Cazenovia Republican

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Once you get to spring high school sports, everything is compacted, the state championships mostly handed out on a single weekend in June as summer, and breathing space, looms.

Not so in the winter. Starting in early February, and running through the end of March, every weekend something is getting handed out, the volume increasing, and then decreasing.

Consider last weekend one of the busier ones. All you had were sectional finals in boys and girls indoor track, boys and girls bowling, boys swimming and those girls volleyball sides that have not (yet) converted to the fall.

Start up at SRC Arena, where last Friday and Saturday it was indoor track honors on the line, which led to some rather interesting point patterns.

On the Class AA girls side, F-M won by blanketing the top six point-earning spots in the distance races which is their specialty, helping to counteract C-NS doing the exact same thing in the field events and 55 hurdles. Funny how F-M's boys won its part of the AA meet without the same trick, as the points were spread around a bit more.

J-D also managed a sweep in Class A on Friday, but in Saturday's Class B and C/D meets, the spoils got spread around a bit more. Cazenovia's girls fought off Skaneateles on the girls side in B, while CBA emerged from a crowded back for boys honors. Tully easily won the boys C/D meet as West Canada Valley, fueled by Sarah Wiatr's three titles (55 hurdles, long jump, triple jump), rolled to the girls championship.

It was easy to decide who was the weekend's most impressive athlete. In the sectional swim meet at Nottingham, Drake Becksted broke meet records in the 50 and 100 freestyle in the Class A portion on Friday, then shattered a pair of 23-year-old sectional marks in those same races in Sunday's state qualifier.

Can Becksted, who is going to Virginia Tech, go to the top in the state meet at Buffalo March 2-3? The same question could be asked of Mexico diver Nick Rodriguez, who broke his own sectional meet record for points as C-NS's Billy Werksman did the same on the Class A side.

Becksted wasn't the only double winner. Auburn's Lucas Zelehowsky (200 freestyle, 500 freestyle) and Baldwinsville's Danny Burke (200 individual medley, 100 backstroke) also had double titles, and Watertown won its first-ever team championship, edging West Genesee in Class A and also taking the George Falwell Cup for overall team honors. New Hartford prevailed in Class B.

The volleyball finals, played at J-D, varied between tight and one-sided. The tight parts included Dolgeville upending unbeaten Beaver River in five sets for the C-2 title and Cincinnatus needing five sets to scrape past Hamilton in Class D.

By contrast, Tully (in Class C-1), Canastota (in Class B) and Whitesboro (in Class A) all claimed their sectional banners in three-set sweeps, none more impressive than Marcia Laidlaw's Raiders taking out favored Homer. Just the same, Dolgeville would beat Tully in three for the overall Class C crown.

When Section III's top bowlers gathered Saturday at Strike-N-Spare Lanes in Mattydale, the C-NS boys, on their home lanes, led through the morning session. But in the team "Baker" format of the afternoon, Oswego took over, passing the Northstars and winning by a comfortable margin, while Fulton led from start to finish for the girls sectional crown.