The Cazenovia girls indoor track team finished second in the 10-team OHSL 1 field at the league championship meet hosted by OCC on Jan 31. The Lakers (106 points) were outpaced by Westhill (159) for the title but easily topped Solvay (41) and six other squads to finish as the runner-up. Under-strength from illness and injuries, it was a disappointing outcome for the Lady Lakers, who had won seven consecutive league titles entering the competition.
Chloe Smith led the team, hitting season bests and earning all-league honors in each of her events including a first-place finish in the long jump at 15-10.25. She ran a career best of 7.64 to place second in the 55-meter dash and anchored the 4×200 to a second-place finish with a 27.5 second leg. Brenna Hughes also scored in the 55 for Cazenovia and teamed up with Taylor Tilison and Lauren Burbidge to achieve the team’s best 4×200 time of the season (1:56.91) to earn all-league status.
Maddy Gavitt also shined for the Lakers, earning first team all-league honors as she won the triple jump at 33-7.75 and backed up Smith in the long jump with a second place, state qualifier-eligible leap of 15-8.75. Claire Edwards earned all-league with a personal best, second place effort of 28-4 in the shot as she led three Laker scorers in the event. Paige Hunt also had an all-league performance, finishing second high jump and scoring in two other events.
Katie Robbins led the Lakers in the pole vault, earning third place at 8-0, with Hunt just one place back. Hunt also earned fifth in the shot with McKenzie Yates in sixth. Sunday Kulang took fourth with a season-best effort of 26-1 in the weight throw and Ava Gavitt rounded out the Lakers’ field event scoring with a fifth-place leap of 28-11.25 in the triple jump.
Zoe Shepherd led the team’s distance effort, earning third in the 1,000 (3:22.28) and leading off the third place 4×800 meter relay of Emily Reff, Molly Dolan and Hannora Race. Savannah Conway captured fifth place in the 3,000 in a season-best time of 12:41.26. Lauren Burbidge had the fastest leg on the Lakers’ third place 4×400 meter team of Katrina Wilson, Kaitlyn Puffer and Grace Rajkowski. Lili Gavitt capped the team’s scoring on the track with a fourth-place finish in the 55-meter hurdles in a personal-best, sectional-qualifying time of 9.98 seconds.
The Lady Lakers were without the services of their number one distance runner, school 3,000-meter record-holder Meggie Hart, due to illness. Injuries and illnesses also kept several other athletes on the sidelines. They will hope to have them back in action for the Section3, Class B championship meet which will be held Feb. 7 at OCC’s SRC arena.
