By Kurt Wheeler
Girls indoor track coach
Members of the Cazenovia girls indoor track team posted a series of season-best performances at the most recent Mohawk Valley indoor track competition as the Lakers finished third in a huge 24-team field.
Maddy Gavitt and Katie Robbins led the team in the field events as each won their event with their best performance of the winter. Gavitt tied her career best of 4-10 to win the high jump and also triple jumped 33-4.5 to capture third in that event. Robbins had her best vault of the season to win the pole vault with an 8-6 effort. She also returned to contribute in the triple with a 29-5 leap.
Gavitt and Robbins both achieved State Qualifier standards with their efforts. Paige Hunt was close behind with third place finishes in both high jump and pole vault, clearing 4-6 and 7-0 respectively.
Chloe Smith led the team in the sprints, placing second in the 55 meter dash in a career-best time of 7.72 seconds. The speedy sophomore also earned third place in the long jump at 15-2 and competed in the 300 meter dash. Ava Gavitt also long jumped for the Lakers, hitting 13-6.5, while Claire Edwards (26-2 shot) and Eva Salzman (24-4 weight throw) led the team in the throws.
Meggie Hard had another outstanding meet to lead the distance runners, capturing fourth in the 3,000 in a State Qualifier eligible time of 10:48.12. She returned to place second in the 1,500 in 5:13.37. Zoe Shephard also had a strong meet for the Lakers, finishing fourth in the 1,000 in 3:18.92 and anchoring the 4×800 relay team of Hannora Race, Emily Reff and Molly Dolan to a fifth place finish.
Lauren Burbidge (1:08.7 split) and Kaitlyn Puffer (1:08.9 split) led the 4×400 team of Sadie Coleman and Peyton Basic to a fifth place finish while Brenna Hughes (28.9) and Taylor Tilison (29.4) ran the fastest legs on the Lakers seventh place 4×200 squad. Grace Rajkowski led the team in the 300 meter dash (47.91) while Lili Gavitt led in the 55 meter hurdles (10.49).
With two meets disrupted or cancelled by the severe weather, the Lakers have just one more competition this Saturday, Jan. 20, to prepare for the OHSL Championship on Jan 31. Cazenovia is striving to earn its eighth consecutive league and sectional championships in 2018.
