by Kurt Wheeler
UTICA – The Cazenovia girls indoor track team posted some of their top performances of the winter last Saturday during its only trip to Utica University this season, the Lakers placing second in a 28-team field with only Class AA power Rome Free Academy narrowly ahead of them.
The girls took advantage of the superb facility at Utica’s Hutton Dome to earn 36 season-best performances, including multiple sectional and state qualifier times and distances.
Despite missing more than a fifth of their line-up due to conflicts caused by the meet being rescheduled from a Thursday weather postponement, the Lakers still managed to score in 14 of 16 events as athletes stepped up to fill gaps caused by missing teammates.
Grace Dolan led the way for the Lakers as she claimed second in the 300-meter dash in 44.24 seconds, just .15 seconds from the state qualifier standard. She also ran a season best time of 7.84 seconds to score in the 55 meter dash and led off Cazenovia’s second place 4×200 relay.
Natalie Dolan and Susie Pittman handled the baton in the relay’s middle legs and Izzy Stromer-Galley brought it home with a personal best leg of 27.1 seconds as the foursome finished in 1:54.33.
Stromer-Galley also ran a personal best of 44.94 in the 300 to earn seventh and anchored Cazenovia’s 4×400 relay to a second place finish with another personal record effort of 1:03.4. Meghan Mehlbaum, Natalie Dolan and Maura Phillips also ran strong legs for the Lakers as the group totaled 4:25.39.
Phillips also scored for Cazenovia in the 600-meter run with an eighth-place 1:50.51 effort as teammates Reid McMurtrie (1:52.92) and Sally Hughes (1:53.38) each ran season bests.
Julia Reff ran a personal best of 3:22.10 to place sixth and hit the sectional qualifying mark in the 1,000-meter run. She returned to lead the Lakers’ third place 4×800 meter relay team with a 2:41.8 opening leg. Hughes, Bonnie Pittman and Dinah Gifford also handled the baton during the team’s 11:16.43 effort.
Kate Millson led the way for Cazenovia in the distance events, posting a huge personal best to earn sixth in the 3,000-meter run in 12:25.25. Gifford and Haylee Stearns also ran the grueling event while Zoey Gagne represented the Lakers in the 1,500-meter run.
Susie Pittman added a pair of state qualifier performances to pace the Lakers in the field events. Her personal best triple jump of 33 feet 4 inches was good for third place and she equaled her indoor best of 8’6” in the pole vault to claim fourth there.
She had plenty of help in the jumps as teammate Corinne Albicker achieved two personal bests of her own, triple jumping 32 feet for eighth and long jumping 15’4 ½” for seventh. She and Bonnie Pittman also added their fastest times of the season in the 55-meter hurdles to pace the Lakers there.
Cazenovia achieved a host of other season-topping performances in the jumps led by Mehlbaum’s 4’8” effort in the high jump for fourth.
Sofie Reger had two record performances as she cleared 4’6” in the high jump and 7’6” in the pole vault to earn seventh. Stearns had her best long jump ever at 14’1”, while McMurtrie posted her best efforts of the winter in both the long and triple jumps.
Maddy Rothfeld led Cazenovia in the throws with two sixth place performances as she hit 29’2 ¾” in the weight and 25’9” in the shot. Teammates Karly Vaas (26’7 ¾”) and Olivia Morse (24’7 ½”) each hit season bests in the weight while Alayna Berson topped her previous best with a 24’5” in the shot.
aThe competition was the Lakers’ final regular-season event, and it will now focus on training and preparation for their upcoming league (Feb. 1) and Section III (Feb. 8) championships as it strives to match last winter’s Class B-2 title performance.
