by Kurt Wheeler

For the second week in a row, the Cazenovia girls indoor track battled their way to near the top of the field during last Saturday’s Oscar B. Jensen Holiday Relays at SRC Arena.

The Lakers scored 65 points to top everyone in the 18-team field except Class AA power Fayetteville-Manlius (83 points). The relay format contest is named for Central New York coaching legend Oscar Jensen, who was on hand to preside over the meet as the boys chairman.

Cazenovia showed its depth and well-balanced attack as they scored in every event, including seven top-three finishes in the deep field.

Junior Lili Gavitt led the team, earning points in three events with season-best performances in each. She partnered with Melanie Michael (third overall as an individual at 9.77) to earn second in the 55 meter hurdles relay with a 10.12 second finish.

Gavitt also led the way in the high jump (4 feet 8 inches to partner with Katie Pavelchak (4’3”) for fourth and the long jump (14’9”) to combine with Chloe Smith (14’6”) for third.

Claire Edwards had the team’s highest individual finish of the day, with the second best shot put throw in the field (30’4 3/4”) to partner with Lily Sorbello (22’5 1/2”) for third. The roles were reversed in the weight throw, as Sorbello threw 25’10 3/4” to pair up with Edwards’ personal best effort of 23’11” for third in that event.

Savannah Johnson led the way in the sprints, placing fifth as an individual in the 55-meter dash (personal best of 7.86 seconds) to combine with Chloe Smith (8.06) for fourth as a relay. She also turned in a 46.37 second performance as she ran the 300-meter dash for first time, combining with Ella Huftalen (49.94) to capture fifth.

Senior Captain Ava Hartley stepped up to run two outstanding distance races to partner with the Lakers’ leaders in each for third place relay finishes.

Hartley ran a 6:11.62 to combine with Claire Braaten (personal best of 6:04.21) in the mile. She returned to run a 12:20.35 in the grueling 3,000-meter race to back up Molly Hart (sectional qualifying time of 11:39.83) for the score there.

Grace Dolan led the team in the middle distance, racing to a personal best time of 1:52.91 in the 600 to team with Kiara Dolan (2:03.73) for fourth place.

Carley Lounsbury led the team in the 1,000, running a 3:34.44 to combine with Julia Reff (3:36.77) for fifth place. Lounsbury also cleared 6 feet in the pole vault to pick up a point there for the Lakers.

Ava Gavitt rounded out the Cazenovia scoring effort, triple jumping 28’8” to partner with Bonnie Pittman (27 feet) to earn third as a relay.

The Lakers will have a busy week as they head into the holidays, racing at the DiMao Memorial Invitational at Colgate on Tuesday nd returning to OCC for the George Constantino Memorial Meet on Saturday.