Another week, another trip to Marcellus for the Skaneateles girls track and field team – and another prestigious title to bring back home.
This time, that prize was the Section III Class B-1 championship, earned on Tuesday afternoon a mere eight days after the Lakers had won the Onondaga High School League Liberty division title on this same track.
Challenged by host Marcellus and by South Jefferson, Skaneateles was more than up to it, picking up a total of 140 points, which left the Mustangs in second place with 97 points and the Spartans third with 91 points.
Skaneateles went 1-2 in the 3,000-meter run, where sophomore Kaitlyn Neal took the title in a time of 10:51.38, with senior Madeline Adams, in her last sectional meet, taking second place in 10:58.46.
More points came in the 1,500-meter run, where Adams finished second in 4:58.91, with Neal third (4:59.80), both of them just behind Marcellus star Rachel Garn, who won in 4:58.08.
And though Garn won the 800-meter run in 2:25.27, two Lakers were right behind her – freshman Julia Willcox, who was second in 2:25.80, and Adams, in third place with 2:28.18. Later, Willcox took third (8:17.47) and Morel Malcolm fourth (8:20.46) in the 2,000-meter steeplechase.
Freshman Raenah Campbell conquered the 100-meter hurdles in 16.13 seconds, easily clear of Holland Patent’s Andrea Marfone (16.84 seconds) and the field. Later, in the 400-meter hurdles, Campbell won again, posting 1:06.30 to beat Marfone (1:10.17) by nearly four seconds.
Amanda Wetmore took second (13.26 seconds) to Marcellus’ Abbie Fallon (13.09 seconds) in the 100-meter dash, with Laurel Parker third in 13.45 seconds.
Eighth-grader Mia Grasso was third in the 400-meter dash in 1:01.61, with freshman Shannon Roberts fourth in 1:03.38. Grasso and Olivia Gage ran equal times of 27.46 seconds in the 200-meter dash, though Gage took fourth place.
Gage, joined by Campbell, Roberts and Aubreah Lynn, were victorious in the 4×400 relay in 4:15.58, pulling away from South Jefferson (4:20.43) and the rest of the field.
Skaneateles had a second-place time of 51.99 seconds in the 4×100 relay, trailing only CBA, who won in 51.60 seconds. The Lakers were also fourth in the 4×400 relay in 10:35.48.
In field events, Megan Molnar, clearing 8 feet, finished third in the pole vault, while Grasso rose to fourth place in the high jump, topping 4’8″.
Two days later, in the sectional Class B-1 boys championships, Skaneateles had a strong showing, too, earning 56 points it still finished fifth in the 10-team field as Solvay, with 140 points, repeated as champions.
Right at the end, Skaneateles earned a victory in the 4×400 relay, where the quartet of Patrick Biver, Jeff Kringer, Cooper Watt and James Hackler posted a time of three minutes, 34.57 seconds, pulling away to beat runner-up Holland Patent (3:41.64) by more than seven seconds.
Biver nearly got a victory in the 400 sprint, hitting the line in 50.53 seconds, trailing only Vernon-Verona-Sherrill’s Matt McCoy, who won in 49.80 seconds, while Biver also managed a fourth-place time of 24.14 seconds in the 200.
Kringer, on his own, was third in the 100 in 11.44 seconds, where Solvay’s Nick Cometti (11.18 seconds) prevailed. Tommy Hagen got third place in the 110 high hurdles in 17.28 seconds, with Cazenovia’s Walker Nichols (16.23 seconds) taking the top spot.
In field events, Dalton Carter made it to third place in the pole vault, clearing 10’6″. Hagen and Eli Goodell both cleared 5’4” in the high jump, but Goodell got fourth place, one spot ahead of Hagen. Jacob Patterson went 35’6” in the triple jump and took fifth place.
Watt got to fifth place in the 800-meter run in 2:09.58 and was sixth (17’9”) in the long jump, where Goodell was ninth and Louis Tellier 10th. Alex VanRiper tried his hand at the pentathlon and, with 1,564 points, earned sixth-place honors, with Max Messie sixth in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:06.50.
Chris Niebuhr, Steve Ciaccio, Calvin Blackwell and Scott Harrop earned sixth place in the 4×800 relay with a clocking of 9:45.74, with the Lakers were seventh in the 4×100 relay in 48.59 seconds.
