by Kurt Wheeler
The Cazenovia girls cross country team battled to a strong eighth- place finish among 34 teams at last Saturday’s East Syracuse-Minoa Invitational.
The Lakers were second among Class C teams in the field, with only Camden ahead of them as they finished second overall behind the perennial champion Fayetteville-Manlius squad.
All seven of the girls in the varsity race reduced their times from last week as the team continued to show rapid improvement during the young season.
Molly Hart led the squad with a 25th-place effort in 21 minutes, 36.4 seconds, setting personal bests for 5K time and speed rating for the second week in a row. Claire Braaten matched her effort, earning 40th place overall in 22:40 flat to beat her own personal best.
With Senior Captain Isla Stover off for the day to take ACT’s, it was a chance for the Lakers’ younger runners to step up and fill the void.
Eighth-grade star Lauren McLean answered the call, running to a strong time of 23:08.2 (44th) in just her second varsity race. Sophomore Mary Williams had her best race of the fall, finishing in 23:45.4 (58th) to place fourth for the team while junior Mia Chesbrough rounded out the Cazenovia scoring with a time of 23:53.1(62nd), her fastest race ever.
Freshman Finlay Stover (24:03.5, 65th) and Junior Maddie McGreevy (24:05.7, 66th) earned the critical sixth and seventh-place slots for the team, displacing runners from every team behind them in the meet to help assure their strong finish.
Sophomore Emma Steinberg led the Junior Varsity team to a fourth place finish among 14 squads in their race, with only Class A powers F-M, Jamesville-DeWitt and Brighton ahead of them.
Steinberg’s 25:12.5 effort was her best of the season. First-year harriers Melanie Michael (25:26.6) and Grace Dolan (25:55.0) both ran to personal best 5K times to boost the JV squad.
Laura Fitzgerald (26:23.3) and Jenna Steinberg (27:28.8) each ran tough races to help the Lakers to their excellent team finish. Alyson Woolbert and Samantha Combs capped the Cazenovia effort in the number six and seven positions.
