Both Skaneateles track and field teams had plenty of reasons to feel good after the wins they earned during Thursday’s Section III state qualifying meet at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium.
At the same C-NS oval where the state meet takes place next weekend, the Lakers earned team and individual honors in the Division II (small school) portion.
Kaela Fiutak earned another victory in the girls Division II pole vault. In fact, Fiutak’s clearance of 10 feet 9 inches tied her season-best mark and was the top effort in either division, as the Division I champion, Jessica Wheeler (Cicero-North Syracuse, only cleared 9’6, and runner-up Sara Young (South Lewis) cleared 10 feet.
The same held true for Khiary Gayle in the boys triple jump. By leaping exactly 47 feet, Gayle got past the Division II field by a wide margin was nearly two feet better than Division I champion Chris Simmons (Utica Proctor), who went 45’ ¼”. West Canada Valley’s Jack Minasi was second (45’4”) on the Division II side as Gayle added a seventh in the long jump.
Madeline Adams would emerge as the victor in the girls Division II 3,000-meter run. With a time of 10:26.20, Adams beat Fabius-Pompey’s Erin McConnell by 3.67 seconds.
Taylor Woodruff, Erin Tonzi, Anna Barnett and Courtney Pitman worked their way to a victory in the 4×400 relay, pulling away from South Lewis in the homestretch in a time of four minutes, 10.02 seconds as the Falcons (4:11.11) took second.
Tonzi and Woodruff teamed with Madeline Adams and Jenn DeRosa to take third (9:58.03) in the 4×800 relay, while the quartet of Ethan Johanns, Max Weiss, J.J. Gregg and Matt Clymer worked their way to fifth in the boys 4×400 in 3:36.90.
J.J. Gregg needed 52.54 seconds to gain fourth place in the 400-meter dash. Malik Merritt, in the boys 200-meter dash, made his way to fifth place in 23.66 seconds, and also was fifth (11.55 seconds) in the 100-meter dash. Taylor Weyneth took sixth (16.56 seconds) in the 110 high hurdles.
