Determined to maintain its momentum while students were out of classes, the Skaneateles girls track and field team went to last Wednesday’s Tully Spring Break Invitational and emerged with a series of top finishes. Twice, the Lakers prevailed in relays. Victoria Sakal, Carly Strods, Cassie Berg and Amanda Gray got together to win the 1,600 sprint medley in 4:24.57, beating runner-up Jamesville-DeWitt by exactly four seconds. Over in the 4×800, Skaneateles prevailed again as Gray and Strods joined Grace VanDerVen and eighth-grader Madeline Adams to post a time of 10:32.05, nearly half a minute better than East Syracuse-Minoa (10:59.03) in second place. Caroline Walton had her own first-place finish, in the shot put, as the Lakers junior tossed it 33 feet 5 3/4 inches, well clear of J-D’s Sierra Vasiliou (31 feet 11 inches) and the rest of the field. Walton also was second in the discus with a throw of 99 feet 8 inches as Oneida’s Taylor Youngkrans (111 feet 1 inch) finished in front.
Sakal, in the 200-meter dash, was second (27.30 seconds) behind Herkimer star Lauren Delude (26.39 seconds). In the 800-meter run, VanDerVen finished third in 2:33.53 as she also claimed sixth in the long jump, while Adams got fifth place in the 3,000-meter run (11:38.40). Kaela Fiutak tied for sixth in the pole vault as Joanna Dean got sixth in the discus behind Walton. Both Skaneateles teams go to Phoenix next Wednesday for a three-way meet that also includes Christian Brothers Academy.