Just as it had the week before, the Cazenovia girls indoor track and field team would find itself competing in two important meets in a 48-hour span.
To start with, the Lakers had its first confrontation with the stars of the CNY Counties League and Onondaga High School League during Wednesday night’s George Constantino Memorial Invitational at Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena.
Cazenovia fared quite well, picking up 45 points to claim fourth place in a 23-team field, just six points behind second-place Liverpool (51 points). Class AA power Fayetteville-Manlius prevailed with 90 points.
As she did last winter, Ashley Winn proved to be the best sprinter in the whole crowd. Claiming the 55-meter dash, Winn crossed the line in 7.42 seconds, beating Mexico’s Chelsea Beshures by a comfortable margin of 0.18 seconds.
Though Clare Costello was 10th in that sprint, she fared better in the 300-meter dash, rising to third place in 43.91 seconds. Winn nearly got the title here, too, as he posted 41.93 seconds, just inches behind Liverpool’s Ore Akinpelu, who prevailed in 41.85 seconds.
Over in the 55-meter hurdles, Ashley Kent had a strong showing, as he posted 9.41 seconds, putting her in second place, though Pulaski’s Breann Burns roared ahead of the field to win in 8.70 seconds.
Moving to distance events, Jeanette Cudney got six points, including a fourth-place time of 10:56.19 in the 3,000-meter run as she also made her way to fifth place in the 1,500-meter run, breaking the five-minute mark as she finished in 4:57.24.
Liz Pittman contended in field events, rising to fourth place in the pole vault with a clearance of 8 feet and adding a fifth-place long jump of 15 feet 1 3/4 inches. Kent took seventh (31′ 1/4″) in the triple jump, just missing the points, as Tori Fischer tied for eighth in the high jump.
Emily Willard, Sarah Willard, Evelyn Wells and Jessie Matt were sixth in the 4×200 relay in 1:57.12. Samantha Gates was ninth in the 600-meter run, and the Lakers were eighth in the 4×800 relay (11:03.38) and ninth in the 4×400 relay.
