Each of the stars on the Skaneateles indoor track and field team found themselves heading back to SRC Arena one more time this winter for last Wednesday night’s Section III state qualifier.
Only the top two finishers in each event were guaranteed possible berths in next Saturday’s state meet, which will be held again at Cornell University’s Barton Hall.
Knowing this, sophomore Kaitlyn Neal went to the 3,000-meter run and gave it an all-out effort. Her time of 10 minutes, 24.87 seconds put Neal in third place behind Fayetteville-Manlius teammates Alana Pearl (10:08.32) and Jenna Farrell (10:20.01), with Neal just missing the state standard of 10:21.14 that a third qualifier would need.
Madeline Adams, competing in the 1,500-meter run, could not quite keep up with the stars in the field, but still managed to get sixth place in 5:04.82, which was under the qualifying standard of 5:05.24. F-M’s Annika Avery (4:41.19) beat West Genesee’s Laura Leff (4:46.86) for the top spot.
Skaneateles also brought its 4×200 relay team to the qualifier, which did quite well, altering the Lakers’ record books.
Amanda Wetmore, Katelyn Ellison, Olivia Gage and Taylor Woodruff finished in a time of 1:50.30, which broke the school record of 1:51.78 set in 2004 and put them in third place, trailing Baldwinsville (1:48.70) and F-M (1:49.53), but not by much.
Alana Navaroli had a solid showing in the shot put, as her top throw of 31 feet 8 ¾ inches put her in fifth place, though far back of Rome Free Academy’s Mariah Mays, who won with 41’10 ¾”.
