BOONVILLE – Earning points in all 19 events, the Cazenovia girls track and field team outclassed the field to win the Section III Class B-2 championship, the program’s third consecutive sectional title.
It took two days to achieve due to a severe weather delay on May 23 that pushed the rest of the events to the next day, but the Lakers racked up 192 points to get away from Lowville (118), Clinton (76) and the rest of the 11-team field.
What made it noteworthy, aside from the sectional three-peat, was the fact that the Lakers contested every meet on the road this spring and conducted its practices in a local park due to construction of the new athletic facility at Cazenovia.
Still, the team persevered and added a sectional win to their undefeated regular season and string of invitational victories in 2024. And it was a milestone for many of the girls who also compete on Cazenovia cross country and indoor track teams, for this marked the 20th sectional championship since 2010 for the overall Laker running program.
Susie Pittman led the team with three individual wins, capturing her signature pole vault event at 10 feet, setting a new personal record in the high jump by clearing 5’2″ and winning the 200-meter dash in 26.87 seconds.
As if that wasn’t enough Pittman also picked up points in the triple jump for the team to follow up on her school record performance of 36’4″ in the event at the DeRuyter Invitational one week earlier.
Claire Marris earned an individual title in the 100 meter hurdles in a personal best time of 15.88 seconds and also scored in the 4×100, triple jump and 400 hurdles, where she was second in a career-best 1:07.83, just 6/10 of a second from the school record.
Izzie Stromer-Galley was also an individual champion, winning the 400-meter dash in a personal best 1:02.07. She also anchored the 4×100 to its silver medal finish with Audie Spring and Avery Cashatt helping and scored points in the 100 and 200-meter sprints.
Reid McMurtrie anchored the Lakers final gold medal performance, running a 1:02.2 leg to clinch the 4×400 meter relay’s first place finish in 4:12.76 with Meghan Mehlbaum, Alyssa Wardell and Maura Phillips all adding strong legs to the effort.
McMurtrie also ran a career best in the 800 to claim silver in 2:25.95 and ran a heroic anchor leg of 2:24.7 in the 4×800 as Cazenovia finished just one second behind Lowville in a time of 10:11.25. Phillips, Olivia Ruddy and Dinah Gifford also added to that effort.
Mehlbaum earned other points for the Lakers, taking fourth in the 400 hurdles and claiming second in the high jump at 4’10” with Sofie Reger third at 4’6″ as Cazenovia finished 1-2-3 in that event.
Phillips also had a banner day, running a personal best of 2:28.62 in the 800 for third while Wardell added a silver in the 400 in a best ever time of 1:02.75 and a third in the long jump at 15’5 3/4″/
The Lakers’ distance runners also impressed as they achieved a series of career-best performances.
Senior Zoey Gagne led the way with a time of 8:06.55 for second in the 2,000-meter steeplechase with Gifford close behind to take fourth. Abbie Comeau ran her best 3,000 ever to take second in 11:17.36 and Lily Kogut ran a personal record time of 5:08.62 to take fourth in the 1,500.
Senior Maddy Rothfeld led the Lakers’ throwers as she scored in both the shot put and discus. Fellow Senior Angela Moskvich earned 1,702 points in the Pentathlon to take second, with Skye Stanford third at 1,552 to add 14 more points to the Lakers’ total.
Cazenovia’s depth was the decisive factor in the victory with 20 different athletes scoring to help the team. Freshmen Caroline Mehlbaum (personal bests to score in both the 100 and 400 hurdles) and Ava Eno (personal record of 1:05.41 to score in the 400 sprint) symbolized the deep pool of contributors to the team’s success.
Twenty members of the Cazenovia squad will advance to the sectional state qualifying meet on May 30 with the Lakers earning bids in 11 different events.
