Determined to establish itself as the favorite in the Onondaga High School League Liberty division, the Skaneateles girls track and field team had little trouble with Jordan-Elbridge last Wednesday afternoon, putting together a 112-27 victory over the Eagles.
It helped the Lakers to sweep all three relay events, starting in the 4×800, where Morel Malcolm, Emily Norris, Maria Schillace and Jillian Van Leer went 11 minutes, 59.5 seconds for a first-place finish.
And that spread to the 4×100 relay, where Katelyn Ellison, Taylor Woodruff, Amanda Wetmore and Laurel Parker won in 51.8 seconds. To cap it off, Woodruff, joined by Raenah Campbell, Olivia Gage and Shannon Roberts, finished first in the 4×400 relay in 4:24.2.
Campbell stood out on an individual basis, going 16.5 seconds to dominate the 100-meter hurdles, beating the field by more than three seconds, before she went 1:09.6 to pull away in the 400-meter hurdles. Gage contributed a 400-meter dash victory in 1:05.1, holding off teammate Aubreah Lynn (1:05.4) for that title.
Wetmore, in 13.5 seconds, edged J-E’s Julie Hines (13.6 seconds) to win the 100-meter dash, with Van Leer (13:59.3) and Norris (13:59.4) running together in the 3,000-meter classic as Kaitlyn Neal prevailed in the 1,500-meter run in 5:11 flat, with Julia Willcox (5:18.2) second.
Not only did Van Leer take the 3,000, she also had the top triple jump of 28 feet 11 ½ inches, with Keely Gregg in second place. Gregg was also second to Megan Molnar (7’6”) in the pole vault as Makyala Dickensen won the shot put (23’3”) and was second to Katherine Carlile (67’6”) in the discus.
On Saturday, the Skaneateles girls team co-hosted its own invitational meet with Marcellus, though it was contested at the Mustangs’ home track, and would play a starring role.
In the 4×800 relay, the Lakers’ quartet of Adams, Willcox, Liz Dwyer and Kaitlyn Neal did not just win the race, they did so in a meet-record nine minutes, 55.92 seconds, beating the field more than half a minute (Tully was second in 10:28.05) and automatically qualifying for the June 6-7 state meet, to take place at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium.
Later in the meet, the Lakers prevailed again in a relay. This time, it was the 4×400, where Woodruff, Gage, Roberts and eighth-grader Mia Grasso got to the finish line in 4:08.88, leaving runner-up West Genesee (4:13.65) nearly five seconds behind them.
In the 4×100, Wetmore, Ellison, Parker and Woodruff were second, in 52.06, as Corcoran (51.58 seconds) claimed the top spot.
Neal, on her own, engaged in yet another great duel with Marcellus’ Rachel Garn in the 3,000-meter run, nearly hitting the line together – but Neal, in 10:20.06, held off Garn (10:20.68) for that top spot.
Adams worked to a time of 2:24.76 in the 800, trailing only East Syracuse-Minoa’s Natalie Marra, who won in 2:23.97 as Dwyer finished 15th.
Wetmore, in 13.78 seconds, qualified for the 100-meter final, where she nearly won it, improving to 13.54 seconds and just behind Baldwinsville’s Rebecca Lawrence, who won in 13.46 seconds. Gregg cleared 8 feet in the pole vault and finished fourth, with Molnar ninth.
Grasso got to sixth in the 200 in 27.99 seconds, adding a 10th-place long jump of 13’10 ¼”. Lynn was eighth in the 400 sprint in 1:05.01, with Willcox in 12th place as Lynn also got to 10th place in the high jump. Malcolm had an eighth-place time of 8:19.51 in the 2,000-meter steeplechase, while Carlile was 14th in the discus.
