Sachem entered Suffolk West’s indoor track for the first time since last February. Over 10 months had passed since the Sachem North won its first League I Championship in 11 years.
Some championship teams have to rebuild after the loss of key athletes. The graduation of Class of 2013 athletes and post-season scorers including jumper-sprinter Carly Swinford, distance runner Kelly Lavan, middle distance runner Kristina Schrepf, hurdler-sprinter Emily Rathmann and other key athletes, left holes in Sachem’s scoring line-up that would be hard to fill. Coaches believe that Sachem’s arrow quiver is not half empty (or worse). In fact, rather than rebuilding, Sachem seems to have reloaded for an exciting 2013-2014 indoor campaign.
Despite the absence of All-State athletes Melissa Michels and Sunja Joseph (both on official college visits) and five key distance runners on coach-mandated rest following last weekend’s Foot Locker Northeast Regional Championship meet, Sachem veterans and rookies stepped up to starting lines, on to runways, into throws circles and at their high jump marks ready to compete today.
Sachem race walkers swept the top three spots in their race. All-American Katie Michta was followed by teammates Natalie DeQuarto and Kaitlin Martins is the rarely contested 800 meter race walk. The race is more like a sprint than distance event. While Katie Michta career-bested by more than four seconds in the event, sophomore teammate and third place finisher Kaitlin Martins was more than one minute faster than in her only race at the distance in last year’s season-opener.
Alyssa Leto led Sachem sprinters with a pair of second place finishes in the 55 and 300 meter dashes.
Sophomore Leah Blackall began her indoor season with a fifth place mark in long jump. Sophs Jess Humann (fifth) and Ariana Mosquera (seventh) sandwiched rookie frosh Emily Watson (sixth in her first-ever track and field meet) in triple jump.
Kaitlyn Okvist was undefeated in crossover (XO) meet shotput last year. Kaitlyn won her fifth straight XO shotput competition today.
Seniors Katie Michta, Oriana Howell and Monica Abrams led the 3,000 meter squad. Katie moved up steadily during the race to place second overall in the race. Oriana’s late race surge and Monica’s strong start to pace the squad through the first mile demonstrated the veteran squad’s poise and race savvy throughout the 15 lap event. Senior Gabriella Czerw led a young, talented squad of high jumpers with her event win.
Junior Nikki Fogarty began her indoor season with the fastest time in all four of today’s XO meets as she raced to a career-best in winning the 55 m. high hurdles. Rookie frosh Krista Goodman began her Sachem track career with the fastest time of the day for Sachem in the 600 m. run. Perhaps no teammates were more excited for Krista than her triplet-siblings Kalya and Kaitlin.
Sachem’s new generation of team members were most visible on Sachem relay squads today. Five of the eight 4×200 m. relay squad members were rookies today. The two sophomore members of the 4×400 m. relay squad were racing their first-ever 400 m. distances. The 4×400 placed fourth in the meet.
Reloading or rebuilding? Today’s season opener shows that the answer is the former of the two. And Arrows named Ramirez, Michels, Joseph, Lin, Romano, Iadanza, Coleman, Gardner among others were not even removed from the quiver today.
FOOTNOTES
- Five of the seven hurdlers in the meet were first-timers in the event for Sachem. The same for seven of the eight 600 m. runners. And for three of the six race walkers. And for four of the ten shot-putters. This trend will continue as athletes continue to challenge themselves in new events for Sachem.
- Amber Tramontano is a spring track veteran but winter season rookie. Amber’s progression in training has made her part of the team’s Wednesday D-Squad (distance squad) group. Amber’s season-opener event today was the 600 m. run. Amber never raced a distance over 400 meters in spring seasons and it was with a fair amount of pre-race butterflies that Amber stepped to the starting line in her middle distance race today. 2:22.2 later, Amber was all smiles as she learned her time and saw the results of hard training in the young season.
- No Specialists Need Apply! – All-American race walker Katie Michta shows her XC All-County swag in the 3000 today. Sprinter Lia Reisner and (new) middle distance runner Amber Tramontano join the shotput squad. Sprinter-pole vaulter Madalyn Iadanza adds hurdles to her track and field resume. Rookie Emily Watson scores in her first-ever triple jump competition and trains at high jump and pole vault in addition to her sprint work. Veterans Sunja Joseph, Melissa Michels, Gabriella Czerw and Nikki Fogarty are role models for multi-event athletes Leah Blackall, Mara Bigornia, Elaina DiSalvo, Kelly Gardner, Emily Lin, Ariana Mosquera, Valerie Goding and others. The distance squad trains at hurdles 2-3 days a week and coaches continue to encourage all team members to broaden their horizons and challenge new events in track and field. No one-hit wonders on the North Arrows.
- Pin-ball anyone? Sachem arrived at Suffolk West early enough to watch first session relays today. Coach Young took several young team members to the start of the 4×200 m. relays so that they could see exchanges and exchange zones in the high speed race. One rookie that missed the lesson was frosh Hailey Lynch. Hailey was warming up for her 3000 m. race at the time. Hailey got caught in a heavy traffic exchange in the second handoff of the race as she was bumped by a runner who ran out of her lane to cut Hailey off after passing the baton. Hailey was driven into another runner in the collision. The force of the second bump drove Hailey (the smallest runner on the track in the race) backwards for a step or two before the determined runner began her sprint around the track.