Sachem turned out a school record, tied another and saw season-bests in nearly half of athlete efforts over the two-day Divisional Championships meet. Bay Shore pulled ahead in a back and forth affair following long jump on Day 2, an event in which three Bay Shore athletes scored 16 points. Sachem scored six long jump points behind Sunja Joseph’s third place finish in a Sachem record tying jump (18’ 5”). The team point swing in Bay Shore’s favor was the margin of victory for the Marauders.
Sachem crowned three Division I champions in the meet. Melissa Michels broke her own 200 m. dash record in a 24.98 as she turned in the top semi-finals time on Monday. Michels broke her record for the second time in the championship meet with a 24.90 to win the 200 meter dash in Wednesday’s finals. Melissa currently has the #4 200 m. time in NYS.
Nikki Fogarty pulled ahead of Walt Whitman’s Jackie Crunden on hurdle 7 and won the 100 m. high hurdles in 15.36. Sachem’s 4×100 m. relay followed up their NYS #5 time in semis with a win in finals.
Athletes who joined Sachem’s point scoring efforts with seed sheet beating season-best times include Alyssa Leto (3rd in 200 meter dash), Elise Ramirez (4th in both 1500 and 3000 meter runs), Natalie DeQuarto (4th in 1500 meter race walk), Mackenzie Coleman (5th in steeplechase) and Rachel Heymach (tied 6 pole vault).
Sachem competes at State Qualifiers next Friday and Saturday at Port Jefferson High School.
FOOTNOTES
- Rachel Heymach set the team sophomore pole vault record with her 9’ 0” vault.
- Emily Rathmann demonstrated the courage that has set her apart from so many athletes with her second place finish in pentathlon. Emily hit career-bests in long jump and high jump despite a hip injury that curtailed much of her training over the past week.
- Melissa Michels and Alyssa Leto ran 8 events each in the two day meet. They qualified for and ran in finals of the 100, 200, 4×100 and 4×400. Melissa and Alyssa scored 36 of Sachem points in the meet.
- Sachem scored in 14 of the 18 events in which it competed over the two day meet. Sachem projected that it could score 95 points in the meet. The team scored 95.33 points.
- Sachem coaches projected Bay Shore to score 95 points in the meet. Sachem also identified five events in which Bay Shore could score additional points – Bay Shore did so in four of these events. Race results did not reflect the seed sheet in some races and field events. While Sachem was able to take advantage of scoring opportunities in several races, Bay Shore made the most of its opportunities in the 11 events in which it scored team points.
- Team freshmen have been a big part of Sachem’s successes all spring. Kelly Gardner ran an outstanding second leg on the winning 4×100. Leah Blackall jumped NYS’s #2 freshman mark in long jump. Emily Lin ran a season-best 800 meter split on the 4×800. Mackenzie Coleman moved from the #8 spot on the meet seed sheet to place fifth in a career-best time of 7:33.37 in a time that is less than four seconds away from the school record. Ashley Pimentel ran on the 4×400 m. relay.