by Kurt Wheeler
The Cazenovia girls indoor track team put on their best performance of the season in their first appearance among their old Mohawk Valley rivals last Friday night.
The Lakers scored 61.5 points to finish second among 30 teams at Utica College’s Hutton Dome. Only Class AA Fayetteville-Manlius (164) outran the girls as they beat out large school competitors Rome Free Academy (56) and Utica Proctor (51) along with Class B rival Clinton (51).
Cazenovia competed in the Utica-based eastern league for a decade before shifting back to Syracuse-based meets at SRC Arena two years ago.
Senior sprinter Chloe Smith led the Lakers, scoring in three events including a second place finish in the 55-meter dash (7.79 seconds) and a third place effort in the long jump (15 feet 5 1/2 inches).
Smith led the 4×200 meter relay with a season best 27.8-second leg. Grace Dolan, Riley Knapp and Savannah Johnson also ran excellent legs to help the Lakers finish second in 1:53.64, fast enough to earn a bid to the state qualifying meet.
Johnson was also brilliant throughout the meet, leading the team with a personal best of 44.39 seconds in the 300 to finish fourth. She also added a fifth place, 7.89-second effort in the 55-meter dash. Grace Dolan ran a sectional qualifying time of 1:50.54 to earn fourth place in the 600-meter run, her best ever.
Knapp also contributed to the team’s fourth place showing in the 4×400 meter relay with Molly Dolan, Ainsly Schug and anchor Melanie Michael (1:07.3 leg) finishing in 4:34.99.
Michael also led the team in the 55-meter hurdles, earning fourth in 9.66 seconds with teammate Katie Whitney also scoring in a personal best, sectional qualifying time of 10.09 seconds.
Cazenovia’s distance runners also contributed to the team’s strong showing. The 4×800 meter relay placed sixth in their best time of the season as Ava Hartley, Carley Lounsbury, Melanie Michael and Molly Hart clocked a 10:59.20.
Hart also scored in the 3,000-meter run with her best time of the year (11:33.64) while Hartley led the team in the 1,000-meter run (3:27.78). Claire Braaten also scored for the team in the 1,500 with a season best time of 5:29.07.
Lili Gavitt led the Lakers in the field events, earning a fourth place finish in the high jump at 4’8″ with Katie Pavelchak also clearing the sectional standard of 4’6′ Ava Gavitt hit a career best of 32’8 1/2″ in the triple jump to place fifth with Bonnie Pittman also achieving a personal best of 30’7 1/2″ to qualify for sectionals.
Claire Edwards led Cazenovia in the throws, tossing a career best of 30’11” (state qualifier eligible) to place sixth in a competitive field. Lili Sorbello led the team in the weight throw (23’9″) while Lounsbury had her best pole vault of the season (7 feet) to qualify for sectionals.
Overall, the Lakers scored in 13 of 16 events as they achieved 17 sectional performances and two state qualifier performances along with a host of season-best efforts.
Cazenovia hopes to peak at the right time with the OHSL Championship coming up on Jan. 29 and secctional meet on Feb. 8. The squad will wrap up its regular season this week as they would make up the DiMao Invitational at Colgate (snowed out in December) on Tuesday and return to OCC for the Bob Grieve Memorial Meet on Saturday.
