Each of the Skaneateles indoor track and field teams would emerge from the Onondaga High School League Division 2 championship meets at SRC Arena with strong finishes.
For the girls Lakers, the meet ended up resembling the Section III Class B meet, in that it did quite well on Thursday night, finishing second with 83.5 points, but again found itself trailing Cazenovia, who earned the championship with 153.5 points.
Kaitlyn Neal still dominated the 3,000-meter run, putting up a time of 10 minutes, 29.70 seconds to pull away from Cazenovia’s Jeanette Cudney (11:16.68) and the rest of the field. Then, in the 1,500-meter run, Madeline Adams won big in 5:01.79, with Cazenovia’s Megan Henderson (5:18.25) far back in the second spot.
Skaneateles also prevailed in the 4×400 relay, where the quartet of Julia Willcox, Olivia Gage, Taylor Woodruff and Aubreah Lynn prevailed in a thriller with Cazenovia, hanging on at the end to finish in 4:20.79 to the other Lakers’ 4:20.92.
Going two-for-two in relays, Skaneateles also won in the 4×200, where Gage and Woodruff, joined by Amanda Wetmore and Katelyn Ellison, got a time of 1:52.20, again with Cazenovia (1:54.27) claiming the second spot.
Alana Navaroli needed a throw of 31 feet 10 ½ inches to win the shot put, with no other competitor close as Tully’s Ally Snyder (27’11”) was second. Navaroli also gained fourth place in the triple jump with a top leap of of 27’6 ¼”.
Keely Gregg cleared 7’6” to finish second to Cazenovia’s Liz Pittman (8 feet) in the pole vault. Willcox, in 1:49.51, finished second to Cazenovia’s Samantha Gates (1:47.35) in the 600-meter run. Wetmore gained third place in the 55-meter dash in 7.70 seconds, while Woodruff took third (14’5 ½”) in the long jump and Lynn was fifth (4’4”) in the high jump.
A night earlier, the boys Lakers rose all the way to third place in an 11-team field l, with 66 points, just behind runner-up Tully (69 points), though both of them would trail Jordan-Elbridge, whose 104 points produced a league title.
Skaneateles won two of the three relay races. First, in the 4×400, Connor Hill, Griffin Lawson, Cooper Watt and Patrick Biver finished in three minutes, 40.60 seconds, routing the field as Tully, in 3:54.51, was nearly 14 seconds behind in the second spot.
Of course, the 4×200 relay would be closer, but the Lakers still won it as Hill, Biver, Lawson and Cooper Watt teamed up for a time of 1:36.86, leaving Cazenovia (1:40.76), who finished second, nearly four seconds back.
Not content with his relay efforts, Hill also won on his own, in the 300-meter dash, as his time of 37.76 seconds beat Tully’s Ross Kennedy (39.22 seconds) by 1.46 seconds. Biver finished fourth in 39.70 seconds.
Andrew Weiss earned a victory in the long jump, going 17 feet 9 ½ inches to hold off J-E’s Tyler Jackson (17’6 ¾”) as Lawson made his way to third place with a top leap of 17’6 ¼”.
Sepp Martin, in the shot put, threw it 39 feet 4 inches, getting to second place behind CBA’s Connor Agnew (44’6”), as Martin’s teammate, Zach Schneider, had a fourth-place throw of 38’7 ¾”. Watt made his way to fourth place in the 600-meter run in 1:32.05. Joe Capozza was eighth in the 1,000-meter run with a time of 3:17.53.
Many of these top Skaneateles athletes head back to SRC Arena next Wednesday night for the Section III state qualifier, looking for spots in the March 1 state meet at Cornell University’s Barton Hall.
