Editor’s Note: With high school sports on hold, we’ll take the opportunity to look back on what took place so far during the 2019-20 school year. This is a recap on winter sports at Cazenovia High School.
Both on an individual and a team basis, the winter sports season at Cazenovia High School was filled with landmark efforts.
It included the feats of senior girls basketball player Lindsey Lawson. Last summer, Lawson committed to Harvard University, and it was no secret that the Lakers would lean heavily on her skills in the paint to find success.
The first milestone came on Dec. 5, Lawson passing 1,000 career points during Cazenovia’s season-opening win over Madison. Over the course of the next 20 games, Lawson would continue to put up big numbers.
All told, Lawson averaged 22.8 points and 13.0 rebounds per game. That included three different 20-20 efforts – 28 points and 20 rebounds in a Dec. 19 win over Westhill, 31 points and 24 rebounds in a Jan. 19 defeat to Utica-Notre Dame, and 39 points and 23 rebounds when Cazenovia defeated Jordan-Elbridge Feb. 4.
By the time it was all done, Lawson had surpassed Helen Baroody’s total of 1,392 points and became the program’s all-time leading scorer, finishing at 1,490 for her career. Cazenovia would go 14-7 overall, dropping its first-round Section III Class B playoff game to Lowville.
One team at Cazenovia that did claim sectional honors was boys indoor track and field. All season long, the Lakers racked up titles against all kinds of competition, whether competing at Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena or at Utica College’s Hutton Dome.
Ultimately, Cazenovia would sweep post-season honors, first by racing to the top of the standings in the Onondaga High School League Division I championships Jan. 29 and, two weeks later, roaring to victory in the sectional Class B-2 meet.
The honors didn’t stop there. Junior Slater DeLeon not only won the 300-meter dash and long jump at the sectional meet, he qualified for the March 7 state championships on Staten Island, where he broke the school record in the 300.
Sectional honors also went to Joe Spires in the 55-meter dash, Andrew Kent in the 600-meter run, Dalton Sevier in the high jump, Gordan Wester in the weight throw and the 4×200 relay team of Spires, Connor Wilson, Andrew Lee and Charles Kubenic, with Jared Smith second in the 1,000-meter run.
It was also a strong season for Cazenovia girls indoor track, who constantly beat out most of its small-school competition and, ultimately, finished third in the sectional Class B-2 meet. Chloe Smith was the sectional B-2 champion in the long jump, going 16 feet 4 1/2 inches, while Melanie Michael finished second in the 55 hurdles and Savannah Johnson took second in the 300.
DeLeon was not the only Cazenovia athlete that made it to a state championship event.
Sophomore Quinn Smith swam with the Fayetteville-Manlius boys team and would break out in a big way during the sectional Class A championships Feb. 13 at Nottingham High School, winning the 500-yard freestyle in four minutes, 48.77 seconds, improving upon his best time of the season by nearly 17 seconds.
In both the 500 freestyle and the 200 individual medley (where he swam to a time of 1:57.92), Smith was able to qualify for the March 6-7 state meet on Long Island, where he would fare better in the 200 IM, finishing 38th overall.
It had the makings of a special season for Cazenovia’s boys basketball team as it roared out to a 6-0 start, getting victories over the likes of Solvay, an eventual sectional finalist.
Led by seniors Ryan Romagnoli and sophomore Alex Moesch, the Lakers went to 11-3 eventually before a five-game skid bridging January and February.
Ultimately, Cazenovia did recover to claim a tense 62-57 win over long-time nemesis Westhill in the opening round of the sectional playoffs, only to fall in the quarterfinals 70-47 to top seed and eventual champion Lowville, who stood atop the state rankings before the COVID-19 outbreak thwarted the Red Raiders’ state championship dreams.
In wrestling, Cazenovia who was on a combined team with Fabius-Pompey, put up a strong third-place finish at the sectional Class C tournament Feb. 8, with Lucca Ferreira taking the 132-pound title and Kevin Valentine prevailing at 170 pounds as John Frega finsihed second at 220 pounds. Valentine went on to finish fifth in the sectional Division II meet a week later.
