Sachem Track & Field Athletes Qualify for State Meet

With the top two performers in every event guaranteed a spot on the bus to the New York State Track and Field Championship in March, Sachem East and North arrived with a talented contingent of runners, racewalkers, and field event specialists at the state qualifying meet this past weekend.

In the first event of the day, the 4 x 400 Relay, the squad of Sachem East's Jackie Wasilco, Casey Gelderman, Meaghan Murphy, and Alison Figalora combined for a 4:21.45 to place third in their heat and qualify for finals. They would later post an almost identical time to place fifth overall. The 4 x 200 relay of Paige Picascio, Ashley Mercado, Essence Sterling, and Shannon Haberkorn were next on the track running a 1:56.85, placing 11th overall, three seconds short of making the final.

Meanwhile, the Shot Put competition was heating up with Pam Emengo placing 12th (30' 9.5"), Gabby Trejo ninth (33' 2'), and Brittany Sepe throwing well enough to make finals. Sepe would finish with a throw of 36' 7", good enough for 3rd place but exactly 1 foot short of making the State Meet.

Back on the track Rachel Paul led from start to finish to win the 1,000-meter run in 2:59.19, running just fast enough to win and qualify for States as she needed to conserve energy for the 4 by 800 relay later in the meet. Essence Sterling placed 11th in the 55 (7.78), and the trio of Shannon O'Hehir (5:11.09), Danielle Vasquez (5:13.38), and Katie Hempfling (5:20.88), placed 9th, 11th, and 15th, respectively in the 1500 meter run. Sachem East's next win came in the 1500 meter Racewalk where Kelly Maranchuck took an early lead and held on to finish first in 7:16.54. In one of the meets closest finishes, Alyssa Furlani (7:22.63) and Holly Lindoe (7:25.69) finished only seconds back, but fell just short of states, placing fifth and sixth.

The other first place finish for Sachem East came in the hotly contested 4 x 800 relay. Nicole Silvestre led off with a 2:25 split and had the team in 2nd place at the first handoff. Laurie Semetsis split 2:21 as the squad held on to 2nd behind Northport, but clearly began to open up on the rest of the competition. Rachel Paul then took the baton -and the lead, running a 2:16 and opening a 15 meter gap on Northport. Anchor leg Mel Notarstefano finished with a 2:23 as the foursome broke the school record to pull away to win in 9:27.31.

Also qualifying for the state meet was fab frosh Stephanie Curtin whose 10' jump in the pole vault competition, held four days earlier at Shoreham Wading River High School, would garner her second place. And on the boys side, Morgan Genoino would also pull off a 2nd place finish. Fourth overall after the preliminaries, Morgan stepped it up in the finals, running a season best 37.14 and earning his seat on the bus.

Michta Qualifies for States

Sachem North sophomore Katie Michta expressed relief that her race was over following the 1,500-meter racewalk at Section XI Individual Championship/State Qualifier Meet held at Suffolk West today. 

“That was the hardest race of my life,” declared Michta shortly after qualifying for the New York State Indoor Championship meet.

She put a lot of pressure on herself to race for a spot on Section XI’s state team and had to hold off Stephanie Saccente of Kings Park and Alyssa Furlani of Sachem East to hold on to third place. Michta took the pace in her race with a 51 second first lap. Race winner Kelly Maranchuck of Sachem East and second place finisher Anneka Penn of Westhampton Beach moved ahead of Michta by mid-race. She maintained contact with the race leaders and surged to hold off race rivals in the last 100 meters.

Michta's expression of relief rather than joy in the moments following her race finish fit the meet experience by Sachem North. The meet might better be described as a Dickensian day for Sachem as team members experienced the best and worst of meet experiences throughout the championship meet.

In the team’s first race of the day, the No. 4 seed 4 x 200 meter relay met disaster as second leg Sunja Joseph took a hard fall after contact with a rival runner going into the second turn of Suffolk West’s track.  Although Sunja scrambled to her feet and resumed her race, Sachem finished last in its heat and did not advance to finals.  In North’s next race – the 3000 meter run – Kelly Lavan ignored painful cramps as she ran with the lead pack for the first mile.  The pain ultimately won out as Kelly fell off a pace that was more tactical than fast before becoming a DNF with less than 800 meters left in the race.

Sprinters Melissa Michels and Alyssa Leto took to the track following the 3000 and drew cheers from teammates and family as both qualified for finals.  Melissa took fourth in finals and Alyssa took fifth. Becca Duffy ran a solid race despite missing most of the past week of practice with strep throat and sinus and ear infections.  High jumpers Kristie Michta and Carly Swinford saw their day at high jump end too soon. 

In Sachem’s final race of the day, Nikki Fogarty missed a chance to advance to finals in the 55 meter hurdles by .04 seconds.  While coaches were very pleased with Nikki’s hard work to become a three-step hurdler over the past several weeks, Nikki was disappointed in losing a chance to race the top hurdlers in Suffolk in finals.

Katie Michta’s “That was the hardest day of my life!” declaration may be true for several North Arrows on Sunday. Young squad members learned lessons that will help them in future meets.  The experience of competing at the biggest meet in Suffolk County of the indoor season will be unforgettable to all. 

Many of the runners at East and North look ahead to more exciting indoor track and field meets with a schedule that includes the Long Island Track and Field Invitational on February 25 and concludes at Nationals on March 9-10.

Next Up for Rachel Paul

One Sachem East speedster that will be missing from the Long Island Invitational, however, is Rachel Paul. She recently received an all-expense paid invitation to compete in the Brooks PR Invitational, held in Spokane, Washington, that same weekend.

Sponsored by the Brooks Running Shoe Company, the meet features the top 10 athletes from around the country, going head to head in a few select events. Paul will be running either the 800 or the mile, and the event will be webcast live on flotrack.org.