OFA T-F Teams Record Many PRs; Lisbon's Pierce Aids Canton Title

CANTON - Responding to the challenge of a big meet, the OFA Track-Field teams recorded a host of personal bests at Saturday night's Section 10 Invitational at St. Lawrence University's Newell Fieldhouse.

Lindsey Tolman continued as the leader of the Lady Blue Devils sustaining her perfect season in the high jump and clearing a personal best 5' 2" to answer a stern test. Tolman cleared 5' 2" after Indian River's Katie McCrum matched her up to Devil senior's previous season-best of 5'. Tolman also placed 10th in a strong triple jump field and combined with seventh grader Danielle Steenkamer, eighth grader Kayla Tolman and ninth grader Aubrey O'Marah for a seventh place in the 4x400 relay.

Steenkamer also posted a personal best (PB) taking 16th in the 600 run and OFA Coach Diane Jeneault credited O'Marah for her best meet of the season. Kate Sayer-Hall placed third in the shot put and logged a personal best along with fellow throwers Alex Bay and Emily Cunningham who are all benefitting greatly from the coaching of Dr. Chris LaFlair.

Allysha Bracy enhanced her strong season in the long jump placing fifth. Other personal bests came from Megan Grady who ran ninth in the 3000, Janelle Fredericks who took 11th in the 1000, Abby Weegar who took 13th in the 55 hurdles and Julianne Mitchell in the 600.

The OFA Boys placed ninth in a field of 16 with 37.5 points in an effort which featured the best time of the season in the 4x800 relay by the sixth place team of Jarret Piercey, Alex Wood, J.P. Burns and Alex St. Germain and a season's best by the fourth place 4x200 relay team of Andy Ashley, Colby Hurteau, Christian Lesperance and Paul LaPlante.

Lesperance also recorded a personal best of 1:31.3 taking seventh in the 600 run. Alex Wood ran a PB 10:41.7 taking sixth in the 3200 meters, Zach Grenier stretched his personal best to 38' 6.5" taking third in the triple jump and Nick Crawford upped his PB in the high jump to 5' 6" taking seventh. Grenier also combined with Hurteau for a 5-7 OFA finish in the 55 meters and Hurteau rounded out another durable triple placing with a sixth in the 1000 meters. Ashley complemented his strong relay leg with ninth places in the 300 meter dash and the long jump and LaPlante made a second leaderboard entry with an eighth place in the long jump. Kurtis Smithers rounded out OFA's scoring with a seventh place in the shot put.

Pierce Aids Bears Title

Lisbon Central eighth grader Laura Pierce, the fifth member of her family to run for Canton Central through a merger agreement, continued to accelerate her season of emergence in playing a major role a first place finish by Canton. The Lady Bears outscored Saranac Central of Section 7 94-85.5 followed by South Jefferson 67.5 and Malone 66.

Pierce placed second to teammate Aimee Beaudette in both the 1500 and 3000 runs. Pierce ran a 5:16.2 in the 1500 meters where Beaudette led the way in 5:13.1. The Bears' secured a trifecta scoring bonanza as Emily Sweeney ran third.

Beaudette led the 3000 meters in 11:22.0 with Pierce (11:22.4) just a split second behind. Beaudette completed an individual distance trifecta anchoring Sophie Goobic, Kaitlin Fanning and Sarah Stone for a victory in the 4x400 relay.

The Canton Boys received a massive effort from Damien Ashlaw who approached the Section 10 record winning the 55 meter dash in 6.5, won the high jump with a 6"3" clearance and took second with a 20' 9" long jump.

The top NAC runner in boys meet was Norwood-Norfolk's Jon Eng who led the 600 meter run and carried the baton in 4x800 and 4x400 relay victories.