Hamilton — Once the long holiday break was finished, the Cazenovia girls indoor track and field team was eager to resume action, proving it by going all the way to the top of the standings in Tuesday night’s John DiMao Memorial Invitational at Colgate University’s Sanford Field House.
Earning 116 points, the Lakers pulled away from runner-up Clinton, who was second with 91.5 points. Rome Free Academy had 83.5 points for third place as Chittenango also did well, taking fifth place with 36 points.
To start Cazenovia’s strong effort in distance races, Meggie Hart won the 1,500-meter run in five minutes, 4.56 seconds, with Megan Henderson (5:20.51) in fifth place. Then Clara Rowles won the 600-meter run in 1:44.18, ahead of New Hartford’s Elizabeth Haddad (1:45.60) by more than a second.
Maria Stalder was second (3:20.67) to Clinton’s Gabrielle Dewhurst (3:14.05) in the 1,000-meter run, but the Lakers had 15 points from this race alone since Zoe Shephard finished fourth in 3:27.10 and Hope King (3:38.24) was sixth. In between them, the Bears’ McKenzie Dombroski grabbed third place in 3:24.21.
Kaitlyn Swain gave Chittenango a win in the 300-meter dash in 44.32 seconds, with the Lakers’ Olivia McEntee second in 45.54 seconds. Krissy Roberts won, too, for the Bears, as her top triple jump of 31 feet 10 ¾ inches beat out Cazenovia’s Maddy Gavitt, who was second with 31’3 ¼”.
Delaney Yates, in 9.78 seconds, finished a close second to RFA’s Tiffany Thomson (9.76 seconds) in the 55-meter hurdles as Scout Mueller took seventh place. Brenna Hughes was seventh in the 55-meter dash.
Chittenango also got second place in the 4×400 relay, where Krissy Roberts, Swain, Dombroski and Devin Gordon posted 4:38.12, far off RFA’s winning time of 4:20.37, but edging out Cazenovia, who had Shephard, Katrina Wilson, Sadie Coleman and Grace Rajkowski finish third in 4:40.03.
continued — Going to field events, Katie Robbins gave Cazenovia another victory in the pole vault, managing to clear 8 feet to edge Clinton’s Joan Allaire (7’6”), with Tori Fischer landing in sixth place by clearing 6’6”.
Fischer rose to second place in the weight throw with a best toss of 26’9 ½”, topped only by Clinton’s Aneesa Lewis (31’9 ½”). Jess Macheda cleared 4’6” to get third place in the high jump, with Fischer (4’4”) fifth as Macheda and Gavitt were fourth and fifth, respectively, in the long jump, though both went 14’4 ½” ahead of Roberts (14’2 ½”) in sixth place.
Meanwhile, in the boys portion of the DiMao Invitational, Cazenovia, with 25 points, edged out Chittenango (24 points) for seventh place in the 11-team field, while RFA and Clinton both managed to score 101 points to share top honors.
This happened despite the Bears seeing Mike Capeling win the 1,000, his time of 2:49.39 beating a field that included the Lakers’ Jimmy McPherson, who was sixth in this race and 10th in the mile. Ray Satchwell was fifth in the high jump, clearing 5’2”, and eighth in the long jump (16’8”) as Chittenango’s Dylan Price was ninth in the 600.
Cazenovia had its best efforts in field events, where Sawyer Hunt was fourth (38’11 ½”) and Will Kmetz sixth (37’1 ½”) in the shot put. Dakota Prado was seventh for Chittenango in the weight throw, with the Lakers’ Nate Spangler ninth and the Bears’ Dieago Prado 10th.
In the 4×400, the Lakers’ quartet of Alec Boone, Jack Eldred, Cooper Coleman and Robbie Zambito posted a time of 3:58.03, landing in second place behind Clinton (3:50.22) as Capeling, Ward Beley, Caleb Prenoveo and Jacob Blaszkow put the Bears in third place in 3:59.83.
Boone later took fifth place (35’8”) in the triple jump, ahead of teammates Evan Begley (seventh) and Jake Robbins (eighth), though Robbins did finish sixth in the high jump, topping 5 feet. Will Huftalen cleared 9 feet for eighth place in the pole vault.