Even with half its lineup out due to the start of spring break, the Cazenovia girls track and field team made a strong showing at the Onondaga Central Invitational on April 19.
Amassing 110 points, the Lakers topped the other 17 Class B/C/D teams in the field. Only Class A power Jamesville-DeWitt edged Cazenovia by four points for the overall title.
Reid McMurtrie and Izzy Stromer-Galley led the team with three scores each, including individual wins in their signature events.
McMurtrie won the 800 meter run with a season best time of 2:29.26 and returned to run a leg on the Lakers’ winning 4×100 meter relay. Stromer-Galley captured the 200 in her best time of the spring, 27.35 seconds, and anchored the 4×100 to victory. Both runners also contributed to the team’s second-place finish in the 4×400.
Audie Spring and Claire Marris ran the other legs on Cazenovia’s victorious 4×100 as it crossed the line in an exceptional time of 51.64 seconds. Alyssa Wardell and Lily Kogut also helped the 4×400 to its silver medal time of 4:24.16.
Spring also had two outstanding individual performances, long jumping to a state qualifier eligible distance of 16 feet 5 ¼ inches to earn second place and dashing to second in the 100 meter in 13.70.
Marris was also impressive, running personal best, state qualifier times in both hurdle events for a pair of second-place finishes. Her 100 meter hurdle time of 15.92 was among the top 25 in the state this spring while her 400 meter hurdle effort of 1:10.97 was among the top 50 in New York so far this season according to MileSplit.com.
Wardell was also a triple threat, adding a third place finish in the 400 meter run in 1:04.76 and a sixth-place 15’3” in the long jump to her relay success, all season best performances.
Kogut was impressive in the 1,500, racing to a third place time of 5:19.43 in her first attempt at the event. Zoey Gagne was just one place back, clocking a season-best 5:27.33. The Lakers also picked up two scores in the 3,000 as Dinah Gifford (11:54.52 for fourth) and Haylee Stearns (12:26.04 for sixth) both ran season-best times.
Delanie Dowling, Raeny Thompson, Ellie Morgan and Becca Brooks capped off the Lakers’ scoring on the track as all four ran personal best legs to help the team to a fourth place 11:26.34 finish in the 4×800.
Maddy Rothfeld led the team in the throws once again, earning third in the shot at 28’3 1/2” and fifth in the discus at 80’1”. Eleanor Mongeau led the team in the triple jump, earning fifth place with a sectional-qualifying leap of 30’3”, while Sofie Reger was tops in the pole vault with a fourth place height of 7’6”.
Later in the week, in Friday’s Onondaga Invitational, Kogut provided the big highlight when, in the general-field one-mile run, Kogut went 5:37.97 to prevail by more than three seconds over East Syracuse Minoa’s Rachael Burt (5:42.12).
McMurtrie finished fourth in the 800 in a season-best 2:28.54 and helped Kogut, Stromer-Galley and Wardell go 10:36.93 for fourth place in the 4×800. Wardell went 14’7″ for sixth place in the long jump and Becca Brooks had a seventh-place discus throw of 78’8″
