teamed with Meghan Mehlbaum (4’8”) for second in the high jump relay and ran 45.21 seconds in the 300-meter dash to partner with Izzy Stromer-Galley (46.57) for second.
Smithers contributed to another winning effort as she ran a season best time of 7.80 in the 55-meter dash to combine with Riley Knapp’s best ever time of 7.75 for first place. Grace Dolan also clocked a 7.99 as the Lakers dominated the event.
Knapp, Dolan and Stromer-Galley also teamed up with Maura Philips to take second in the 4×200 meter relay in time of 1:55.50.
Wheeler anchored the Lakers’ final winning event of the day as she ran a season best split of 2:37.4 to lead Maeve McGreevy, Sally Hughes and Julia Reff to first place in the 4×800 relay in their fastest time of the season at 10:47.24, 23 seconds off their previous best.
Also, Wheeler and McGreevy took third in the 1,000-meter event with their best times yet while Reff (sectional time of 1:49.36) and Bonnie Pittman (season best of 1:55.71) earned second in the 600-meter run relay.
Dinah Gifford and Zoey Gagne led the team’s distance effort as the duo teamed up to place third in the 3,000-meter run and fifth in the 1,500-meter run. Stromery-Galley earned her third score of the day as she anchored the 4×400 to third place with her fastest 400 meter yet (1:04.7).
Phillips, Reid McMurtrie and Natalie Dolan all ran season bests as well, as the foursome finished in 4:29.58, more than six seconds faster than their previous best time.
Bonnie Pittman (10.99) and Corinne Albicker (10.33) earned the Cazenovia’s final points on the track as they teamed up for fourth in the 55 meter hurdle relay.
Albicker continued to lead the team’s horizontal jumps as she triple-jumped 30’11 ¾” to partner with McMurtrie for third place and long jumped a season best 14’10 ¾” to combine with Haylee Stearns for sixth place in that event.
Maddie Rothfeld led the Lakers’ throwers again to continue her sensational first season. She hit 29’2 ¼” in the weight throw to combine with Karly Vaas and Olivia Morse (tied at 23’5 ½”) for fourth place and reached 25’10 ½” in the shot to partner with Vass (24’ ¼”) for fifth.
The win was Cazenovia’s fourth in their five invitational outings so far this winter. They will be in action again this Saturday at OCC.
