For the fifth time this season, the Cazenovia girls indoor track and field team finished number one among small schools in a large multi-school meet.
The Lakers scored 63.5 points at the Fred Kirschenheiter Memorial Invitational last Saturday at SRC Arena to finish fourth overall in an 18-team field. Only class AA and A powers Cicero-North Syracuse, Baldwinsville and Jamesville-DeWitt outran the Cazenovia girls.
Cazenovia again featured a well-rounded performance, scoring in seven track events and five field events, 12 of 16 overall, to outpace the other 14 teams in the field.
Chloe Smith led the charge, scoring in three events, including a second place effort of 16 feet 1 inch in the long jump to match her season-best. She also placed in the 55-meterdash (fifth, 7.74 seconds) and 300 meter dash (seventh, 47.09).
Paige Hunt had the most memorable performance of the day, coming within a fraction of an inch of tying the school record of 9’6” in the pole vault. She appeared to clear the height as the bar remained in place, vibrating, after her attempt, only to slip off a moment later. Nonetheless, she equaled her career-best of 9 feet to capture second place to Marcellus’ Julianna Szczech.
Senior captain Maddy Gavitt also helped pace the Lakers, scoring in all three of her events, including 4’8” in the high jump for third place, 15’ ½” in the long jump (fifth) and 32’8” in the triple jump (fifth).
The Lakers throwers had a big impact as Claire Edwards earned fourth in the shot with 25’11 ½”, while Mackenzie Yates (25-11) was fifth. Eva Salzman posted a career-best of 25’9 ½” to finish ninth a competitive field.
Lili Gavitt led a superb performance by Cazenovia’s trio of hurdlers, running a personal-best time of 9.67 seconds in the 55-meter event to earn fourth place.
Freshmen Melanie Michael (10.04, seventh place) and Caryn Gagnon (10.22, 11th place) also had career-best times in the event. Gagnon helped the 4×200 relay of Taylor Tilison, Grace Dolan and Molly Dolan to a seventh place finish in 2:02.75. Molly Dolan also ran the Lakers’ best 600 of the day at 1:54.54 to finish ninth overall.
Senior captain Clara Rowles paced the Lakers distance effort as she anchored the 4×800 meter relay of Julia Reff, Emily Reff and Hope King to fourth place in a season-best time of 11:09.86. Rowles also posted her best time of the winter in the 1,000 at 3:25.09 to finish ninth.
Kaitlyn Puffer led the 4×400 meter relay of Grace Rajkowski, Laura Fitzgerald and Ella Huftalen to a sixth-place finish in 4:55.08. Molly Hart added a sixth of her own in the 3,000-meter run in season-best time of 11:46.96 to cap the Cazenovia scoring.
The Lakers will return to OCC for their final regular season meet this Saturday and compete in an invitational at Utica College on Jan. 25 to tune up for the post-season as the team hunts for its eighth OHSL and Section III titles in the past nine seasons.
