SYRACUSE – All winter long, the Cazenovia boys indoor track and field team held up quite well when face-to-face with opponents from far larger schools.
So it only figured that, when confronted with its peers in Wednesday’s Section III Class B-2 championships at SRC Arena, the Lakers would outclass all of them.
Led by junior Connor Frisbie and senior Branden McColm, Cazenovia, with 128 points, got clear of runner-up Marcellus (101 points) to earn the sectional banner as Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, with 69 points, was a distant third.
Frisbie won three times, starting out by taking the \55-meter hurdles in 8.56 seconds to the 8.82 from Marcellus’ Owen Alexander, while in the high jump Frisbie topped a personal-best 6 feet to beat Skaneateles’ Max Paciorek (5’10”) as Judah Ossont (5 feet) was eighth.
And in the triple jump, no one in the event could beat Frisbie’s best leap of 40 feet 6 1/2 inches, though Ossont again got points as he took seventh with 35’7 1/4″.
From the very first race of the night, the 3,200-meter run, Cazenovia was in charge thanks to McColm, who needed 10:24.02 to beat out the 12:28.01 from Hannibal’s Noah Melita as Chris Kelly was eighth in 11:11.84.
Not stopping there, McColm also took the 1,000-meter run in 2:50.17, beating out teammate Will Austin’s personal-best 2:52.64 in second place, Austin also taking third in the 1,600-meter run with 5:03.62 as Caleb Gilmore (5:06.05) was fifth and McColm sixth.
Sophomore Jaden Kaplan beat the field in the 600-meter run, his 1:30.94 beating out, among others, Tristan Field-Bradley, who was third in a season-best 1:34.38. Then Kaplan took second (38.82 seconds) to Paciorek (38.16) in the 300-meter dash.
Over in the pole vault Killian Blouin prevailed, clearing 10 feet with fewer misses than Marcellus’ Andrew McCaffrey. Alex Ramirez had a second-place weight throw of 44’7 1/2″ to set a new personal mark as Ethan Burry was sixth (38’10”) and Ramirez added a seventh-place shot put of 34’2 1/2″, with Aidan Bailey (30’5 1/2″) ninth.
Kaplan, Field-Bradley, Wyatt Scott and Finn Worthington were second in the 4×400 relay in 3:44.23 to Marcellus’ winning 3:39.92, while in the 4×800 relay Gilmore, Austin, Kelly and Eddie Comeau got second place in 9:23.08. Scott, Worthington, Matt Tugaw and Aidan Jurgens were fifth in the 4×200 relay in 1:43.25.
Over in the simultaneous sectional Class B-1 meet, Chittenangowas quite strong, third among girls teams with 41 points and fifth on the boys side with 52 points as Westhill finished at the top of both divisions.
Caleb LeBlanc won for the Chittenango boys in the 1,600, his 4:39.38 well clear of the 4:47.45 of Westhill’s Drew O’Reilly. In the 4×800, LeBlanc, Gavin Roach, Joseph Lin and Andrew Bielicki made it to second place in 9:37.93.
Lin gained victory in the long jump, his 20’1 1/2″ a new personal mark and the only leap above 20 feet. In 8.18 seconds, Lin was a close second to Syracuse ITC’s Tyshawn Taylor (8.08) in the 55 hurdles.
Shamus Eiffe got fourth in the 600 in 1:32.49 as the Bears were fourth in the 4×400 in 4:07.94 and also fourth (1:46.36) in the 4×200. Owen Law topped 5 feet for fourth place in the high jump.
Moving to the girls side for Chittenango, Jordan Wagner’s long jump of 16’1″ set a new personal mark and only trailed the 16’5 1/2″ from Westhill’s Kate Bendall.
Laura Powers went 5:23.24 in the 1,500-meter run for second place to the 5:18.92 from Oneida seventh-grader Molly Myatt. Powers, Sophia DiGennaro, Evelyn Wynkoop and Emily Judd were third in the 4×800 in 11:07.80.
Brooke Walters and Abby Horning joined Wagner and DiGennaro as the Bears took third in the 4×400 in 4:30.39, DiGennaro later taking third in the 600 in 1:49.86 as Miranda Danaher was fourth in the shot put with 25’2 1/2″.
Ava McLean was fifth in the 3,000-meter run in 12:35.71, with Allie Bartoszek seventh in the 55 hurdles in 10.06 seconds and eighth in the triple jumpf before helping Chittenango get sixth (2:05.14) in the 4×200.
