by Kurt Wheeler
The Cazenovia girls indoor track team placed third in the 14-team field in the afternoon session of Saturday’s John Arcaro Memorial Invitational at SRC Arena.
Class AA power Fayetteville-Manlius took first with 124 points and Class B rival Westhill scored 104 to edge out the Lakers (101) for second. A bad break on just one event was the margin between places for the girls.
Cazenovia’s sprinters led the way for the team as all of its athletes “knocked off the rust” after a two week break in competition due to the holidays. The 4×200 meter relay team of Chloe Smith, Riley Knapp, Madison Jones and Savannah Johnson captured first place in a time of 1:56.36.
Smith (7.78 seconds) and Johnson (7.81) each ran season bests in the 55-meter dash as they teamed up to place second in the event in the relay-style meet. Katie Whitney was close behind, running a personal best of 8.00 to finish fifth overall as an individual in the field.
Johnson was on her way to her fastest clocking of the year in the 300-meter dash, moving into first place as she entered the final stretch when she was tripped up by an opposing athlete, sending her down hard to the surface of the track prior to the finish.
The other athlete was disqualified, but Johnson’s superb time and place were lost. Teammates Molly Dolan (48.47 seconds) and Ella Huftalen (49.61) still combined for third in the event but Johnson’s effort would have put them in first in the event and second overall in the meet.
The Lakers’ distance runners also posted a strong meet with Molly Hart (11:56.0) and Claire Braaten (12:29.12) teaming up for second in the 3,000-meter run. Braaten (5:46.67) returned to combine with Nadia Segall (5:45.61) for second in the 1,500, while Hart (3:40.34) also scored again with Carley Lounsbury (3:34.51) leading them to fourth in the 1,000-meter run.
The 4×800 meter relay of Mia Chesbrough, Julia Reff, Anna Reger and Peyton Basic posted the Lakers’ best time of the season (11:23.24) to capture fourth. The 4×400 team of Grace Dolan (1:05.9 split), Ainsly Schug (1:07.4), Riley Knapp (1:09.9) and Melanie Michael (1:08.2) also ran Cazenovia’s best time of the year to earn third in 4:31.47.
Basic returned to partner with Grace Dolan for third in the 600-meter run relay while Michael posted a career best of 9.60 seconds to lead Cazenovia to a second place finish in the 55-meter hurdles. Katie Whitney (10.17 seconds) and Bonnie Pittman (10.64) also ran personal best times in the hurdles.
Claire Edwards led the Lakers in the field events, placing fourth in the shot put field as an individual (28 feet 8 inches) and teaming with Lily Sorbello for fourth as a relay. That duo also combined for fifth in the weight throw.
Chloe Smith led Cazenovia in the jumps, hitting 14’10” in the long jump to combine with Kylie Anthony for fourth as a team. Anthony (29’3″) and Pittman (28’4″) each posted personal bests in the triple jump to earn third as a relay.
Carley Lounsbury and Christina Brown each cleared 6’6″ in the pole vault to capture third as a duo while Katie Pavelchak (4’3″) and Kiara Dolan (4 feet) earned fourth in the high jump relay to round out the Lakers’ scoring.
Missing some key athletes due to holiday travel at the Arcaro meet, the Lakers will hope to be back to full strength on Friday as they travel to Utica College’s Hutton dome for the first time this season to compete against the Mohawk Valley Indoor Track Association schools.
