Sports

Sachem East Girls XC Places 7th at Eastern States Championships

Rachel Paul finishes seventh overall in 14:45 for the 2.5-mile course.

With five time defending national champion Fayettville-Manlius headlining the Girls Eastern States Championship race, a field of 16 other elite teams took the starting line hoping to make their mark in the featured race at the 39th annual Manhattan College Invitational at historic Van Cortland park Sunday.

Rachel Paul led the team to a seventh place finish by placing seventh overall in 14:45 for the 2.5-mile course. Danielle Vasquez finished No. 36 (16:12), Shannon O'Hehir 39th (16:21), and Mel Notarstefano No. 49 (16:45) to put Sachem in position to knock out some top ranked teams if the fifth scorer could come through.

Kaitlyn Di Martino finished strong at 78 (17:35) to seal the seventh place finish. Sam Maurice (79 in 17:36), and Nicole Silvestri (84 in 17:47) followed closely as Sachem topped some highly ranked teams including Rhode Island and Maine's No. 1's, and finished with 209 points, just nine points behind the third ranked class "A" team in New York, Canandaiga (200 points).

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The Sachem East girls are now 4-0 in dual meet competition and are gearing up to face undefeated perenial power Ward Melville for the League Championship and also highly ranked Northport for the right to represent Suffolk at the state meet.

Next up is the Brown Invitational this Saturday where, although not of the same firepower as Eastern States, Sachem will again be competing in the Featured Championship race.

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Included in the field this weekend were the top ranked cross-country team from six different states ( New York, Maine, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont), three teams ranked in the top 10 in the U.S., and an up-and-coming scrappy Sachem squad.


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