Long Island Natives Star at New Balance Collegiate Track Invitational

Long Islanders from as from as far east as Sachem to as far west as Hempstead stole the show at the New Balance Collegiate Track and Field Invitational Thursday and Friday at the Armory Track and Field Center in New York City. Featuring more than 200 high powered College programs , with teams from 28 states and five countries represented, this meet is the largest annual Collegiate sporting event in the metropolitan area bringing an estimated $4 million economic boost to the big apple over it's two-day schedule.

With a few elite High School events mixed in, Long Island proved itself a hotbed of track talent on both the college and prep levels with some outstanding results.

The High School Girls 4x800 relay featured many of the top distance programs in the nation, including North Shore and Sachem East. The North Shore squad of Sam Nadel, Jess Donahue, Liz Caldwell, and Briana Nerud won in a US leading time of 9:04.99. Sachem East, coming off the Suffolk County Championship meet the previous evening, was disappointed with it's 10th place finish in 9:39.83, but still holds on to it's #19 US ranking.

Sachem East coach Dan Schaub said, "the kids were just fried from last nights meet, they were just drained- emotionally and physically."

On a positive note, somehow Rachel Paul managed a 2:16 for her anchor 800, despite having tripled the previous evening including running the 13th fastest time in the U.S. this season in the 600. In that county 600 race, Paul was edged by Jess Gelibert from Bayshore, 135.80 to 1:35.93. Gelibert was also invited to compete at the New Balance Collegiate meet and proved her County race was no fluke as she took advantage of the fast Armory track to win the Girls 600 in a Suffolk County record and U.S. No. 3 at 1:32.99.

Another Long Island High School standout performing well was Kelsey Margey of Friends Academy who ran a 2:49.98 1000 to place 4th in a stellar field including fifth place finisher Emily O' Neill of Garden City who ran a 2:52.95.

So what happens to these outstanding Long Island distance runners when they go to college? They become really outstanding college runners. Charlene Lipsey of LSU, from Hempstead, won the Womens Championship 1000 in a meet record 2:44.34. Emily Lipari of Villanova, hometown Rosyln, and Brittany Sheffey from Bellport, representing Tennessee, placed first and second in the Womens Championship Mile, running 4:39.78 and 4:40.28, respectively.

Liane Farber of Northport, running for UNC, placed 9th in that same race in 4:45.54. The Womans Eastern 3000 was taken by Marist star Michelle Gaye of Harborfields (9:47.77), and on the mens side Ryan Sheridan of Villanova, a Walt Whitman alum, won the men's 5,000 Championship in 13:56.43.

These great Long Islander performances were made in a very competitive meet that saw Clemson take the womens team title and Texas A&M win the mens. East Islip native and current Duke coach, Norm Ogilvie, was clearly excited both by being back in New York and by having Long Island talent on his team.

"Watch this kid Dominic DeMatteo from HHH West," exclaimed Ogilvie. "He was a 4:16 kid in high school and now is down to 4:04. Keep an eye out for him."

Other future college stars include the Boys 4 x 200 relay teams from South Shore and Uniondale, the Uniondale Boys 4 x 400 team, and the 4 x 400 Girls relay team from Garden City, all of whom finished in the top six in their races. Particularly happy to be in the Boys 4x800 were Coach Bart Sessa's young squad from Syosset. The quartet of Dale Mittleman, Mike Wilkens, Simon Nwana, and Nick Oaussil placed 11th in a season best 8:04.65, in a race where the National record- previously held by a former Syosset squad- was broken.

This young squad of three sophomores and one junior were happy to break their season best set at Yale earlier in the season and knew they were not going to be a contender this year.

"We're just hoping the competition will pull us closer to eight flat," explained Dale Mittleman before the race. Now, with their record taken away, rest assured these future stars will be resetting their goals to some day get it back to Syosset.

Look for some of these High School standouts this Saturday at the Millrose Games, another premiere event at the Armory. Rachel Paul of Sachem East, Kelsey Margey of Friends Academy, and Briana Nerud and Sam Nadel of North Shore will all be running in the High School Girls Mile. Tickets and a live webcast of the meet can be found at armorytrack.com.