Now it was time for Cazenovia’s indoor track and field teams to branch out, especially after the girls Lakers had locked up a fifth consecutive Mohawk Valley Indoor Track Association title on Jan. 17 at Colgate University.
Moving to Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena, the girls Lakers met the elite teams in the CNY Counties League and Onondaga High School League in last Thursday’s Fred Kirschenheiter Memorial Invitational.
And it turned out quite well, the Lakers picking up 29 points, better than the likes of Baldwinsville and Jamesville-DeWitt, and fourth overall, with Skaneateles (17 points) the closest small-school entry. Fayetteville-Manlius took the top spot with 89.5 points, with the Lakers just missing out on points with a series of seventh-place finishes.
Contending in the 4×200 relay, Cazenovia’s quartet of Sarah Willard, Jessie Matt, Olivia McEntee and Clare Costello finished in a time of 1:52.05, putting them second to Baldwinsville, who won in 1:50.08, nearly two seconds ahead of the Lakers.
Cazenovia had another runner-up finish in the 4×400 relay, where Matt, Mcentee, Willard and Megan Henderson finished in 4:25.94, though it was far from Homer’s winning time of 4:17.91.
Individually, Jeanette Cudney rose to third place in the 3,000-meter run in 11:12.74, not far from the winning 11:10.46 posted by F-M’s Reilly Madsen.
Liz Pittman rose to third place in the pole vault, clearing 8 feet, and had her own seventh-place effort, in the triple jump with 31’11 ¼”, an inch from sixth place, while Hannah Light-Olson (30’8 ¼”) finished eighth.
Molly Carges took sixth in the 55-meter hurdles in 9.87 seconds as Delaney Yates was 15th, while Costello was seventh in both the 55-meter dash (7.84 seconds) and 300-meter dash (44.65 seconds), missing points in the 55 sprint by one-hundredth of a second. Carges and Tori Fischer, each clearing 4’6”, tied for 10th in the high jump.
Cudney, Henderson, Willard and Grace Milmoe were seventh in the 4×800 relay in 10:34.82, inches behind West Genesee (10:34.58) for a points spot. Jessica Macheda got to 12th place in the long jump. Henderson was 13th in the 1,500-meter run in 5:14.10, while Milmoe took 13th in the 1,000-meter run. Hannah Dain took 15th in the shot put and Mya Walters was 16th in the 3,000.
Before that, the boys Lakers had its turn in the Kirschenheiter meet last Thursday night, with modest results.
Cazenovia’s best finish came in the 4×200 relay, where the quartet of Alex Devine, Casey Fenton, Will Fellows and Ryan O’Herien put up a time of 1:40.86 and got sixth place, less than three seconds behind F-M, who prevailed in 1:38.08.
Fenton made his way to 15th place in the triple jump, going 36’7 ¼”. Fellows, on his own, was 20th in the 600-meter run, while Reed Lucas got 22nd in the shot put, Derek White was 24th in the 300 sprint and Teo Lang got 26th place in the long jump.
For Chittenango, Joe Fanto needed 7.01 seconds to finish eighth in the 55 sprint. Isaac Czarnecki gained ninth place in the 3,200-meter run in 10:41.38. Mike Capeling was 17th in the mile in 5:01.12 as he, along with Czarnecki, Ben Seale and Kenny Galbraith, were 13th (9:39.39) in the 4×800 as Martin Boyd was 17th (5’2”) in the high jump.
