Boys inDoor traCk roars to seCtional title

By PHil BlaCkWell

All winter long, the Cazenovia boys indoor track and field team held up quite well when face-to-face with opponents from far larger schools.

So it only figured that, when confronted with its peers in last Wednesday’s Section III Class B-2 championships at SRC Arena, the Lakers would outclass all of them.

Led by junior Connor Frisbie and senior Branden McColm, Cazenovia, with 128 points, got clear of runner-up Marcellus (101 points) to earn the sectional banner as VernonVerona-Sherrill, with 69 points, was a distant third.

Frisbie won three times, starting out by taking the \55meter hurdles in 8.56 seconds to the 8.82 from Marcellus’ Owen Alexander, while in the high jump Frisbie topped a personalbest 6 feet to beat Skaneateles’ Max Paciorek (5’10”) as Judah Ossont (5 feet) was eighth.

And in the triple jump, no one in the event could beat Frisbie’s best leap of 40 feet 6 1/2 inches, though Ossont again got points as he took seventh with 35’7 1/4”.

From the very first race of the night, the 3,200-meter run, Cazenovia was in charge thanks to McColm, who needed 10:24.02 to beat out the 12:28.01 from Hannibal’s Noah Melita as Chris Kelly was eighth in

11:11.84.

Not stopping there, McColm also took the 1,000-meter run in 2:50.17, beating out teammate Will Austin’s personal-best

2:52.64 in second place, Austin also taking third in the 1,600meter run with 5:03.62 as Caleb Gilmore (5:06.05) was fifth and McColm sixth.

Sophomore Jaden Kaplan beat the field in the 600-meter run, his 1:30.94 beating out, among others, Tristan FieldBradley, who was third in a season-best 1:34.38. Then Kaplan took second (38.82 seconds) to Paciorek (38.16) in the 300-meter dash.

Over in the pole vault Killian Blouin prevailed, clearing 10 feet with fewer misses than Marcellus’ Andrew McCaffrey.

Alex Ramirez had a secondplace weight throw of 44’7 1/2” to set a new personal mark as Ethan Burry was sixth (38’10”) and Ramirez added a seventhplace shot put of 34’2 1/2”, with Aidan Bailey (30’5 1/2”) ninth.

Kaplan, Field-Bradley, Wyatt Scott and Finn Worthington were second in the 4x400 relay in 3:44.23 to Marcellus’ winning 3:39.92, while in the 4x800 relay Gilmore, Austin, Kelly and Eddie Comeau got second place in 9:23.08. Scott, Worthington, Matt Tugaw and Aidan Jurgens were fifth in the 4x200 relay in 1:43.25.

Over in the simultaneous sectional Class B-1 meet, Chit- tenango was quite strong, third among girls teams with 41 points and fifth on the boys side with 52 points as Westhill finished at the top of both divisions.

The Cazenovia boys indoor track and field team earned the Section III Class B-2 championship last Wednesday at srC arena, picking up 128 points to pull away from runner-up Marcellus’ 101 points.

Caleb LeBlanc won for the Chittenango boys in the 1,600, his 4:39.38 well clear of the 4:47.45 of Westhill’s Drew O’Reilly. In the 4x800, LeBlanc, Gavin Roach, Joseph Lin and Andrew Bielicki made it to second place in 9:37.93.

Lin gained victory in the long jump, his 20’1 1/2” a new personal mark and the only leap above 20 feet. In 8.18 seconds, Lin was a close second to Syracuse ITC’s Tyshawn Taylor

(8.08) in the 55 hurdles.

Shamus Eiffe got fourth in the 600 in 1:32.49 as the Bears were fourth in the 4x400 in 4:07.94 and also fourth (1:46.36) in the 4x200. Owen Law topped 5 feet for fourth place in the high jump.

Moving to the girls side for Chittenango, Jordan Wagner’s long jump of 16’1” set a new personal mark and only trailed the 16’5 1/2” from Westhill’s Kate Bendall.

Laura Powers went 5:23.24 in the 1,500-meter run for second place to the 5:18.92 from Oneida seventh-grader Molly Myatt. Powers, Sophia DiGenn- aro, Evelyn Wynkoop and Emily Judd were third in the 4x800 in 11:07.80.

Brooke Walters and Abby Horning joined Wagner and DiGennaro as the Bears took third in the 4x400 in 4:30.39, DiGennaro later taking third in the 600 in 1:49.86 as Miranda Danaher was fourth in the shot put with 25’2 1/2”. Ava McLean was fifth in the 3,000-meter run in 12:35.71, with Allie Bartoszek seventh in the 55 hurdles in 10.06 seconds and eighth in the triple jumpf before helping Chittenango get sixth (2:05.14) in the 4x200.