Sports
Sachem Girls Qualify for Finals at Divisions
East and North have solid days on Connetquot's track.
With ever bigger strides and jumps under their cleats, members of both Sachem girls track teams in Monday's Section XI Girls Divisional Championship secured spots for Wednesday's Championship Finals, when Sachem High Schools East and North will meet again at Connetquot High School to vie for the title.
"We're looking to carry over what we did today into Wednesday," said East assistant coach Dan Schaub. "It's about the team score, and today put us in a good position for that."
East's Rachel Paul was the Division I champ in the 800-meter run, with a time of 2:14.97. Teammate Melanie Notarstefano took fifth in the same event, coming in at 2:20.71.
East's day was also highlighted by two new school records: Meghan Walsh landed 34' 1 3/4" in the triple jump, up from her previous best of 33' 5" at the North Shore Invitational on May 10. In the 4 X 400-meter relay, Walsh, Paul and Notarstefano joined teammate Alyson Figalora to finish with a new school record time of 4:07.79.
"I warmed up a lot," said Walsh of her preparation in the triple jump. "[Assistant coach Joe] Coffey had me constantly stretching. I just went for it and powered it out."
In the preliminaries, Lisa Luchsinger qualified for the finals in both the 100-meter and 200-meter events, with respective times of 12.23 seconds and 25.34 seconds. In the 4 X 100-meter relay, Luchsinger and teammates Jackie Quenstedt, Lauren Smith and Alyssa Genduso finished with a time of 51.22 seconds. Kristen Faulkner took third place in the pentathlon.
North stayed in the hunt although its path took some unfortunate turns, including sector violations in the discus event that knocked North out of contention.
"We had some near misses, but that's the nature of the sport," said North coach Alex Young. "We'll come back Wednesday and see what we can do."
The least fortunate and most painful instance befell Kayla Cataldo, who sustained an injury on a late attempt in the pole vault event. As of Monday evening, the injury did not appear serious - Cataldo is believed to have suffered no broken bones or sprains.
According to Young, her pole caught the end of the runway and slid downward toward the landing, causing Cataldo to take a steep fall just short of the landing as the pole ricocheted backward. It was a heavy price to pay, but good news helped ease the pain.
"Despite Kayla's fall, she won the event," said Young. Supporting Cataldo's winning height of 9' was teammate Jodi Desz, who tied fro third with a height of 8' 6".
North grabbed second-place among teams in the triple jump, on the strength of Stephanie Richer's fourth-place distance of 35' 1 1/2" and Kiera Wood's jump, landing 34' 9" and finishing sixth overall. Wood also took sixth in the 800-meter run, finishing in 2:23.02.
North and East return to Connetquot Wednesday at 3 p.m.
