The Sachem North Flaming Arrows opened up their spring, 2014 campaign against a tough and well-prepared Connetquot team. Sachem won the meet 90-60. The meet was closer than the score.
Connetquot joined Sachem North and Bay Shore as co-League 2 champions last year as all had a 5-1 record. Sachem held off Connetquot 78-72 in last year’s nail-biter meet and expected another close meet against a key League rival and one of Suffolk’s top teams.
Mother Nature was another force at the meet as temperatures topped off at 38 degrees today. Cloudy skies, a steady breeze and dropping temperatures as the late afternoon moved to early evening hours added to the challenges already present on the day.
Connetquot’s strong distance squad kept the T-birds in striking distance despite Sachem sweeps in sprint and horizontal jumps events. Sachem 1-2-3 sweeps in the 100 and 200 meter dashes and in both long and triple jump gave the Flaming Arrows a team lead in the first half of the meet. Connetquot sweeps in the 800 and 1500 meter kept the visiting team close.
Event wins in pole vault, high jump and discus allowed Connetquot to narrow Sachem’s lead with only three open events (400 hurdles, 3000 and long jump) to go before relays. Sachem’s Nikki Fogarty and Melissa Muller went to the starting line in the 400 hurdles with an exhortation from Coach Young to “close the door on this meet.” Nikki was in the fourth event of her busy day.
Nikki broke a team record she shared with Denise Raab (1999) in the 100 meter high hurdles earlier in the meet as Nikki ran a 15.0 in winning the event. Nikki also placed second in triple jump and took third in high jump. Melissa finished behind Nikki in hurdles in a career-best 17.3. Nikki won the 400 hurdles as she closed out her meet day and Melissa – in her first-ever intermediate hurdles – placed third.
The duo gave Sachem a big cushion in team scoring. Oriana Howell took second in the 3000 with a tactically brilliant race. Sachem had 71 points going into long jump.
Leah Blackall’s win in the event clinched the meet victory for Sachem. Sachem’s sweep in the event was icing on the cake. Sachem took two out of three relays to close out the meet.
Sachem went to its big guns in the meet. Fogarty, Blackall and Melissa Michels scored in four events each. Alyssa Leto, Sunja Joseph and Kelly Gardner scored in three events each. Four of the nation’s top racewalkers – Katie Michta, Natalie DeQuarto and Kaitlin Martins and Connetquot’s Monica Farmer – put on a clinic for teammates and spectators.
Sachem won the battle of places as it won eleven of the meet’s seventeen events. Sachem won the battle of second places by the same margin and edged Connetquot 8-7 in third place finishes. Sachem field event athletes doubled Connetquot in scoring.
Team rookies followed the positive leadership and strong work ethic of veteran team members with strong performances. Valerie Goding, Valerie Schiffner, Chassity Carrion, Erin Maryzek, Kaitlyn Licata, Emily Watson and Gabriella Mott are team rookies who were among team leaders in their respective events today.
Sachem heads off to Lindy Relays on Saturday before traveling to Sachem East next Thursday (4/3) to resume its dual meet season.
-Words submitted by Sachem coach Alex Young