The Cazenovia girls track team moved one stop closer to another league title last Wednesday as it crushed visiting Syracuse Institute of Technology Central 121-20 to remain undefeated.
The victory sets up a showdown between the 4-0 Cazenovia Lakers and their rivals from Skaneateles for the OHSL Liberty National championship this Wednesday at Buckley-Volo Field.
Just two days after it beat ITC, the Lakers competed at the East Syracuse Minoa Invitational, achieving 23 new season-best performances and tied seventh in the 26-team field with 27 points, highlighted by Lili Gavitt’s first-place finish in the pentathlon.
Over five events, Gavitt picked up 2,135 points, just enough to hold off Cicero-North Syracuse’s Liliana Klemanski (2,075 points) for that top spot, posting the fastest 100 hurdles time of 17.56 seconds.
Elsewhere at ESM, Claire Edwards was third in the discus with a throw of 92 feet 1 inch, her best of the season by nearly two feet. Maddy Gavitt got fourth place in the triple jump with 33’6 ¼” and was sixth in the 100 hurdles in 17.42 seconds as Paige Hunt tied for fourth in the pole vault, clearing 8’6”.
The Lakers were fifth in the 4×800 relay in a season-best 10:56.87 and seventh in the 4×400, with Molly Hart fifth in the 2,000-meter steeplechase in 8:27.10.
Against ITC, Cazenovia won 15 of 17 events including sweeps in seven of them and all three relays. Twenty-two different girls scored for the Lakers as members of the team achieved 54 season best performances during the meet.
The key to the decisive win was Cazenovia’s ability to match ITC’s strengths, most notably in the sprints, where they are known to be among the best in Section III.
Chloe Smith ran a season best of 12.8 seconds in the 100 meter dash to break up ITC’s powerful duo of Karizma Brathaire (12.7) and Fanny Kumeh (13.0). Savannah Johnson and Grace Dolan also ran season bests in the heat.
Smith, Johnson and Dolan then teamed up with Hunt to win the 4×100 in their fastest time of the spring (53.4 seconds) Johnson returned to win the 200 in 28.3 seconds, a career best time, with Peyton Basic picking up third in 28.7.
ITC tried to counter Cazenovia’s strength in the hurdles by using Brathwaire in both events, but the Lakers still outscored them 12 to 7. Melanie Michael ran a career best of 16.9 seconds to win the 100 hurdles, with Lili Gavitt second in 17.2 seconds. Michael returned to take second in the 400 hurdles in 1:16.5 with Caryn Gagnon third in 1:19.7.
Cazenovia’s depth in the distance events was too much for IT as Hart, Isla Stover, and Eleanor Wester swept both the 1500 and 3000 meter runs with Stover achieving season bests in both first place finishes. Claire Braaten, Mary Williams and Mia Chesbrough finished 1-2-3 in the 800 with Kelly Frost joining them to win the 4×800 as well.
The outcome was similar in the 400 with Peyton Basic, Grace Dolan and Ella Huftalen sweeping the 400 and Cavy Monahan joining in to capture the 4×400 relay.
Cazenovia won all six field events to round out the decisive team victory with Maddy Gavitt scoring four times to lead the way. Gavitt won the triple jump with 34’6 ½”, with with Ava Gavitt and Tessa Hankenecht in support, and cleared 4’8” in the high jump, with Paige Hunt matching her height for second.
Chloe Smith won the long jump with 15’6”, while Maddy Gavitt (15’4 ½”) and Lili Gavitt (14’1”) were close behind for the sweep. Hunt, Maddy Gavitt (8 feet) and Christina Brown (6 feet) swept the pole vault.
Edwards paced the Lakers in the throws with victories in both the discus with 84’7” and the shot put with 27’10”. (Hunt earned second in the shot while Hanskenecht threw a personal best of 73’9” for third in the discus.
