Victories in a pair of relays, plus Mia Grasso’s triumph, helped the Skaneateles girls track and field team enjoy a profitable experience during Friday’s Section III’s state qualifying meet at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium.
More importantly, the wins would help the Lakers make it back to C-NS for next weekend’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association Division II (small school) championship meet, having competed several times at this venue during the spring.
Just two weeks earlier, Skaneateles had set a school record in the 4×400 relay, going under the four-minute mark. That didn’t happen here, but Grasso, Maddie Peterson, Shannan Roberts and Olivia Gage went four minutes, 1.38 seconds to top runner-up CBA (4:11.80) by more than 10 seconds.
This followed a Lakers win in the 4×100 relay, where Amanda Wetmore, Cecilia Marrinan, Katelyn Ellison and Angela Krause roared to a time of 50.32 seconds that was a full second and a half faster than runner-up Hannibal’s total of 51.82 seconds.
Grasso’s big moment came in the high jump, where she beat the qualifying standard of 5 feet 1 inch and eventually cleared 5’3”, the same as CBA’s Nafysa Williams. But since Grasso had fewer misses, she earned first place. Julia Willcox went 2:20.13 in the 800-meter run, getting second place behind Hamilton star Sage Hurta, who won in 2:12.30.
Brady Iles used a time of 16.70 seconds to qualify third for the final of the 100-meter hurdles, where she ended up fifth overall in 17.26 seconds. Angelina Reese went 13.67 seconds in the 100-meter dash and finished 13th.
In boys action, Chase Corcoran was fourth in the discus with a throw of 124’5” as Fabius-Pompey’s Alex Curr won with 146’7”. Tommy Hagen settled for sixth place in the long jump, going 20’5 ¼” behind Central Valley Academy’s Zach Crim, who won with 22’3”.
