by Kurt Wheeler
VERONA – The Cazenovia girls cross country team capped off a strong 2023 campaign with a seventh-place finish among 21 teams at Saturday’s Section III Class C championships race at Vernon Verona Sherill High School.
Top-three state-ranked Adirondack and South Jefferson finished first and second in the highly competitive field as the Lakers, who achieved an undefeated regular season to capture the OHSL Liberty National League title this fall, were unable to defend their 2022 Class C sectional crown despite a stellar effort by each runner.
Maeve McGreevy led the team with a 21st place time of 21 minutes, 33.3 seconds, an effort that was 45 seconds faster than her first race on the course this fall.
Zoey Gagne was just one place back at 22:15.0, nearly a minute faster on the tough VVS course then she ran one year ago when she finished fifth for the team in its championship effort.
Lauren McLean also had a strong individual finish, clocking 23:15.7 to finish 34th, two minutes ahead of her pace on the same course back in September.
Olivia Wong (38th, 23:34.6) and Mesi Stevens (50th, 24:20.1) capped off the Lakers’ scoring with outstanding individual efforts of their own as Wong shaved a minute off her September pace and Stevens shattered her previous best on the course to run the best 5K of her career.
Ilsa Denton (27:41.6) and Emma O’Shea ( 28:03.5) also ran well for the Lakers, who only had seven runners healthy for the race. Olivia Ruddy and Haylee Stearns, two of the top returning runners from last year’s championship team, were unable to lace up their spikes for the 2023 title defense due to injury.
The Lakers concluded their 2023 campaign with the race. The contest also marked the end of stellar careers for the team’s six Seniors (Gagne, McLean, Wong, Stevens plus Iris Casey and Michaela Tobin who were on hand to support their teammates).
These seniors ended their time in the Cazenovia program with five league titles and one sectional championship and a 44-1 dual meet record.
