by Kurt Wheeler
The Cazenovia girls indoor track team fell just short despite a mighty effort to earn their eighth league title this decade.
Heavy underdogs entering the contest, the Lakers came within eight points of an upset win, finishing second to Westhill, 117-109 in the 11-team Onondaga High School League Division I field last Thursday at SRC Arena.
Still, Cazenovia earned 13 all-league honors, achieved 19 season-best performances and exceed their expected point total in 10 of 16 events during the meet, but needed near-perfection to upset the Warriors for the title.
Molly Hart got the team off to a superb start, earning first team all-league status as she won the 3,000-meter run in a personal-best 11 minutes, 12.49 seconds.
Anything seemed possible as the Lakers’ fourth-seeded 4×400 won the league title in a season-best time of 4:27.35. Molly Dolan (1:06.8) led off the team followed by Melanie Michael and Ainsly Schug before Peyton Basic (best of 1:04.8) anchored them to victory.
Ava Hartley took six seconds off her previous best time in the 1,000-meter run, earning third place in a sectional qualifying time of 3:18.06. Nadia Segall also scored as she placed sixth in 3:34.02 in her first time ever running the event
Sprinters Chloe Smith and Savannah Johnson kept the momentum as they scored more points than expected in the 55- meter dash. Smith’s season best, state qualifier-eligible time of 7.68 placed third while Johnson placed sixth at 7.77.
Grace Dolan had one of the most dramatic and outstanding performances of the meet in the 600 meter run.
Seeded third behind two Westhill runners, Dolan ran the first lap in a blistering 34 seconds, held off her rivals in the second lap and dug deep to run a 35.7-second final lap to place first in a personal best time of 1:47.90.
Molly Hart added to her point total with a fourth place in the 1,500-meter run, with Claire Braaten also running well but falling just short of scoring position. Both runners had to bounce back from the 3,000 earlier in the meet, a grueling combination.
The Cazenovia 55-meter hurdlers did even better than their pre-race seedings as Melanie Michael earned second team all-league honors with a 9.62-second effort. Lili Gavitt surged past a Westhill competitor to capture fourth in a season best time of 9.86.
One race later, Johnson earned fourth place in the 300-meter dash in 44.88 seconds, holding off a Warrior challenger by .11 seconds at the finish.
The Lakers finished their efforts on the track with two more dramatic relay races. The 4×800 team of Basic, Hartley (best of 2:38.1), Carley Lounsbury (best of 2:39.2) and Julia Reff earned third with a nine-second improvement on their season best at 10:46.19.
Then the fourth-seeded 4×200 team smashed expectations as they surpassed rivals Westhill and Skaneateles to finish second with a season-best 1:51.31. Dolan led off with a quick 28.7 second leg followed by Riley Knapp (27.9), Chloe Smith (27.6) and Johnson (26.9), all season bests, as they earned second team all-league honors.
Claire Edwards led the team in the field as she earned all-league recognition with a second-place 30 feet 6 ½ inch 30-6.5 effort in the shot put. Lily Sorbello added a season best of 23’3 1/4” in the shot and a 26’2” performance in the weight throw while Quinlan Emhoff had a personal best of 26’5 1/4” in the weight.
Consistency and focus were the Lakers’ keys to success in the vertical jumps. Gavitt cleared 4’8” on her first attempt in the high jump to earn all-league and second place based on fewer misses than her opponents.
Lounsbury (third) and Christina Brown (fourth) followed suit in the pole vault as each cleared 7’6” on their first attempt to earn ten points for the team. Chloe Smith led the team in the horizontal jumps, hitting 15’4” in the long jump for fourth place.
Despite falling short of their goal of an upset win, the Lakers’ combination of gutsy efforts and outstanding performances in the league championship positions them well for the Section III Class B-2 title meet this Saturday, also at SRC Arena.
