by Kurt Wheeler

MARCELLUS – The Cazenovia girls track and field team assembled one of its best performances of the spring on Monday, earning 22 new season bests and tying a school record as it scored 229 points to overwhelm second place Skaneateles (118) and four other teams for the Liberty League small schools title.

In all, the Lakers captured 27 slots on the all league team along the way as it earned the Liberty crown for the fifth time in a row.

Grace Dolan led the Lakers, earning four league honors, including a personal record, first place performance of exactly one minute in the 400-meter dash. She also led the 4×100 and 4×400 relays to first team honors and earned second team recognition with a 27.17 effort in the 200 meter dash.

Reid McMurtie was right on her heals, running a State Qualifier time of 1:01.09 for second in the 400 sprint and anchoring the 4×400 meter (1:01.0 leg) to its season best time of 4:13.02 with Alyssa Wardell and Meghan Mehlbaum also adding fast legs. Caitlyn Smithers, Audie Spring and Sophie Rheaume joined Dolan in the first place 4×100 effort, as they clocked 53.01.

Smithers not only earned individual first-team honors in the pole vault, but tied the school record of 9 feet 6 inches along the way. Fellow record-holder Susie Pittman, who reached 9’6″ last season, was second in the league with a 9-foot effort. Smithers also scored in the 100 and 200-meter dashes as Riley Knapp led the team in the 100 with a personal record time of 12.95 for second place.

Pittman earned first team honors of her own with a 33’2 1/2″ effort in the triple jump and also scored in the high jump. Corinne Albicker led the charge in the long jump as she achieved a personal record of 15’11” for first place with Freshmen Wardell and Spring second and third for the Lakers at 15’5 1/2″ each. Mehlbaum led the way in the high jump, clearing 4’8″ for second place.

Maddy Rothfeld continued to shine in the throws as she earned two third place finishes including a personal best effort of 86’1″ in the discus. Olivia Morse also scored in the discus while Alayna Berson backed up Rothfeld in the shot put with a personal best toss of 25’2″.

Faith Wheeler led the team in the distance events, earning a pair of first team league honors as she ran to a personal record time of 5:11.66 in the 1,500 and returned to win the 800 in 2:33.63. Zoey Gagne captured second in the 3,000 in a personal best time of 12:04.71 along with a strong third place finish in the 1,500.

Dinah Gifford seized the league crown in the 2,000-meter steeplechase with a season best effort of 8:34.65 with Bonnie Pittman taking fifth in 9:11.79. Pittman also scored in both hurdle events.
Albicker (fourth place) led the team in the 100 meter hurdles with Mehlbaum (third) and Albicker (fourth place) both excelling at the 400 meter hurdles.

All three of the Cazenovia relays earned all league status as the 4×800 captured second in 10:37.88. Izzy Stromer-Galley led off with a huge personal best of 2:31.7, with Lily Kogut also earning a personal record at 2:38.5 before handing off to Lauren McLean and Julia Reff who anchored the strong finish.

Skye Stanford capped off Cazenovia’s impressive scoring effort with an all-league performance in the pentathlon, earning second place with a season best total of 1,440 points including new bests in both the 100 meter hurdles (20.79) and shot put (24-7).

The league meet win complemented the Lakers’ undefeated regular season title effort from last week. They had one final tune-up meet at this weekend’s 30th Annual “Junkyard” Relays hosted by Clinton before they attempt to defend their Section III Class B-2 crown on May 25.