Make that two big wins in as many weeks for the Chittenango girls indoor track and field team.
On Presidents’ Day, the Bears reigned at the Onondaga High School League Freedom division championships at Manley Field House.
Exactly one week after claiming the Section III Class A title, Chittenango had a closer contest with Jamesville-DeWitt for the league crown. The Bears needed 116 points to fend off the Red Rams, who were second with 102 points. Phoenix, with 52 points, was far back in third place.
As they had done all season, the senior duo of Michelle Brandt and Marshay Zamlowski stood out, and the Bears also won a pair of relays, too.
Brandt first prevailed in the 3,000-meter run, recording a time of 11:16.66 that beat Phoenix’s Erika Nuffer by more than half a minute.
Later, in the 1,500-meter run, Brandt and J-D’s Eileen Cody engaged in a remarkable duel, nearly hitting the line at the same time. When the results went up, Brandt, in 4:59.06, had beaten Cody (4:59.07) by one-hundredth of a second.
Zamlowski, for her part, repeated her sectional triumphs in field events, taking the long jump with 16 feet 8 1/2 inches and the triple jump by going 34 feet 3 1/4 inches. In the 55-meter dash, Zamlowski was second (7.86 seconds) to Fowler’s Asia Whitehead, who won in 7.74 seconds.
Adding to this win total, Jessica Darling tossed the shot put 29 feet 4 3/4 inches to take first place, while Kristina Gorden edged past J-D’s Emily Whalen (10.26 seconds to 10.31) to prevail in the 55-meter hurdles.
Brandt teamed up with Jordan Donnelly, Bethany Macera and Kelly Anderson to post a winning time of 10:39.82 in the 4×800 relay as Phoenix (10:51.39) took runner-up honors. In the 4×400, the Bears’ quartet of Gorden, Christine Stoddard, Alyssa Giarosso and Kailey Krause posted a time of 4:28.93 that beat J-D (4:31.62) by nearly three seconds.
Macera also finished third in the 600-meter run in 1:48.85, while Giarosso (47.47 seconds) and Stoddard (47.72 seconds) were fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 300-meter dash.
Brandt, Zamlowski and the rest of the Bears will be featured competitors Wednesday night when the state qualifying meet is held at Manley, determining who will get to be at the state meet March 8 at Cornell University in Ithaca.
