From distance running to field events to sprints, each of the Skaneateles indoor track and field teams had plenty of highlights during Thursday night’s Section III Class B championship meet at SRC Arena.
The girls Lakers, paced by freshman Kaitlyn Neal, picked up 92 points, topping everyone in the 11-team field except Cazenovia, who won with 132 points.
Neal started off the evening by pulling away in the 3,000-meter run, her time of 11 minutes, 5.05 seconds nearly half a minute ahead of Cazenovia’s Jeanette Cudney as Jennifer DeRosa (11:49.99) claimed third place.
Then, in the 1,500-meter run, Neal provided a carbon copy of the 3,000 as she won in 5:01.63, again topping Cudney, who was 5.27 seconds behind. Morel Malcolm (5:25.47) took fifth place.
This led to the 4×800 relay, where Neal offered a fitting cap to her evening, running the anchor leg as she joined Madeline Adams, Liz Dwyer and Maggie Dunn for a victory in 10:14.42, again leaving Cazenovia (10:32.71) in the runner-up spot.
Back in the 4×400 relay, Malcolm, teaming with Jane Gaffney, Aubreah Lynn and Julia Willcox, earned first place in 4:28.80, just enough to hold off Cazenovia (4:30.34) in yet another 1-2 Laker battle.
It was reversed, though, in the 300-meter dash, where Emma Ford roared to a time of 42.88 seconds, the best in the entire two-day sectional meet – except for Cazenovia’s Ashley Winn, who rallied past Ford in the closing stretch to win in 42.30 seconds.
Ford was also third (7.77 seconds) in the 55-meter dash behind Winn (7.41 seconds) and her Cazenovia teammate, Clare Costello (7.67), as Corinne LaFrance (7.85 seconds) was fifth. LaFrance, Willcox, Lynn and Ashley Bonocore took third place (2:00.87) in the 4×200 relay.
Adams made her way to third place in the 1,000-meter run in 3:11.09, with Dwyer (3:18.86) taking fourth place. Megan Molnar cleared 8 feet 6 inches to secure third place in the pole vault, while Malorie Olin was fourth in the shot put (25’9 1/4″) and Ford took fifth (4’7″) in the high jump. Natalie Roche was seventh in the triple jump and Jane Gaffney was seventh in the 600-meter run.
In the boys Class B meet, where Skaneateles finished ninth in a 12-team field with 28 points (Solvay won with 84 points), it was Carson Schwab again ruling in the pole vault.
Once Solvay’s Josh Marotti could not make it past 11 feet 6 inches, Schwab had the Class B title won. Now, to win the overall event, he had to wait out misses from Tully’s Noah Paccia and West Canada Valley’s George Youngs, each of whom were unable to clear 12 feet.
Schwab, too, missed on his first two attempts at 12′. But on his final try, Schwab cleared it to post the top individual performance. For good measure, he also topped 12’3″ and 12’6″ and, in the two-day sectional meet, fared better than all but one vaulter – Zach Liebmann (Jamesville-DeWitt), who cleared 13 feet a day earlier in the Class A championships.
Skaneateles also contended in the 4×200, where the quartet of Dan Wolfanger, Dan Stabile, Nick Smolenski and Patrick Biver made their way to second place in 1:39.04, just behind Hannibal, who won in 1:38.13. Earlier, in the 4×400, Wolfanger, Smolenski, Biver and Max Dwyer got to third place in 3:40.11.
Dan Sakal was right behind Schwab, earning fifth place as he cleared 9’6″, matching Nate Molnar’s finish in the shot put as Molnar threw it 41’8″. Connor Hurley was ninth in the triple jump, with Ari Hristoduolou getting 10th place in the long jump.
Schwab, Neal and the rest of the Skaneateles stars are back at SRC Arena next Wednesday for the Section III state qualifier, and the top finishers there advance to the March 2 state championship meet at Cornell University’s Barton Hall.
