Every last bit of sweat and effort was needed for the Cazenovia boys track and field team to reach its ultimate destination in the 2018 season – but it got there, and the satisfaction was total.
The Lakers are the new Section III Class B-2 champions, having earned that distinction in a tense, exciting sectional meet Wednesday at Canastota High School where it had to hold off Clinton and Hannibal for the top spot.
Cazenovia finished with 107 points, to Clinton’s 102.5 and Hannibal’s 101, each of the three sides finding their strong spots, but the Lakers doing enough everywhere to pull it out.
The clinching points for Cazenovia didn’t come until the final event, the pole vault, was in the books. There, Sam DeLeon finished third, clearing 12 feet 6 inches, and Collin Killiany was fifth with 11 feet, and their combined eight points allowed the Lakers to pass Hannibal in the standings and withstand Clinton’s charge.
Before that, Cazenovia had done plenty right in field events, capped by Christian Winkler’s victory in the discus as he tossed it 135’4” to hold off Hannibal’s Hunter Donhauser (133’3”) for first place, with Angelo Annotto third by heaving it 119’10”.
Ray Satchwell finished second twice, going 20’6 ½” to finish just behind Holland Patent’s Eddie Callahan (21 feet) in the long jump and then going 41’3” in the triple jump to get runner-up honors behind Callahan’s 42’2 ¼” as Slater DeLeon was fourth with 39’11” after taking seventh place in the long jump.
Chad Carges joined in by getting to fourth place in the shot put with a toss of 38’8 ¼”, just ahead of Annotto (38’3”) in sixth place. Dalton Sevier contributed a fifth-place high jump clearance of 5’8”.
Moving to the track, Cazenovia peaked in the 4×100 relay, where the quartet of James Paveclhak, Justin Gagnon, Sam DeLeon and Slater DeLeon went 45.95 seconds to beat second-place Jordan-Elbridge (46.91) by nearly a full second.
James McPherson got plenty of points, too, going 10:24.68 to take second behind Hannibal’s Ben Dennison (9:55.47) in the 3,200-meter run and then getting fourth place in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 10:58.48 as Noah DeRochie was fifth in 10:59.44.
Jacob Olkowski roared to a time of 59.48 seconds in the 400 hurdles, second to Callahan’s winning 56.70. Pavelchak was third in the 100-meter dash in 11.79 seconds and got fourth place in the 200-meter dash in 24.25 seconds, with Slater DeLeon sixth in 24.47 seconds.
Jack Gabor was seventh in the 800-meter run in 2:08.40, but helped Pavelchak, Olkowski and Cormac Race get third place in the 4×400 relay in 3:35.96, not far from Jordan-Elbridge’s winning 3:34.57.
Gagnon, eighth in the 100 and 10th in the 400 hurdles, took fourth place in the 110 high hurdles in 16.43 seconds, with Olkowski eighth.
Ian Marshall was fifth in the pentathlon, earning 2,043 points. In the 4×800 relay, McPherson, Gabor, DeRochie and Nick Barna were sixth in 9:16.81, with DeRochie 10th and Jared Smith 11th in the mile. Andrew Kent was 12th in the 400-meter dash.
