Sachem East Girls Cross-Country Takes 2nd at Suffolk Coaches Meet

The following article was submitted by Pete McNeill, Sachem East Girls Track coach.

The Sachem East Girls Cross Country team competed on the Suffolk Coaches Invitational at Sunken Meadow on Saturday, highlighted by the 2nd place finish of the Varsity squad.

Boasting 10 teams in the top 25 in the New York State rankings, split evenly in the two Varsity races, this would be the toughest test yet of the 2012 squad and a good measure of the team's progress.

With Shannon O'Hehir (20:25) running a negative split effort and grabbing 6th place, and Jayda Allen (14th-20:58) and Kaitlin DeMartino (20th-21:05) not far behind, the team placed 2nd (95 points) to upstate powerhouse Tappan Zee (69 pts) in the Varsity "B" race.

Ciara Murphy (22nd-21:13) and Katie Hempfling (34th-21:55) were Sachem East's 4th and 5th scorers as the Varsity posted the 7th fastest 5 person average of the day (21:07), just behind League 1 powerhouses Northport (20:51) and Sachem North (21:01).

Also running impressive races were Nicole Silvestre (22:19), Holly Lindoe (22:46), and Devan Classi (23:17). For the second week in a row the freshman squad won their race as they totalled 40 points to defeat Sacred Heart (54 pts) and 25 other teams.

Karli Murrpy was the overall winner, taking 1st place in a time of 9:25 for the 1.5 mile course. Barbie Lamm, Jill Manfredi, Sophia Saladino, Chandana Kochath, and Kaitlin Veigl all contributed to the team win.

Next up for Sachem East is a dual meet with Commack at Sunken Meadow. on Tuesday.