With relative ease, the Skaneateles girls track and field team sprinted to a 2-0 start within the Onondaga High School League’s Liberty division.
In the first of four weekly league meets Wednesday afternoon, the Lakers went to Jordan-Elbridge and knocked off the host Eagles 93-39 while, at the same time, rolling past Westhill/Bishop Ludden 103-39.
Skaneateles based its points on claiming four of six field events, led again by Kaela Fiutak, who took the pole vault by clearing 9 feet.
Mary Buck was first in the high jump as she cleared 4’6”. Erin Tonzi edged Fiutak by two inches in the triple jump with a best attempt of 29’11 ½”, with Taylor Woodruff going 14’10” to win the long jump, leaving Fiutak second and Nikki Cole in third place. Rachel Baker earned second place in the shot put.
Tonzi would win twice, going 1:05.9 to beat the field in the 400-meter dash, while Woodruff held off fellow Laker Molly McCarthy, 13.5 seconds to 13.7, in the 100-meter sprint. McCarthy also was second to J-E’s Rachel Scott in the 200-meter dash in 28.8 seconds.
Also on the oval, Kaitlyn Neal earned a 3,000-meter victory in 11 minutes, 12 seconds, while Madeline Adams got second (2:24.8) to Westhill/Ludden star Betsy Black (2:24.1) in the 800-meter run. Alex Clark, in 19.8 seconds, got past J-E’s Courtney Hourigan (20 seconds flat) and won the 100-meter hurdles.
Skaneateles would split its season-opening boys meet, beating Jordan-Elbridge 77.5-63.5, but taking an 80-61 defeat to Westhill/Ludden.
Three times, Khiary Gale would win in field events. He went 46 feet 4 inches in the triple jump, recorded a top long jump of 19’4” and cleared 5’6” in the high jump with fewer misses than J-E’s Jake Pritchard.
Meanwhile, Malik Merritt earned a victory in the 200-meter dash in 23.3 seconds, finishing a close second (11.4 seconds) to Westhill/Ludden’s Corey Wilkinson (11.3 seconds) in the 100 sprint.
This led to a busy and exciting weekend for the Lakers as both the girls and boys sides would have strong showings at large-scale meets.
For the girls, this meant going to Friday’s Tully Invitational and seeing Adams win the 3,000, her time of 10:33.46 enough to beat Fabius-Pompey’s Erin McConnell by 1.57 seconds as Kaitlyn Neal finished sixth.
Kaela Fiutak, in the pole vault, cleared 9 feet, but South Lewis’ Sara Young cleared 9’6” to win.
Taylor Woodruff roared to fifth place in the 400 sprint in 1:01.20, with Anna Barrett in 11th place. Tonzi joined in by taking fifth in the 800 in 2:30.17 and fifth (31’3”) in the triple jump, with Baker seventh in the shot put. Liz Dwyer got ninth in the regular 1,500 and Virginia Hamiln second (5:42.25) in the novice portion.
Skaneateles saw its boys team make noise in Saturday’s John Arcaro Relays at Baldwinsville, picking up 21 points to take ninth in a 12-team field.
Nearly half of those points came in the triple jump, where Gale flew 45’8” for the top individual total and, with Patrick Biver, won with a combined 79’6”, nearly 13 feet ahead of the field.
Taylor Weyneth went for the pentathlon and picked up 2,415 points in the five events, leaving him in third place, not far from Indian River’s Will Moran, who won with 2,601 points. The Lakers were also fourth in the 4×400 (3:49.95), fifth in the 4×100 and sixth in the 4×200.
