Sports

East and North Have Strong Outings at Counties

Girls finish third and fourth respectively, look forward to next meets.

Sachem East and North places third and fourth, respectively, at this year's Suffolk County girls track and field championships. Both team recaps are below ...

Sachem East

All season long the Sachem East girls track and field team had been led by throwers, racewalkers, and distance runners, and all season long the goal of self improvement through hard work in all event areas was clearly evident as personal bests were broken from week to week.

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After last week's win at the League at the League I Championship it was clear that Sachem East had closed the gap on Suffolk County powerhouses Bayshore and defending champion Northport. The question remained; would it be enough for Sachem East to give them a run for their money? Now all that was left was to run the meet and find out.

In the opening event, the 3000, Rachel Paul (10:18.06) and Shannon O'Hehir (10:42.93) went 1,2 to set the stage. So far, so good. Nicole Silvestre then ran an inspiring race to pull off a 6th place in the 1000, running a personal best 3:11.10. Next came Sachem East's signature event, the 1500 meter racewalk. With Olympic Team hopeful Maria Michta cheering wildly the Racewalk squad took three of the top 4 spots broken up only by the 2nd place finish of Maria' sister, Katie, from Sachem North. Kelly Maranchuck placed 1st in 7:09.92, Holly Lindoe 3rd in 7:20.85, Alyssa Furlani 4th in 7:22.61, and Amanda Catherall 6th in 7:43.71.

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With Northport, Bayshore, and Sachem North dominating the action in the sprints, field event results began to come in. Those same three schools scored big in the jumps, but the Sachem East throwing squad again came through as they have all season. Britt Sepe had an outstanding series of throws and placed second with a 37'5" throw in the Shot Put. Gabby Trejo was 3rd (34'7"), and Pam Emengo added to the scoring with a personal best throw of 32'8.5".

Back on the track the scene was set for what would be one of the most exciting races of the meet. Jessica Gelibert of Bayshore, Long Islands premiere 400 meter runner who was the favorite in the hurdles, would move up in distance to the 600. Rachel Paul of Sachem East, one of the Nations best distance runners, would be moving down. Gelibert would be fresh, Paul had already won the 3000 an hour earlier. As expected, the fresh Gelibert took the early lead and gapped Paul from the start.

But by the second lap Paul had pulled up to within a meter of Gelibert and the race was on. Coming off the first turn on the final lap Paul made a big move and edged past Gelibert just as they entered the final turn. They stayed just like that through the final turn, but coming off the turn Gelibert surged and edged past Paul. Paul rallied once more and closed the gap, but Gelibert was able to hold on through the line, 1:35.80 to Paul's 1:35.93. Paul's time bested her own school record by about a second.

The last open running event that Sachem East had a chance to score in was the 1500. Another distance event, and another 2 points as Laurie Semetsis ran a season best 4:57.53 to break the elite 5 minute barrier. Going into the relays Northport would have a slight lead in the team scoring, followed closely by Bayshore and then Sachem East. It would come down to the relays. The 4 by 800 relay was won by Ward Melville, but with the squad of Jackie Wasilco, Casey Gelderman, Katie Hempfling, and Rachel Paul placing second, Sachem East closed the gap on both teams.

The 4X400 squad of Laurie Semetsis, Allison Figalora, Meaghan Murphy and Melanie Notarstefano ran well to place 4th, but were bested by both Bayshore and Northport. In the meets final event, the 4X200, the Sachem East squad of Stephanie Curtin, Ashley Mercado, Essence Sterling, and Shannon Haberkorn ran with passion but were not able to match the sprint speed of schools like Sachem North and Bayshore, as Bayshore was able to seal the victory and take the team title.

Sachem North

Sachem North placed fourth in team scoring at the Large Schools County Championship Meet for the second straight year at Suffolk West tonight.  While the 2011-2012 finished in the same place as last year’s edition, scoring reflects the new look the team has had all season. 

Losses in distance (Keira Wood, Kayla Cataldo, Lauren Waka, Mary Cipriano)  sprints (Stephanie Richer, Samantha Swift, Rachel Steinberg, Katie Burdge) and field events (Kayla Cataldo, Brittany Wienclaw, Samantha Swift) stripped the team of many of its key post-season athletes for several years.  The team’s current mix of talented veterans - led by distance runners Kelly Lavan, Becca Duffy and Katie Michta, by sprinter Melissa Michels and by field eventers Kristie Michta, Carly Swinford and Gabriella Czerw was joined by an group of veterans who came into their own this season and an outstanding rookie group that made their presence felt at County Championships.  

Team rookies Sunja Joseph, Alyssa Leto, Nikki Fogarty made up three legs of Sachem’s 4th place 4x200 m. relay.  Sunja (long jump), Alyssa (55 m. dash) and Nikki (55 m. hurdles) also scored in open events.  Rookie sprinters Ashley Williams and Melissa Liebold also ran to season-bests in the 300 m. dash.  This young sprint squad – anchored by Melissa Michels in spirit and in practice (Melissa anchors the 4x200) – will continue its exciting post-season and be a dominant force in the county for several years.

Veterans led our distance squad tonight.  Junior Kelly Lavan had a career-best as she placed fourth in the 1500 m. run in 4:53.50.  Sophomore Katie Michta had a career-best as she placed second in the 1500 m. racewalk in 7:11.00 against Long Island’s top-ranked Kelly Maranchuck of Sachem East. 

While senior Becca Duffy’s time in the 600 m. run was off her season-best, Becca will continue her breakout senior year as part of Sachem SMR (sprint Medley Relay) that hopes to run at Nationals in March.  Kristie Michta led Sachem’s deep high jump squad with a third place finish and Carly Swinford tied for fifth as both matched their season-best high jumps.

There were several inspiring moments for Sachem North tonight.  Team co-captain Rachel LaSala visited the team briefly this evening before Sachem boarded its team bus for Suffolk West.  Rachel’s season came to an end on Wednesday following a hard fall during a hurdles workout.  Rachel broke her collarbone in the fall but was all smiles as team members gathered around her to wish her well and listen to their captain exhort the team to do its best tonight.  Rachel’s words were not lost on fellow co-captain, four-year training partner and friend Andrea Hegarty and rookie Nikki Fogarty. 

Andrea ran a career-best 9.93 in her hurdles race tonight, beating her previous season-best by .3 seconds.  Nikki became Sachem’s #5 all-time hurdler with her 9.12 times in both semi-finals and finals as she placed fourth in the event.  Sisters Kristie and Katie Michta have demonstrated great courage and character as they have moved forward in their seasons despite a heart-breaking family loss in the sudden death of their grandfather in the days before last week’s League Championship meet.  The two girls exhibit their love for their “Dziadzi” (their affection name for their grandfather) as they follow his words to do their best each day. 

Sophomore Natalie DeQuarto raced more than 30 seconds faster than her previous best as she became Sachem’s #18 all-time racewalker tonight.  This is very impressive when one considers the rich history of Sachem racewalk athletes. 

Natalie was cheered on by Sachem record holder and 2012 Olympics hopeful Maria Michta during her race.  In one of the last races of the day, senior Devin McMahon returned from a knee injury and ran her first race in five weeks.   Devin ran the second leg of the 4x400 m. relay and helped the relay run its fastest time of the season.

Sachem moved past Ward Melville in team standings in the last race of the meet.  Melissa Michels secured the fourth place team finish as she passed a Northport runner in her anchor leg and picked up two valuable team points for Sachem as the North Arrows edged out the Ward Melville Patriots 35.50 to 34.  Bay Shore (86), Northport (80) and Sachem East (71) were the top three teams.

Final Scores: Bayshore 1st-86 points, Northport 2nd-80 points, Sachem East 3rd-71 points, Sachem North fourth-35.5 points, with 14 other school managing to get in the scoring column in a very exciting and competitive meet. Sachem East did indeed give the favorites a good scare!

A select group of Sachem East distance runners will be competing in the prestigious New Balance Collegiate Invitational at the Armory Track and Field Center in New York City today as they were selected to compete in a ten team field featuring seven schools ranked in the top 20 in the Nation in the 4 x 800 relay. The action will be webcast live on armorytrack.com and You Tube sports, race time 2:20 pm. The next full team event will be the State Qualifier meet Sunday, February 12.


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