Cazenovia Wins Sectionals and Advances to the NYSPHSAA Championship

Last week, the Cazenovia cross country girls saved their best team effort of the season thus far for the moment that mattered most: the sectional championship race.  Their merited performance earned them a thrilling victory over two talented opponents, as the Lakers scored 48 points to claim victory over defending champion South Jefferson and Adirondack’s teams for the program’s fourth Section 3 title.

From the start, the entire squad sprinted from the start line, determined to avoid the slower start that cost them extra effort working through the field at the league championship meet. The strategy worked, as they settled into competitive positions that had them within striking range of their two strong rivals throughout the race.

Sophomore Olivia Ruddy stood her ground with the top runners from Adirondack and South Jefferson throughout the 5,000-meter course to earn the top spot for Cazenovia once again with a fifth-place finish in just 21:36. Freshman Maeve McGreevy built upon her breakout performance at leagues to finish just one place behind her teammate, capturing sixth in 21:40.

Faith Wheeler delivered her strongest race of the season, passing multiple opponents in the final mile to earn the top finish among any Senior. Her ninth-place, 22:13 effort was two positions ahead of expectations to pull the team closer to victory. Junior Dinah Gifford was also impressive, running a tough race to claim twelfth in 22:51.

Our number five runner. Zoey Gagne, proved to be the deciding factor for Cazenovia. Gagne delivered a season-best effort to finish 18th overall in 23:13, four spots ahead of the number five South Jefferson runner and 18 places ahead of Adirondack’s final scorer to lock in the Laker victory.

Haylee Stearns (number six for Cazenovia in 29th, 24:10.6) and Olivia Wong (seventh for the team in 30th, 24:10.8) both contributed to the victory by displacing the fifth Adirondack scorer. Senior Bonnie Pittman was just two places back in 24:24 while teammates Sedona Millard (27:50) and Ilsa Denton (28:41) also ran well for the Lakers.

Perhaps even more impressive than Cazenovia’s first place finish among the 13 Class C squads to earn the title was their fifth place standing among 73 teams in the overall Section 3 “merged” results, with only Class A powers FM, CNS, Liverpool and West Genesee topping the Lakers. Their strong overall finish bodes well for their prospects next week.

Coach Kurt Wheeler called the win a well-earned victory, giving credit to the other teams for a solid performance. “Defending champion South Jefferson and Adirondack are both tremendous teams. The girls' ability to beat opponents of that caliber is a credit to our squad and their determination and mental toughness." All season he has encouraged them to be their best each race and not to focus too much on rankings, saying “rankings and ratings don’t win races, but gutsy performances do, and our girls really delivered! It was a great team effort by every runner and every teammate who showed up on race day to support the team."
 
Cazenovia now advances to the NYSPHSAA Championship meet, hosted by Vernon Verona Sherrill Central School District, on Saturday, Nov 12 at 12:30 p.m. to represent Section 3 against the top Class C teams from across NYS. CCSD congratulates this amazing teams and wish them success this weekend.

Photo caption: The Cazenovia girls cross country squad won their fourth sectional title on Nov 5th with an incredible team performance.