Red, Black & Gold Scoreboard: January 8

Sachem North Boys Winter Track: On Saturday 9 distance runners from the Sachem North boys track and field team traveled to New York City to compete in the mile at the Hispanic Games. The crew was led by Colin Eberhardt's 4:34 mile and Alex Lazarich's 4:48 mile. On Sunday the freshmen and sophomores competed in the Suffolk County Freshmen/Sophmore Championships. The sophomores were led by Michael Kearns' 2nd place throw in the shot put and the 4th place finish turned in by the 4x400 of Chris Biryla, Marc Richer, James Novak and Jack Conner.The freshmen were led by Patrick Lavan's 6th place finish in the mile, a 3rd place finish by the 4x200 team of Conner Urban, Mark Trofa, Chris Mahoney and Netwich, and a 2nd place finish by the 4x800 relay team of Mark DiFulvio, Patrick Lavan, Danny Block and Matt Ebner.

Sachem East Girls Winter Track: The Sachem East Girls Track team was well represented at The Jim Howard Invitational at Suffolk West with a number of top 6 finishes and some outstanding personal bests. Highlights of the meet in the distance events included Rachel Paul's 1st place finish in the 600 (1:39.52) and the 4, 6 finish of Nicole Silvestre (3:19.00) and Casey Gelderman (3:19.82). Laurie Semetsis placed 5th in the 300 in 45.28 and Amanda Sluzewski jumped a personal best of 30'11" in the triple jump, place yet to be determined as the results of that event (the last event of the meet) have yet to be posted. The Throwers again placed highly with Gabby Trejo (34'2"), Brittany Sepe (33'11.5"), and Pam Emengo (28'6"), placind 2nd, 3rd, and 6th in the shot put, respectively. Perhaps the highlight of the meet came in the Racewalk where Sachem East demonstrated it's incredible depth in the event. With the teams top 5 racewalkers competing in the prestigious Hispanic Games Invitational Racewalk the day before, it was up to the less seasoned walkers to step up into the spotlight. Valerie Auciello was just off her season best as she placed 2nd in 8:46.54, and Caroline Hanson took over 30 seconds off her best to grab 4th in 9:01.90. This week will be a busy one for the team with the Millrose Qualifier meet on Wednesday, the Zeitler League 1 Relays Friday, and the Stanner Games at the Armory on Saturday. 

Sachem North Girls Winter Track: The format at the Jim Howard Meet does not fit well with Sachem’s track and field team. Meet rules limit all competing teams to five athletes per event. It is impossible for all 91 Sachem North athletes to compete at the meet. About one-third of the team competed at yesterday’s Hispanic Games at the Armory. Most of these athletes did not compete today.  After some creative line-up decisions, only eight team members did not have events at the Jim Howard Meet.  While this was disappointing to the non-competing athletes and coaches, it was good to get most of the team into a meet this weekend.

Sprinters were asked to look at today’s line-up with a good attitude as some sprinters became middle distance runners for today’s meet.  Seven sprinters ended up running 600 or 1000 meters for the first time in their respective careers today.  Despite pre-race nervousness by most of the moved-up sprinters, times were good and race plans were executed well.   Freshman Sarah Vallecillo led novice 600 m. sprinters and freshman Alicia Williams won her heat of the 1000 meter run  with a strong move to take the lead before the bell lap.

Many team members got to compete in their principal events.  Kristie Michta won high jump, Sunja Joseph triple jumped over 34 feet (34’ 2 ½”) for the second time this month.  Nikki Fogarty placed third in the 55 m. hurdles in 9.47 – just .07 off her outstanding time at the Armory yesterday.

Sachem looks ahead to a busy weekend with League 1-2 Zeitler Relays on Friday and Stanner Games at the Armory on Saturday.  Kelly Lavan will run in Stanner Games featured invitational 3000 meter run on Saturday.

Sachem Hockey: Sachem 13, Northport/Huntington 3: .

Sachem Wrestling: Sachem competes at Battlefield Duals: .