Sachem arrived at Bay Shore with a quiet determination. North clinched a tie for its first League championship since 2004 on Senior Day last week with its victory over Sachem East.
A win at Bay Shore would have given Sachem an undefeated season and sole possession of the League II title. Bay Shore performed well and held off Sachem, 79-71. In a brief team meeting following the meet, Sachem faces were long. There were some tear-streaked cheeks. In an interesting but understandable juxtaposition, only 50 yards across the track infield, Bay Shore athletes were celebrating the same team record.
Sachem coaches were proud of the great effort that the team put forth. The meet was a back and forth affair with almost as many lead changes are there are events in a dual meet. Both teams needed to win two relays following long jump, the final open event. Bay Shore held a 69-66 lead going into the relays. Sachem won the 4×100 and held, for the last time, a meet lead of 71-69. Bay Shore won the last two relays of the meet to join Sachem and Connetquot as co-League II Champions.
Melissa Michels (2 wins, 1 third), Elise Ramirez (2 wins), Alyssa Leto, (1 win, 1 second), Kaitlyn Okvist (1 win, 1 second), Nikki Fogarty (1 win, 1 third) and Katie Michta (1 win) led Sachem scorers as the North Flaming Arrows won nine of the meet’s eighteen events. Bay Shore won the battle of second and third places – these points would prove critical as the meet moved into the relays.
Sachem moves on to as busy post-dual meet schedule with its return to North Shore Invitational on Saturday after an absence of several years from the meet and its first trip to the Urban Memorial Invitational at Copiague High School next Tuesday before moving on to post-season championship meets.
FOOTNOTES
- Congratulations to Melissa Michels on breaking the 200 m. dash record. Melissa tied the record (25.5) a week ago and broke it today as she won the dash in 25.4 seconds in her third of four races on the day.
- The final race of the day – the 4×800 m. relay went Bay Shore’s way. But not without a fight. Bay Shore held a lead after leg 1. Elise Ramirez took over the lead at the 500 mark of leg 2. Bay Shore would retake the lead on leg 3. But only briefly as Brooke Foltmann never broke form and took the lead back to the noisiest cheers of the day from Sachem teammates and spectators. There was one more lead change as Bay Shore’s strong anchor moved into first and won the race.