All the preliminaries are cast aside, and this week the Cazenovia and Skaneateles girls track and field teams will face off to decide the OHSL Liberty division regular-season championship.
Both got through last Wednesday’s meets without any real drama. In Cazenovia’s case, it meant sweeping a home meet against Marcellus and Westhill, snatching most of the wins as it blasted the Mustangs 107-34 and the Warriors 106-35.
Fresh off her pentathlon win at the April 30 Chittenango Invitational, Paige Biviano claimed three titles here. She went 15 feet 10 inches in the long jump, cleared 4 feet 10 inches in the high jump and had a top time of 17 seconds flat in the 100-meter hurdles.
Ellen Burr had three wins of her own, throwing the shot put 29 feet 6 1/2 inches, unleashing a top triple jump of 30 feet 3 1/2 inches and covering the 400-meter dash in 1:04 flat. Burr joined Jillian Vogl, Hollie Marcelle and Margaret Wolsey as they won the 4×400 relay in 4:22.6.
Vogl endured the cold, windy conditions and posted wins in the 100-meter dash (13.2 seconds) and 200-meter dash (27.4 seconds) as she also helped Piper Gianforte, Anna Schultz and Audrey Bowers take the 4×100 relay in 54.8 seconds. Grace Eberle won the discus, throwing it 84 feet 10 1/2 inches.
Though Marcelle took second in the 800-meter run (2:28.9) and Jeanette Cudney was second in the 3,000-meter run (11:03.2), they both were on the winning 4×800 relay side (10:26.5) with Wolsey and Margaret Stanford.
As this went on, Skaneateles also stayed unbeaten in league competition, beating Solvay 95-45 and Hannibal 103-34, so the first-place clash is set at Skaneateles, with Jordan-Elbridge also participating.
Moving to the boys side, Cazenovia lost to Marcellus 88-53 and Westhill 106-35. The Mustangs and Warriors won most of the events, though Pat Dermody took the 3,200-meter run in 10:31.4.
The Warriors got double wins from Christian St. Amour (200, 400 sprints), Jack Honis (110 hurdles, 400 hurdles) and Corey Wilkinson (shot put discus), while the Mustangs’ Jesse Garn took the 800 and ran the mile in 4:45.7.
Cazenovia’s girls team made one more warm-up at Friday’s East Syracuse-Minoa Invitational, and won that event with 99.83 points, just ahead of Baldwinsville (98.83 points) and the rest of a 20-team field.
Again shining in multiple events, Biviano needed 16.41 seconds to hold off Henninger’s Deja Thomas (16.57) and take the 100 hurdles. Biviano went 16 feet 3 1/2 inches in the long jump, finishing second to Phoenix star Ashley Palmer (17 feet 4 1/4 inches), and was fourth (5 feet) in the high jump.
Burr won the shot put, throwing it 32 feet 8 1/2 inches to beat Cicero-North Syracuse’s Janae Price by more than two feet, and added a sixth in the triple jump. Marcelle ran to second in the 800 in 2:26.16, and helped the Lakers get fourth in the 4×400 relay (4:22.17) and fifth in the 4×800 (10:51.74). Cudney got fourth in the 2,000-meter steeplechase in 7:52.37.
Gianforte tied for second in the pole vault as she cleared 8 feet. Christie Tainter took third in the discus (72 feet 7 inches) as Eberle tied for seventh. Ashley Stec won the shot put portion of the pentathlon as Beth Marcelle also competed. Michelle Karker ran to fifth in the 3,000, with Rachel Grimm fifth in the 1,500.
