Nikki Fogarty, Melissa Muller and Nicole Costanzo broke an eight year old record in the three-person shuttle hurdles relay (SHR) at the League 1-2 Zeitler Relays.
The previous record was set at the same meet in 2006. Sachem North’s No. 2 all-time hurdler Rosie DeFino led off the relay with teammates Brianna Malone and Meg Vinberg to set a standard that was shattered tonight.
Nikki – currently No. 3 all-time for Sachem in her junior year and the defending spring, 2013 100 meter high hurdles county champion – led off the record-breaking squad. Senior teammate Melissa ran second leg and sophomore Nicole anchored the relay.
All showed great form and outstanding speed as they broke the old record by six-tenths of a second – an eternity in a sprint event. The trio received unofficial congratulations as coaches’ stopwatch times revealed what official results showed several minutes after the conclusion of the race. Then the hugs and cheers began.
Nikki, Melissa and Nicole lead Sachem’s biggest-ever hurdle squad. Sachem had five entries in the SHR. Nine of the hurdlers are new to the event this season and only three of the racers are seniors. Sachem promises to be a force in hurdles for the next several years.
Sachem won six of the twelve contested relay events tonight in a League 1 field numbering nine teams. Sachem swept the jumps (high, long and triple) and won shotput and racewalk relays. Sachem showed its League 1 dominance in racewalk by taking the top three spots with the fourth finisher more than 45 seconds behind Katie Michta, Kaitlyn Martins and Natalie DeQuarto. Katie finished in a career indoor-best 6:55.03. Katie is the nation’s top-ranked racewalker. Natalie and Kaitlin are US #2 and #3 respectively. Katie and Natalie teamed up to win the 2×1500 meter racewalk relay tonight.
Other event winners include Sachem’s 4×200 m. relay (Kelly Gardner-Arianna Mosquera-Ali Van Sicklin-Melissa Michels), shotput relay (Kaitlin Okvist and Gabriella Czerw), long jump relay (Melissa Michels and Leah Blackall), triple jump relay (Sunja Joseph and Emily Lin) and high jump relay (Gabriella Czerw and Mara Bigornia). Sachem showed team depth with its second place long jump and racewalk relay finishes. Sachem placed third in the 4×200 and triple jump relays.
FOOTNOTES
- Rookie Mettle! Rookies were a big part of tonight’s team successes. Top rookie finishers include Samantha Sommers (3rd place 4×200), Krista Goodman (fastest 4×400 split for Sachem today), Gabriella Mott (4×800 ‘A’ team), Emily Watson (SHR’B’ team and #11 all-time SHR relay), Amanda Carlson (4×400 ‘A’ team) and Meghan Tozza (2xracealk ‘C’ and NYS #14 sophomore racewalker).
- Team Spirit – The loudest cheers of the night were for Sachem athletes. Melissa Michels received 200 meters of deafening cheers as she closed a 30 meter gap to pass a Longwood anchor just after the 150 mark. Melissa streaked to a 25.3 season-best 200 meter split. Sachem led cheers for All-American Katie Michta and the rest of Sachem’s talented racewalk squad throughout the racewalk relay. In addition to the sweep of the top three spots, Sachem’s six racewalkers finished in the top ten of the 27 racewalker field.
-Submitted by Sachem coach Alex Young