Refreshed from a two-week hiatus, the Cazenovia indoor track and field teams roared into 2015 displaying the same winning form it showed at the end of 2014.
In the fourth edition of the Mohawk Valley Indoor Track Association Partner Relays Friday at Colgate University’s Sanford Field House, the Lakers won both the girls and boys titles by comfortable margins.
Cazenovia’s girls had 101 points, pulling away from Clinton, who was second with 75 points and edged out Rome Free Academy (74 points) for that runner-up spot.
Again, Clara Rowles was victorious, beating the field in the 1,500-meter run in 5:05.05 and, with Megan Henderson (fourth, 5:13.53) pulling away for first place on the team side in 10:18.58. In the 3,000-meter run, Rowles and Henderson finished second, in 23:28.41, to Canastota’s 23:00.36.
Grace Milmoe followed by claiming first in the 1,000-meter run in 3:15.34, with Zoe Shephard third and the Lakers, in 6:44.10, pulling away from New Hartford (6:58.64), just as in the 1,500.
Though second among individuals in the 55-meter hurdles (9.93 seconds) to RFA’s Sophie Henderson (9.75 seconds), Ashley Kent still paired with Delaney Yates to win that event in a combined 20.11 seconds to Clinton’s 20.39.
Samantha Gates, second in the 600-meter run in 1:49.76 to New Hartford’s Katie Mercurio (1:46.41), won on the team side, paired with fourth-place Zoe Shephard as the Lakers, in 3:42.36, edged out the Spartans (3:42.54) in a close finish, with Chittenango (4:00.60) in fifth place. The Bears were also fifth in the 300-meter dash (1:34.33) and 1,000, plus sixth in the long jump.
In the triple jump, Kent was second among individuals, going 32 feet 2 inches, just behind New Hartford’s Maya Hammonds (32’7), and was second on the team side with Molly Carges, going 61’7 1/2″ to Clinton’s 62’2″ as Chittenango took fifth place. Kent and Jessica Macheda also took third (27 feet 9 1/2 inches) in the long jump.
Sarah Haley and Joanna Seeley were second in the shot put with throws of 54’8 3/4″, well behind RFA (72’4″), with Haley and Ryleigh Tillison fifth in the weight throw. Tori Fischer and Katie Robbins got second place (12’6″) to Clinton (13’6″) in the pole vault, with Fischer and Molly Carges third in the high jump by clearing 9 feet between them.
Clare Costello and Olivia McEntee got to third place in the 200-meter dash in a total of 57.19 seconds, with that same pair also third in the 300 (1:31.05). Costello and Macheda tied for fourth in the 55-meter dash in 16.35 seconds.
Though Cazenovia’s boys team didn’t produce as many points in its portion of the MVITA meet, it still had 88 points, plenty to get past runner-up West Canada Valley (65 points) and the rest of the field. Chittenango was sixth with 26 points.
The two neighbors battled for supremacy in the 1,000, but the Lakers won thanks to Sean Satchwell’s individual title in 2:51.70 as he and Austin Koennecke, in a combined 5:51.26, pulled away from the Bears’ Mike Capeling and Phillip Abell, who were second in 6:03.14. Koennecke and Satchwell took third in the 600 in 3:12.46, where Chittenango (3:15.53) claimed fifth place.
Once more, Walker Nichols put on a show. He won the 55 hurdles in 8.51 seconds, holding off RFA’s Mike Brognano (8.62 seconds) as part of a fourth-place team finish with Christian Winkler in 19.32 seconds.
But in the long jump, where Nichols, with a leap of 19’10”, finished a close second to RFA’s Brian Slaughter (19’11”), Cazenovia won as Nichols and Casey Fenton (fifth) went 37’5 1/2″ between them, with West Canada (36’2″) ahead of the Black Knights for second place.
And when Nichols cleared 5’6″ and won the high jump, that led to 10 more Cazenovia points since Fenton cleared 5’4″, and the Lakers’ 10’10” beat Clinton’s 10’6″. Will Huftalen, clearing 8’6″ in the pole vault, earned fourth-place points all by himself.
From there, Fenton went on to the triple jump, where he was second in 40’3″ to West Canada’s Zach Crim (40’5 1/2″) and Alex Devine was third in 38’5″, leading to another Lakers victory in 78’8″, more than six feet ahead of West Canada.
Devine and Ryan O’Herien were second (14.34 seconds) to RFA (14.08) in the 55 sprint. Devine paired with Cooper Coleman to get to third place in the 200 (51.48 seconds), with O’Herien and Dylan Hahn fourth in the 300 in 1:21.98.
Dustin Hammond, paired with Sawyer Hunt, helped the Lakers to second place (73’6″) behind RFA (78’4″ in the weight throw, while Hunt and Reed Lucas made it to third place in the shot put, with total throws of 74’7 1/4″.
For the Bears, the other top finishes came in the two other distance events. During the mile, Capeling and Abell were second in 10:04.81, only trailing RFA’s 9:47.91, while Isaac Czarnecki and Will Blanding were second in the 3,200-meter run in 22:05.15 to West Canada’s 21:49.10, where Satchwell and Sean McPherson put the Lakers in fifth place.
