The Cazenovia girls track and field squad geared up for the heart of its regular season by competing at the Tully Invitational on April 13.
While no team scoring was kept at the vacation meet, the Lakers earned top-six finishes in 17 of the contest’s 23 events.
Senior Captain Maddy Gavitt led Cazenovia with top-three finishes in all four of her events, including victories in both the triple jump and long jump.
Gavitt topped the triple jump field with 34 feet 8 inches, and also came out on top of the long jump at 15’4″ with teammate Chloe Smith (15’1″) close behind for second place.
Aside from all that, Gavitt also captured second place in the pole vault with an 8-foot effort in her first outing in that event this spring and equaled her season best of 4’10” to capture third in the high jump.
Freshman Melanie Michael posted the best performance of her young career, achieving personal bests and earning second place finishes in both of her hurdle events.
Michael finished the 100 meter hurdles in 17.60 seconds (Fully Automated Timing), equivalent to 17.4, a half-second best. She returned to post a 1:17.07 time in the 400-meter hurdles.
Chloe Smith followed up on her score in the long jump with a fifth place 13.71 effort in the 100-meter dash. Grace Dolan ran the fastest 200-meter time of the day for Cazenovia at 30.04 seconds while Ella Huftalen (fourth place, 1:13.01) and Emmie Rightmyre (sixth, 1:15.51) led the way in the 400-meter dash.
Lili Gavitt was also among the Lakers’ top finishers, earning third in the five event pentathlon with 2,190 points. She clocked 17.41 in the 100 hurdles and 3:01.65 in the 800, long-jumped 14’7 3/4″, tossed the shot 24’3″ and high jumped 4’7″ to earn her total, which was a personal best.
Claire Edwards led Cazenovia’s varsity throwers with a sixth-place, 85’11” effort in the discus and also had a season-best effort in the shot put at 27’1 1/4″. Tessa Hanskenecht achieved a personal best in the discus at 71’8″while Kate Smith led the JV throwers in the shot (second place, 22’4″) and Viriginia Alvisi earned sixth in the JV discus with a best of 56’2″.
Cazenovia scored with all of its relays, led by its second place sprint medley of Isla Stover (2:48.5 800-meter leg), Mia Chesbrough, Christina Brown and Claire Edwards and its second-place distance medley of Kelly Frost, Cavy Monahan, Finlay Stover and Isla Stover.
Grace Dolan (1:06.7) and Cavy Monahan (1:09.4) led the 4×400 to its fourth place finish while Dolan, Savannah Johnson, Ava Gavitt and Finlay Stover earned fifth in the 4×100.
The Lakers will be back in action this Wednesday at Altmar-Parish-Williamstown as they try to improve on their 2-0 start in the OHSL Liberty National Division. They will also compete at the Chittenango Invitational on Friday afternoon.
