To end what has been a successful winter campaign, the Skaneateles girls indoor track and field team will send some of its best to Saturday’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championship meet at Cornell University.
Getting there required wins or high finishes at Monday’s state qualifier, an event pushed back four days after the Feb. 26-27 winter snowstorm.
That long wait did not affect the girls Lakers’ 4×400 relay team as Eileen Ford, Cassie Berg, Emma Ford and Victoria Sakal beat the field, including large-school opponents, with a time of 4:08.51. Skaneateles finished nearly two seconds ahead of Jamesville-DeWitt (4:10.33) at the wire.
Sakal, Berg, Emma Ford and Eileen Ford nearly won the 4×200 relay, too, taking second place in 1:52.63 behind Rome Free Academy (1:48.01). Carly Strods was ninth in the 600-meter run in 1:44.91.
Moving on to that state meet on Saturday, the Lakers’ quartet of Sakal, Berg and the two Fords finished second in its heat in a time of 4:12.19 to advance to the finals, where it ended up in eighth place in 4:13.63. Garden City won in 4:01.96.
Back in the boys state qualifier, Calvin Davis met the state qualifying standard in the 1,000-meter run, finishing in 2:35.13 (the mark to beat was 2:35.24). Overall, Davis was third, just behind Marcellus’ Jesse Garn (2:34.46) as Liverpool’s Zavon Watkins won in 2:33.75.
Sean Cooper came within one placement of going to the state meet, as he was third in 8.25 seconds, just behind Oneida’s Mike Rabbitt (8.11 seconds) for that transfer spot. Tim Lewis was sixth in the high jump, clearing 5 feet 10 inches.
