SYRACUSE – For the second time in as many weeks, the Cazenovia girls indoor track and field team proved itself as superior to almost any other opponent, large school or small.
The Lakers had another impressive outing at Wednesday’s Oscar B. Jensen Memorial Relays at SRC Arena as it earned 86.5 points to top 19 other teams including Class AA powers Liverpool and Fayetteville-Manlius.
Only the powerhouse Cicero-North Syracuse squad (126.5) topped Cazenovia, but that didn’t keep the Lakers from posting five state qualifier meet-eligible performances during the competition, three of them by Susie Pittman.
All Pittman did was lead the team with a 9-foot effort to win the pole vault as she tied her personal best for indoor track with the height. She returned to clear a season best of 4’10” to place third in the high jump and set a new personal indoor best of 33’11 1/4” for third in the triple jump.
But Pittman had had plenty of help in all three events.
Maura Phillips and Ella Gale each cleared 6’6” to score in the pole vault, Meghan Mehlbaum (4’8”) and Claire Marris (personal best of 4’6”) also scored in the high jump and Eleanor Mongeau hit 29’6 3/4” to score in the triple jump. Marris also led the Laker effort in her first attempt at the 55 meter hurdles with a time of 10.72 seconds.
Maddie Rothfeld continued her strong senior season and got a victory of her own, winning the shot put with an indoor best of 30’3” and capturing fourth in the weight throw at 33’2 1/4”.
Alayna Berson backed her up in the shot as she qualified for sectionals with a 25’9” throw. Tara Pratt showed rapid improvement as she reached 24-7 in the weight throw.
Sophomore Audie Spring was the other event winner for the Lakers, leaping to an all-time best of 15’10 1/4” to take first in the long jump and earn a bid to the sectional state qualifier. Spring also topped the team in the 55-meter dash with an 8.09 second effort.
Reid McMurtrie led Cazenovia on the track, qualifying for sectionals and placing fourth in her first attempt at the 1,000-meter run in 3:20.1 with teammate Olivia Ruddy close behind to earn sixth in a personal best of 3:27.37.
McMurtrie also hit the sectional standard in her first try in the 300-meter dash this season with a time of 45.96 seconds. Izzy Stromer-Galley led the Lakers in the 300 as she took sixth place in 45.41.
Stromer-Galley also anchored the 4×200 meter relay team to their fastest time of the season as they placed fourth in 1:55.10. Meghan Mehlbaum, Dinah Gifford and Caroline Mehlbaum also contributed to relay.
Maura Phillips led the Cazenovia contingent in the 600-meter run with a season best time of 1:49.83, just ahead of teammate Lily Kogut who was less than a half second off the sectional mark with a clocking of 1:51.98. Phillips also led off Cazenovia’s third place 4×400 meter relay as Marris, Caroline Mehlbaum and Margaret Huftalen all contributed to their total of 4:36.68.
Gifford and Kate Millson each scored in the 3,000 while Abbie Comeau (5:35.29) dropped 16 seconds from her week one time to lead a trio of Lakers in the 1,500 as Zoey Gagne and Maeve McGreevy also ran season bests.
Cazenovia will have one more shot at the powerful Northstars in 2023 as they both return to SRC Arena this Saturday to face another large field of Syracuse-area schools in the George Constantino Memorial Invitational.
