Sachem East Girls Track Downs Defending League Champs

The Sachem East girls track and field team traveled to Northport for a high powered matchup between Long Island's 4th (Northport) and 5th (Sachem East) ranked teams on what turned out to be a beautiful day for a season opener.

With ideal temperatures and very little wind, performances across the board were impressive, to say the least. And the meet, well, it was a slugfest from the start, with Sachem East finally pulling away in the end, 92-58.

Northport started the meet strongly, sweeping the triple jump, but with Shannon Haberkorn and Sam Eng placing second and third in the hurdles and Rachel Paul winning the 1500m, East stayed in the hunt.

Essence Sterling grabbed second in the 100m, Laurie Semetsis won the 400m, and throwers Brittany Sepe (School Record 40'6"), Diamond Jackson, and Gabby Trejo swept the shot put as the tide began to turn. With Kelly Maranchuck, Alyssa Furlani and Holly Lindoe sweeping the Racewalk, Paul winning the 800m, Sterling taking third in the 200m, and Ally Figalora and Mel Notarstefano placing second and third in the 400m hurdles, the score at the mid-point of the meet was Northport 46, Sachem East 44.

It was at this point that Sachem East began to take control of the meet. Shannon O'Hehir and Danielle Vasquez gave Northport's All-State distance star Bridgette Brennan a run for her money taking second and third, and the high jump squad of Alyssa Naer, Christina Schretzman, and Maddy Egan swept that event.

Meanwhile, over at the throwers circle, Brittany Sepe was breaking another school record (113'11") as she and Diamond Jackson went 1,2, in the discus throw. The last event before the relays, the long jump, one of Northport's signature events, was where the Sachem East team put the meet out of reach. With the Northport jumpers holding the first three places through the first two rounds of jumps, Maddy Egan rose to the challenge on her last jump, pulling out second place and pushing the East point total to 77.

With a win now mathmatically guaranteed, the final three relays would not determine the winner, but would determine just how big the win would be. Notarstefano, Ashley Mercado, Sterling and Jackson combined to win the 4 by 100 relay while Semetsis, Figalora, Paul and Notarstefano teamed to take the 4 by 400. With Nicole Silvestre, Jayda Allen, Katie Hempfling and Kaitlin DeMartino winning the 4 by 800 relay Sachem East pulled away in convincing fashion, winning by a score of 92-58.

Next up for Sachem East are a couple of Invitationals, and then East will be hosting an exciting home dual meet with Sachem North on April 18. Start time is 4 p.m.

Article courtesy of Pete McNeill, Sachem East girls track coach