Originally, the Cazenovia girls track and field team’s meet against Skaneateles was set for mid-April, at the start of both teams’ OHSL Liberty National division slate. But they agreed to move it back, and that move gave the meet much higher stakes.
By the time the two Lakers sides finally got together on Monday afternoon at Buckley-Volo Field, both of them were 3-0 in league meets, so whoever won here would take a giant step toward the eventual title.
And it was Cazenovia taking those strides, maintaining its long win streak by turning back Skaneateles 83-58 with a superlative all-around effort.
It started in field events, where Cazenovia won five of six titles. Hannah Dain, in the discus, threw it 72 feet 11 3/4 inches, and in the shot her throw of 26’8″ beat teammate Lizzy Bigsby by four inches.
Ashley Kent made her mark in the triple jump, going 32’1″, while Tori Fischer topped 4’8″ for a victory in the high jump. Liz Pittman, prevailing in the pole vault, cleared 8 feet, while Glenna Kehelan (7 feet) finished second.
Moving to the oval, Kent won a tight 100-meter hurdles battle with Skaneateles’ Raenah Campbell, though both finished in 16.5 seconds, ahead of Bigsby (17.0 seconds) in third place. Kent and Bigsby joined Ashley Winn and Jess Macheda as they beat Skaneateles, 52.2 seconds to 52.6, in the 4×100 relay.
Continuing her sprint domination, Winn went 12.2 seconds in the 100-meter dash, and went on to take the 200-meter dash in 26.5 seconds. Moving to the 4×400 relay, Winn, joined by Megan Stanford, Maria Stalder and Evelyn Wells, earned another victory in 4:20.4, Winn coming from behind in the anchor leg to put her side in front.
Two of the distance running events were close, but Jeanette Cudney pulled out the 800-meter run with a time of 2:29.2 to hold off Skaneateles’ Madeline Adams (2:30.5), while Malone Gabor, in 5:30.7, finished second to Skaneateles’ Kaitlyn Neal (5:28.0) in the 1,500-meter run.
Yet it was Cazenovia starting off its relay sweep in the 4×800, where Stanford, Cudney, Colleen Stalder and Maureen Milmoe put up 10:02.5 to fight off Skaneateles (10:03.9) and begin the march to another potential league title.
The league title was officially locked up on Wednesday, against Hannibal, where with a 110-31 victory the Lakers ran its meet win streak to 32 in a row.
Cudney won all three distance races, taking the 800 (2:32.5), 1,500 (5:09.6) and 3,000 (11:49.0) as Colleen Stalder and Wolsey completed a 1-2-3 sweep in the 800. Winn went a bit slower in the 100 (12.3 seconds) and a bit faster in the 200 (26.4 seconds) and claimed them both as Kent went 33’9” in the triple jump and 16.8 seconds to take the 100 hurdles.
Pittman (pole vault), Fischer (high jump), Dain (shot put) and Hannah Eberle (discus) all won events, too, while the sweep of the 4×100 (52.7 seconds), 4×400 (4:29.3) and 4×800 (10:27.0) relays included Winn, Kent, Bigsby, Stanford, Wolsey, Evelyn Wells, Maria Stalder and Colleen Stalder.
At that same meet, Cazenovia’s boys team lost, 99-42, to Hannibal, though Cameron Braathen swept the shot put (45’10”) and discus (114 feet) and Tyler Dunkle had a 17-foot long jump. Ryan O’Herien added a 100-meter title in 12 seconds flat as the Warriors’ Jordan Skipworth led his side with wins in the 110 hurdles, triple jump and high jump.
