Accustomed to finishing in front of the opposition all winter long, the Cazenovia girls indoor track and field team maintained that trend and, by doing so, won the Section III Class B championship Thursday night at Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena.
The fight at the top pitted two Laker sides, Cazenovia and Skaneateles, against each other. And with 128.5 points, Cazenovia got the best of it, leaving Skaneateles (91 points) in the runner-up spot as Clinton, with 76 points, claimed third place.
A big key to the outcome was Cazenovia winning two of the three relays, and finishing second in the other, adding up to 28 points. In the 4×400, Sarah Willard, Megan Henderson and Samantha Gates posted a time of four minutes, 22.17 seconds, prevailing as Skaneateles (4:28.37) took second place.
Then, in the 4×200, Claire Costello, Jessie Matt, Olivia McEntee and Sarah Willard won in a thriller, Willard edging out Skaneateles’ Taylor Woodruff at the line, Cazenovia finishing in 1:52.57 to Skaneateles’ 1:52.79. This came after Henderson, Gates, Jeanette Cudney and Colleen Stalder were second in the 4×800 relay in 10:31.41 to Skaneateles (10:21.21) in the top spot.
Remarkably, Cazenovia did not win any individual events, but they piled up second and third-place finishes in all the disciplines – sprints, distance running and field events – to pull away from Skaneateles and the field.
Liz Pittman spread our her efforts in several events, clearing 8 feet 6 inches for second place in the pole vault behind Clinton’s Hannah Shankman (9’6″), and getting second place in the triple jump with 33’5 1/2″, again with Shankman (33’9 1/2″) prevailing. Pittman got third place in the long jump, going 15’4 1/2″, to give her 22 individual points for the meet.
Ashley Kent, who was third in the triple jump (33’3 1/2″), also was third in the 55-meter hurdles in 10.03 seconds, and got to sixth place in the long jump with 14’6 1/4″. Jessica Macheda, with a long jump of 15’2 1/2″, was fourth in the long jump, finishing between Pittman and Kent.
Costello made her way to second place in the 300-meter dash in 43.79 seconds behind CBA’s Anna Schug (42.72 seconds), while Willard got third place in 44.75 seconds. Costello also was fifth (7.73 seconds) in the 55-meter dash.
Gates had her best showing in the 600-meter run, getting to second place in 1:48.50 as Jordan-Elbridge’s Abby Gugel (1:43.52) prevailed, with McEntee getting to third place in 1:48.58. Molly Carges, in 9.96 seconds, gained second place to Hannibal’s Taylor Dence (9.75 seconds) in the 55-meter hurdles.
Cudney gained third place in the 3,000-meter run in 11:26.10, with Grace Milmoe fifth in the 1,000-meter run in 3:26.35, just ahead of Stalder (3:28.23) in sixth place. Henderson got to fourth place in the 1,500-meter run in 5:10.15, while Cudney was fifth in 5:15.30.
Tori Fischer cleared 4’8″ and tied for fifth in the high jump, with Sarah Haley throwing the shot put 27’9″ for her own fifth-place finish, with Joanna Seeley (27’1 1/2″) sixth in the shot put.
Meanwhile, Cazenovia’s boys indoor track team had 17 points in its sectional Class B meet, getting its best finish in the 4×200, where Alex Devine, Ryan O’Herien, Casey Fenton and Will Fellows took third place in 1:39.50 as Skaneateles won in 1:37.47.
Fellows, O’Herien, Derek White and Sean Satchwell were fourth in the 4×400 in 3:51.51. Satchwell, who ran with Mitch Meigs, Brendan Coffey and Sean McPherson to get fifth place in the 4×800, was fifth in the mile in 5:05.53 as Devine took fifth place in the 55 sprint in 7.11 seconds. Fenton claimed sixth place in the triple jump with a 37-foot effort.
