The Sachem North Girls Winter Track & Field team won their second consecutive League 1 title last year. A week later, the North Arrows finished second in the County Championship Meet. The spring track and field team completed the identical feat.
Sachem returns a talented and post-season experienced core group as it gets ready for an action-packed 2014-2015 season. No cliché is safe as coaches have been laying it on thick in the motivation department.
Team members are building a strong foundation in the early weeks of the season as distance and sprinters are logging miles and getting in strength work that will pay off at January invitationals and in the post-season.
Close but no cigar won’t cut it for many team veterans this year. Many have had their collective noses to the grindstone and shoulders to the wheel in the weeks leading up to the start of the indoor season.
It will be hard to find a weak link in Sachem line-up. All-State sprinter and Suffolk County record holder senior Alyssa Leto (7.17 55 m. dash) will lead a sprint squad that is faster than greased lightning. Kelly Gardner, Samantha Sommers, Ali Van Sicklin, Lauren Driscoll, Arianna Mosquera and Chassity Carrion can be seen burning up the track at sprint workouts with Alyssa. All have scored team points in post-season meets and will cover the 55 and 300 meter dashes as well as the sprint relays for Sachem.
Middle distance events (600-1000 meters) will be led by fleet-footed Jess Humann, Samantha Giambrone, Amanda Carlson and Krista Goodman. Junior Jess is the mainstay of the squad as she is in her third winter campaign. Samantha, Amanda and Krista have track experience. They all gained great post-season experience on Sachem’s third in Class A County Champs cross country team in the fall season.
The distance squad covers the 1500 and 3000 meter events. All-County distance star Elise Ramirez anchors the distance squad. Senior Elise can cover any distance from 400-3000 meters. She has cool as a cucumber demeanor on the starting line. Freshman Gabriella Mott scored at Leagues as an eighth grader last year and will be part of Sachem’s post-season formula again.
Gabriella, like Elise, is proof that nice girls don’t always finish last. Gabriella has a front-runner’s mentality and big-meet experience top back up her racing style. Kaitlyn Licata will add depth to one of the strongest distance squads Sachem has featured in many years. Racewalkers are a key part of the distance squad’s success.
Kaitlin Martins, Emily Leath, Meghan Tozza and Denise Barrera are battle-tested juniors who will lead Sachem’s perennially strong racewalk squad. Kaitlin has Nationals experience and will see many other All-American contenders on a regular basis as Suffolk County is the nation’s mother lode of racewalking.
Field events are not overlooked at Sachem workouts. The North Flaming Arrows have been one of the most successful field events squads in Suffolk for several years. Senior Nikki Fogarty will look to return to States in the 55 m. hurdles this winter. Nicole Costanzo, Emily Watson and Valerie Goding add depth and talent to the hurdles squad.
Junior Leah Blackall finished the spring season as NYS #1 and USA #8 sophomore triple jumper. Leah was also one of the state’s top long jumpers. Multi-event athletes Nikki Fogarty and Nicole Costanzo, sprinter Arianna Mosquera and Cara Hofmann add depth and talented to Sachem’s horizontal jumps squad.
Mara Bigornia and Natalia Aneiros are joined by multi-eventers Nikki and Nicole and Rachel Heymach on Sachem’s gravity defying high jump squad. Rachel gets in addition high flying and sky riding as one of Long Island’s top pole vaulters. She will be joined by Elaina DiSalvo and Tara Murphy at pole vault competitions during the indoor season.
A veteran-youth mix will take the throws squad into a new era of the weight events as NYS and Section XI have added the 20 lb. weight throw to the indoor event line-up. Senior Emily Okvist and junior Kira Audia have equally talented shotput teammates in sophomores Erin Maryzek and Danielle Bongiorno. All have added weight throw to their training routine.
Sachem has had a the more the merrier philosophy for more than two decades. The team typically fills two buses to travel to meets. There are 88 athletes on the 2014-2015 team roster. Sachem looks to have interchangeable parts for its relays squad during the winter season. While athletes including Alyssa Leto, Nikki Fogarty and Elise Ramirez may be busy as bees during big meets, Sachem can save fresh legs for relays when it matters.
Sachem has embraced the mantra that the team is greater than the sum of its parts and it is very common for team members to run their fastest times when carrying a baton. Sachem sprinters have some unfinished business in the 4×200 m. relay. The squad finished the indoor season as NYS’s #9 relay. Sachem missed out on a chance to represent Section XI by an eyelash as it was bested by North Babylon by .14 seconds at the State Qualifier Meet.
Sachem returns three parts of last year’s State Quals 4×200 with Alyssa Leto, Leah Blackall and Kelly Gardner. Nikki Fogarty and several other sprinters will make up a comet-fast relay pool as Sachem reloads its sprint relay.
Rookies will be part of Sachem’s formula for success this season. Coaches have already noticed many diamonds in the rough in track and field events workouts. Junior Juli Morrelli, sophomores Leanne Curaro, Brittany Fazin, Laura Linsalata, Rachel Loyst, and a talented freshman squad led by Abigail Bandl, Nicole Batinsey, Rebecca Block, Jessica Comito, Allaura Dashnaw, Kelsey Flynn, Alexa Gerbe, Grace Lipponer and Casey Weilbacher will keep fans on the edge of their seats as they display their talents at our home-away-from-home Suffolk West track meets and at Armory invitationals during the season.
While there’s no such thing as a sure thing, one thing that you can take to the bank is that at least several of these rookies will be in post-season meets for the North Flaming Arrows.
Sachem takes life one meet at a time and doesn’t count its chickens before they’re hatched. The League 1 and county championship meets are still two months and more away. League 1 rival and cross-district neighbors Sachem East boasts the county’s deepest distance squad. Ward Melville, Northport, Commack and Longwood have talent that make the League 1 Championship Meet a must-see meet each year.
There can be no victory without a battle. Sachem North will have to get past Bay Shore if it wants to bring a county banner back to Sachem. Bay Shore has won the last three county titles and is returning a talented team for the current season. But Sachem will cross the post-season bridge when the North Flaming Arrows come to it.
For now, each team member is giving one hundred and ten percent each workout day to get as strong as an ox and to run like the wind. Veterans embrace and teach our no pain-no gain tradition as they know it will take everything but the kitchen sink to succeed against some of NYS’s top teams in Section XI post-season meets.
Team captains will be asked to lead the team through its exciting season. Elise Ramirez, Alyssa Leto, Nikki Fogarty and Rachel Heymach have embraced their team’s life in the fast lane culture. The foursome are like peas in a pod as all are students of track and field as they spend time away from practice improving their skills, studying their respective events, learning about their rivals and preparing themselves for the physical and mental challenges that lie ahead.
They will serve as extensions of team coaches Alex Young, Danielle Lasher and Ryan Stillufsen as they pass lessons on to teammates and guide the North Flaming Arrows Girls Track and Field team throughout the indoor season.
Sachem North kicks off its indoor season at Saturday’s (12/6) Developmental Meet at St. Anthony’s High School and at Sunday’s (12/7) Crossover A Meet at Suffolk West.
-Submitted by Sachem North coaching staff