On May 28, five Cazenovia High School track and field coaches embarked on a five-car caravan to show their gratitude to 15 graduating seniors – all of which were denied a final outdoor track and field season.
The coaches – Mark Evans, Adam Wakeman, Dan Buddie, Mark Tugaw and Adam Reynolds – met on Zoom and determined each student needed to be show how much they mean to the program.
A plan was put in place where the coaches would go out together and personally show their appreciation to each of the seniors.
Now the coaches set out from Corwin Street, headed out to each senior’s home. Not only did they want to show how much these students meant, but also give them their own baton as a symbol of “passing the baton” to each of them, similar to what is done at track races during relay events.
Inside each of this bit of “CAZ” memorabilia was a rolled sheet that included individually written coaches’ notes and comments for each of the seniors.
In the last four years, these 15 seniors have contributed to multiple wins at individual meets along with Onondaga High School League Liberty division and Section III championships – most notably two consecutive outdoor track sectional titles in 2018 and 2019 and an indoor track sectional Class B-2 title in 2020.
Those seniors included:
- Keegan Bailey, long jump, triple jump, high jump
- Cam Cunningham, thrower
- Ryan Frost, thrower
- Tim Gibbons, 800 and 400 meters, 4×400 and 4×800 relays
- Eric Groff, distance running
- Tom McCay, pole vault
- Hunter McCullough, 800 meters, 4×800 relay, 400 hurdles
- Jason Olkowski, 110 hurdles, discus, pentathlon
- Mike Parrella, triple jump, 110 hurdles, pentathlon
- Cormac Race, 200 and 400 meters, 4×400 relay
- Dalton Sevier, high jump, pole vault
- Joe Spires, 100, 200 and 400 meters, 4×200 relay
- Gordon Wester, thrower
- Connor Wilson, 400 hurdles, 200 meters, 4×400 relay
- Shaun Zampetti, distance running
