Jimi McPherson had the place of honor when the Cazenovia boys cross country team traveled to Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School for last Saturday’s Section III Class C championship meet.
This Class C field was quite competitive this season and included Section 3 favorite VVS which had dropped down from Class B and was competing on its home course.
The race day was the coldest of the season and frost still appeared on parts of the course during the opening race. It was muddy and slick, with standing water at various points.
Fortunately for the Lakers, the boys’ Class C race was the opening race which meant the course conditions were the best they would be that day. It was also the last race in a Cazenovia Laker uniform for six of the seven seniors who ran in this race.
As a team, Cazenovia Lakers finished sixth among 18 complete teams with 154 runners and scored 183 points. VVS won the race with a score of 89 points, with Hannibal, Marcellus, Skaneateles and Port Byron rounding out the top five.
This race day belonged to McPherson, who earned his second consecutive trip to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships, which will get run this Saturday at Wayne High School.
McPherson did so with some style. He did not start too fast and picked off several runners along the course to finish fourth with a time of 17 minutes, 9.5 seconds, continuing to display his dominance among Section 3 Class C runners.
Senior Jon Marecek was second for the team and finished 13th overall with a time of 17:48r. Ian Marshall was 47th in 18:58.6, while Zach Wendell was 61st in 19:09.2 and Jack Gabor was 68th in 19:19 flat.
Just behind them, Noah DeRoche 72 nd in 19:23.7, one spot ahead of Nick Barna (19:24.1) and two spots ahead of Jared Smith (19:26.5) as Tony Koppers (19:33.7) and Jacob Wells (19:49.0) followed.
Coach Jason Hyatt congratulated the team on a great season and expressed how proud he was of each runner’s progress and leadership on this team. Cazenovia finished the dual meet season with a record of 6-1 and once again sent a runner to the state meet.
