CAZENOVIA – When the Cazenovia boys track and field team finished its 2019 season having roared to the Section III Class B-2 championship, it was already gearing up for what would happen the following spring.
Instead, nothing happened, the COVID-19 pandemic wiping out both sports and even a chance to be in school.
Not until Wednesday afternoon did the Lakers emerge again, intent on making another championship push as evidenced by its season-opening 125-12 victory over Syracuse’s Institute of Technology Central at Buckley-Volo Field.
Many top athletes remain from that 2019 side, including Slater DeLeon, who against ITC claimed first place in the 100-meter dash in exactly 11 seconds and went 23.0 seconds in the 200-meter dash.
Dylan Shepard and Dylan Albicker also won two events apiece, with Shepard going 20.1 seconds in the 110 high hurdles and 1:09.9 in the 400 hurdles as Albicker had a top long jump of 18 feet 11 inches and a top triple jump of 37′ 1/4”.
Elijah Clement, having cleared 7’6” in the pole vault, also won the discus by throwing it 92’11”. Andrew Kent went 51.9 seconds in the 400-meter dash.
Sweeping the distance races, the Lakers had Cooper Hughes cover 800 meters in 2:05, Michael Senehi go 5:01 in the 1,600 and Jared Smith duck under 10 minutes (9:59, to be exact) in the 3,200.
Hughes, Senehi, Smith and Will Austin took first in the 4×800 relay in 9:54.4. Kent and Hughes joined Jacob Ives and Alex Lansing as the went 3:57.5 in the 4×400, while Ives, Andrew Lee, Charles Kubinec and Jack McNerney got the victory in the 4×100 in 46.7 seconds.
Cazenovia is home again for a key early-season test next Tuesday as it takes on its fellow Lakers from Skaneateles.
