SYRACUSE – Breaking a 20-year-old school record and hitting six state qualifier meet times, the Cazenovia girls indoor track and field team kicked off 2024 with their best set of performances of the winter.
During the morning session of the John Arcaro Memorial at SRC Arena, the Lakers finished third in a 20-team field with 70.5 points, just half a point behind second-place Liverpool (71) as Cicero-North Syracuse won again with 151.5.
Susie Pittman headlined the Cazenovia performance as she broke the school pole vault record with a leap of 9 feet, 7 inches. The old mark of 9’6” had stood since 2004.
Pittman was already in first place as she cleared 9 feet and 9’6” nd then moved the bar up one more time to clear the new record. She was close at 10 feet and will try to reach that height which is the “super standard” to advance to the state meet in March.
As if this wasn’t enough, Pittman returned to clear 5 feet for fourth in the high jump with teammate Meghan Mehlbaum seventh at 4’10”,, both reaching the state qualifier meet standard.
Pittman contributed to a fourth state qualifier effort as she ran a 26.9 leg on the Lakers’ 4×200 relay as the team eclipsed their previous season best with a time of 1:52.11. Izzy Stromer-Galley (27.1), Claire Marris (28.5) and Dinah Gifford (29.2) also contributed to a third-place finish.
Marris also hit the qualifier meet standard individually as she raced to a personal best time of 9.32 seconds in the 55-meter hurdles in only her third attempt at the event. She finished third overall as Caroline Mehlbaum (10.61) and Becca Brooks (11:09) also ran personal best times.
Cazenovia’s final elite performance came in the 4×800 as Reid McMurtrie, Olivia Ruddy, Lily Kogut and Abbie Comeau ran a season best of 10:24.58 to finish third and beat the qualifier standard by more than five seconds. McMurtrie came within a tenth of a second of the school indoor record in the 800 in her opening leg as she ran a 2:26.5 split.
McMurtrie returned to run a personal best of 1:44.98 to capture second in the 600. Teammate Maura Phillips was eighth in 1:50.98 while Kogut also hit a personal best of 1:51.04 to meet the sectional standard.
Izzy Stromer-Galley contributed two other strong races for the Lakers as she ran a career-best time of 7.81 in the 55-meter dash to climb to the top of the sectional Class B-2 leaderboard. She returned to run another season best of 45.03 to earn sixth in the 300-meter dash. Meghan Mehlbaum also ran a personal best of 46.44 to qualify for sectionals.
Ruddy also contributed a personal best, hitting 3:23.84 to earn eighth in the 1,000 as she led a trio of Laker bests. Abbie Comeau (3:31.93) and Sally Hughes (3:33.57) also ran their fastest times ever.
Zoey Gagne led the Lakers in the 1,500, Dinah Gifford earned a season best in the 3,000 and Marris led the 4×400 team to a fourth-place finish to round out Cazenovia’s effort on the track. Margaret Huftalen, Maura Phillips and Quinn Holdren also contributed to the time of 4:36.04 in the relay.
Maddy Rothfeld led Cazenovia’s throwers once again, earning second in the shot put at 29’11 ¼” with Lucy Bliss also hitting the sectional standard at 25’10”. Rothfeld tossed the 20-pound weight 31’6 ¼” for fifth with Olivia Morse adding a personal best in the event at 24’10 ¾”.
Audie Spring led Cazenovia’s jumpers as she scored in the triple jump and qualified for sectionals with a leap of 31’3 ½” in her first attempt at the event. She also led the team in the long jump at 14’5 ¾” with teammate Tara Pratt close behind at 14’4”, both over the sectional standard.
Cazenovia will strive to maintain their momentum this Saturday at the Fred Kirschenheiter Memorial.
