The Sachem North boys winter track and field team competed at the Marine Corps Holiday Classic held at the Armory in New York City last week.
The highlight of the meet occurred in Sachem’s first event on the track, the Distance Medley Relay. The team of Alex Lazarich, Rob Yannotta, Jason Karpinski and Anthony Coccia had their sights set on breaking the Sachem school record set back in 2008 by Brian Wersan, Billy Werner, Joe Johnson and recent collegiate All-American Frank Fezza.
The first leg of the relay was run by Lazarich, who ran 1,200 meters (3/4 of a mile) in 3:15, Yannotta then got the baton for his 400 meter leg (1/4 of a mile) and ran a blazing 53 second split, next up was Karpinski who ran 800 meters (1/2 of a mile) in a huge personal best time of 2:03 and in the final leg Coccia ran 1,600 meters (1 mile) in an outstanding 4:34 to break the existing record by 11 seconds.
In the process the boys finished third overall in their race which included teams from New Jersey, Long Island, upstate New York and the metropolitan area.
Sachem will look to continue its record breaking abilities when they head back in to the Armory on Jan. 5 as they set their sights on another Sachem distance running record, the 4×800 meter relay mark of 8:06.