It could not have ended better for both of the Cazenovia track and field teams.
As expected, the girls Lakers completed a perfect 4-0 run through the OHSL Liberty National division and moved to 7-0 overall, defeating Christian Brothers Academy 103-38 last Wednesday at Buckley-Volo Field.
But the Cazenovia boys team won, too, topping the Brothers 77-64, quite a feat for a team with 23 freshmen and just three seniors who, in the course of the meet against CBA, set 45 personal-best marks and improved to 3-3 overall.
The Lakers relied on its depth to overcome CBA winning most of the individual titles, three of them by Pat Carey in the 110 and 400 hurdles, plus the high jump, and the Lakers won four of six field events.
Will Kmetz took the shot put, heaving it 39 feet 10 inches as Ben Nichols (37’11”) finished second, while Nate Spangler took the discus with a heave of 111’6” just ahead of Christian Winkler’s throw of 110’3”. Winkler also finished second in the high jump and pole vault, the latter event seeing Sam Deleon clear 10 feet to win.
Jimmy McPherson did win the 3,200-meter run in 11 minutes, 5.2 seconds as he helped Tony Koppers, Noah DeRochie and Brendan Coffey take the 4×800 relay in 12:12.9. Coffey finished a close second (4:48 flat) to the Brothers’ Dominic Morganti (4:46.0) in the mile, with Justin Gagnon second in the 110 high hurdles in 19.3 seconds.
Alec Boone pulled away in the 100-meter dash, his time of 11.5 seconds beating CBA’s Brett VanPatten by half a second, and matched CBA’s Matt Leonard as they each went 19’5” in the long jump. Boone also was second in the 400-meter dash in 54.7 seconds.
Ray Satchwell, second to Carey in the triple jump, had a first-place triple jump of 38 feet and Sam DeLeon cleared 10 feet to prevail in the pole vault. Sattler, Gagnon, Sean and Saulo Ferreira went 4:18.1 in the 4×400 relay, while Boone, Harper, Dan McKillop and Sean McPherson ran the 4×100 in 46.5 seconds to CBA’s 45.9.
Meanwhile, all was normal for Cazenovia’s girls, who saw Meggie Hart go 2:35 flat in the 800 and match Clara Rowles’ 5:15.9 in the 1,500 after both of them joined Jamie Joseph and Maria Stalder to take the 4×800 relay in 12:31.4.
Delaney Yates won twice, claiming the 100 hurdles in 18.0 seconds and the 400 hurdles in 1;15 flat, while also running a leg in the 4×100 relay with Jess Macheda, Kirsten Underwood and Brenna Hughes as Cazenovia won in 53.5 seconds. Stalder, Maddie Langey, Meerae Firkins and Caroline Hudson won the 4×400 relay.
Maddy Gavitt got two wins in field events, unleashing a top triple jump of 34 feet 2 inches and also earning a 16-foot long jump. Tori Fischer threw the discus 80’11”as Joseph won the shot put, heaving it 30’4 ½”, and Katie Robbins cleared 8’6” in the pole vault, ahead of Gavitt, who topped 7’6”.
Impressive as that was, the Lakers proved even more at Friday’s John Arcaro Classic, hosted by Baldwinsville but held at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium since B’ville’s track is getting replaced.
With 49.5 points, Cazenovia took fifth place behind four large schools, with Fayetteville-Manlius (131 points) in the top spot. The effort included Hart beating those large-school runners to take the 2,000-meter steeplechase in a time of 7:28.30 while also finishing fourth in the 3,000 in 10:59.30.
Rowles made it to third place in the 1,500 in 5:00.28 and paired with Stalder, Julia Barrett and Katrina Wilson to get third place in the 4×400 in 4:19.48, while Hughes was sixth in the 200 in 28.29 seconds.
Robbins, clearing 8’6”, made it to third place in the pole vault, while Joseph had a third-place shot put toss of 31’2 ½”. Gavitt, going 16’1 ½” in the long jump and 34’ ¾” in the triple jump, earned fourth place in both events as she also topped 4’10” in the high jump to earn fifth place. Underwood took seventh in the 100 sprint and Stalder was seventh in the 400 sprint, with Yates eighth in the 100 and 400 hurdles.
On that same day, at the Oneida Invitational, Cazenovia’s boys team competed and saw Boone nearly win the 100. His time of 11.46 seconds put Boone in second place, trailing only Whitesboro’s Lucas Casab, who won in 11.31 seconds.
From there, Boone went on to get third place in the 200 in 23.35 seconds, not far from the winning 22.75 posted by Whitesboro’s Darnae Camp, and also finished eighth in the long jump as Satchwell got eighth place in the triple jump, going 37’6 ½”. James McPherson took eighth place in the 3,200, improving his season-best time to 10:37.61, while Chad Carges finished ninth in the pentathlon
