As a mid-season highlight, the Skaneateles girls track and field team got to co-host a meet Saturday with its neighbors from Marcellus, using the Mustangs’ track as a home venue.
Not content with those hosting duties, the Lakers also gained some victories, including the 4×800 relay, where the quartet of seniors Erin Tonzi and Courtney Pitman, plus sophomore Madeline Adams and freshman Jenn DeRosa, claimed victory in 10 minutes, 4.11 seconds, more than 11 seconds ahead of runner-up Tully.
On an individual basis, senior Kaela Fiutak struck again, in the pole vault. Fiutak cleared 10 feet 6 inches, just as she had done at Cazenovia three days earlier, to tie her own Section III-best effort this spring. Fiutak also helped Ashley Bonocore, Nikki Cole and Grace Delasin to sixth in the 4×100 relay.
Then Tonzi went out in the triple jump and, by going 32’6”, won by a comfortable margin over Tully’s Zoe Guttendorf (31’7 ¾”) as Fiutak took seventh place. In the 4×400 relay, Tonzi, Pitman, Taylor Woodruff and Anna Barnett got to third place in 4:24.55.
Adams beat most of the field in the 2,000-meter steeplechase, crossing the line in 7:42.78, beaten only by Cicero-North Syracuse’s Jacqlynn Halstead, who won in 7:25.30.
Though just an eighth-grader, Kaitlyn Neal impressed in the 1,500-meter run, getting second place in 5:03 flat as C-NS’s Katie Laris won in 4:59.74. Then Neal took third place in the 800-meter run in a clocking of 2:34.20.
Sophomore Taylor Woodruff, in the 400-meter dash, got second (1:02.81) to South Jefferson’s Skylar Pastor (1:00.86), and in the 200-meter dash she again was the runner-up, in 26.81 seconds to Pastor’s 26.61. Rachel Baker was sixth in the shot put.
Meanwhile, Khiary Gale led the way for Skaneateles as it got a sixth-place finish in a 22-team field at the Chittenango Invitational with 32 points, just one point behind Westhill/Bishop Ludden and Indian River, who tied for fourth.
Gale won the triple jump, his leap of 42 feet 4 inches nearly two feet better than Zhengyue Zhu (Fayetteville-Manlius). Malik Merritt got to third in the 200-meter dash in 24.06 seconds and fourth (11.52 seconds) in the 100-meter dash.
Matt Short, Max Weiss, J.J. Gregg and Matt Clymer were fourth in the 4×400 relay in 3:45.64, with Sam Goodell, Dan Wolfanger, Max Dwyer and Nick Smolenski fourth (47.64 seconds) in the 4×100 relay.
Carson Schwab got to fourth in the pole vault, clearing 11 feet. Hunter Dicksinson was eighth in the discus and Gregg got ninth in the 400-meter dash.
