School was closed in Skaneateles on Thursday – but that didn’t keep the Lakers’ indoor track and field teams from making their way to SRC Arena, and it didn’t keep Skaneateles from bringing home the boys Section III Class B championship.
In fact, the Lakers nearly pulled off a clean sweep. With 105 points, the Skaneateles boys held off Cazenovia (98 points) for the top spot, and while the girls finished third, its total of 88 points was just three behind Westhill-Bishop Ludden (91 points) and five back of Cazenovia, who won with 93 points.
By far, the biggest key to the boys sectional title for Skaneateles was winning all three relay races, giving itself 30 points to Cazenovia’s 20, and the winning margin overall was seven points.
It started in the 4×400, where Connor Hill, James Hackler, Cooper Watt and Nick Palmer finished in three minutes, 38.92 seconds, well clear of runner-up Clinton (3:47.11) and Cazenovia in third.
In the 4×800, Watt and Hackler, joined by Kai Soderberg and Steve Ciaccio, posted a time of 9:03.37, just enough to fend off Jordan-Elbridge (9:05.52) as, again, Cazenovia was third.
Finally, in the 4×200, Hill and Palmer paired up with Noah Cliff and Griffin Lawson and, together, helped Skaneateles post 1:37.86, leaving Cazenovia (1:39.17) again chasing them as those other Lakers finished second.
Individual victories were part of the equation, too. Skaneateles pulled off a 1-2-3 sweep in the 300-meter dash, where Hill won in 36.92 seconds, Lawson took second in 37.63 seconds and Palmer, in 38.26 seconds, made it to third place.
Tommy Hagen needed 7.01 seconds to edge Westhill-Ludden’s Matt McAnaney and Solvay’s Owen Ryan (each 7.02 seconds) and get first place in the 55-meter dash.
Hagen also was second (8.40 seconds) to Cazenovia’s Walker Nichols (8.05 seconds) in the 55-meter hurdles, and tacked on six more points in the long jump with a third-place leap of 19 feet 3 ¼ inches as Andrew Weiss (18’9 ¼”) was seventh.
In the high jump, Lawson and Eli Goodell tied for second place, each clearing 5’8” to finish behind Cazenovia’s Walker Nichols, who won with 5’10”. Zach Schneider had a third-place shot put throw of 42’4 ½”. Watt took third place in the 600-meter run in 1:29.93, with Hackler (1:34.47) in sixth place.
Skaneateles also did well in relays on the girls side. The 4×400 quartet of Olivia Gage, Brady Iles, Shannan Roberts and Maddie Peterson posted a time of 4:23.33, more than four seconds ahead of runner-up Clinton (4:27.94) and the field.
Julia WIllcox, Liz Dwyer, Finan Malcolm and Natalie Condon nearly won the 4×800, going 10:32.87 to finish 0.05 seconds behind Westhill-Ludden’s 10:32.82. Amanda Wetmore, Katelyn Ellison, Cecilia Marrinan and Laurel Parker got to third place in the 4×200 in 1:54.52, just behind Westhill-Ludden (1:53.75) and Cazenovia (1:54.34).
On her own, Willcox beat the field in the 600 with a time of 1:41.79, just ahead of Westhill-Ludden’s Annibel Coolican (1:42.61) and the Lakers’ Mia Grasso, who was third in 1:48.46. Willcox also got to third place in the 1,000-meter run in 3:14.29.
Piling up points in the 300, Skaneateles saw Peterson get second place in 43.85 seconds behind CBA’s Anna Schug (41.17 seconds), with Grasso fourth (44.96 seconds) and Roberts (45.07 seconds) in fifth place.
Dwyer was fourth in the 3,000-meter run in 11:25.09 and eighth in the 1,500-meter run in 5:26.65. Wetmore took fourth in the 55-meter dash in 7.74 seconds, ahead of Angela Krause in fifth (7.78 seconds), Parker in sixth (7.80 seconds) and Marriman (7.88 seconds) in sixth place. Mikaela Terhune was seventh (10.25 seconds) in the 55-meter hurdles.
In field events, Grasso, clearing 4’10”, earned third place in the high jump, with Aubreah Lynn tying for seventh. Krause went 33’ ½” in the triple jump, also finishing third.
Keely Gregg made it to fourth place in the pole vault, clearing 8 feet. Wetmore was sixth in the long jump, going 14’8 ½”, half a foot ahead of Krause in eighth place.
