Carly Swinford looked sharp in warm-ups and stayed patient as the 70 athlete high jump field began competing at Day 1 at the St. Anthony’s Invitational. Swinford and teammate Gabriella Czerw both passed on the 4’ 6” opening height and came in at 4’ 8” more than an hour after high jump began.
The field, already smaller at 4’ 8”, thinned out by 5’ 0” with only nine competitors remaining. At 5’ 2”, there were only four jumpers left including Sachem teammates and training partners. Carly matched her season (and career)- best on her first attempt at 5’ 2”.
Czerw also cleared the height. The crossbar was raised to 5’ 3” to give jumpers a chance to meet the D1 standard for the State Championship meet. Czerw missed her three attempts at the height and finished fourth in the competition. Swinford nailed her first attempt at the height and celebrated with a jump off the mat nearly as high as her 5’ 3” jump.
The bar was raised to 5’ 4”. Swinford’s approach at the height was a little off as her foot slipped in the turn and she missed her first attempt. Swinford nailed her approach on her second attempt at the height and cleared the crossbar. Swinford – 5’ 3 ½” inches tall – had just jumped more than her own height.
Cheers erupted and Swinford celebrated with her coach and teammates before getting back to the task at hand. Fatigue may finally have kicked in as Carly was in her fourth hour of warm-ups and jumping. The air had cooled significantly and the high jump apron seemed more slippery as the temperature lowered.
After two misses, Swinford stared down the cross bar as she readied for her final attempt at 5’ 5”. A great jump, but Swinford brushed the bar as her hips rose over the crossbar. Swinford finished second in high jump behind Walt Whitman’s Jackie Crunden. Swinford also moved up in NYS rankings as she is currently tied as the state’s No. 7 high jumper.
Melissa Michels (third in 100 m. dash), Sunja Joseph (fourth in long jump and in javelin), Nikki Fogarty (fifth in 100 m. Hurdles) and Natalie DeQuarto (fourth in 1500 m. race walk) added to Sachem North scoring at St. Anthony’s Invitational. Frosh-Soph athletes added to Sachem’s medal count with race wins by the Frosh 4×100, Sophomore 4×100 and Frosh 4×800. The Soph 4×800 took fifth in their race.
Sachem’s distance squad looked strong at the 1500 m. distance with six season-bests among the seven runners who raced the distance.
FOOTNOTES
- Jess Humann stepped up as a last-minute alternate in the Frosh 4×100 only minutes after helping the Frosh 4×800 win their race. Jess – running third leg in the 4×100 – was part of two great exchanges as she ran a great leg and earned her second gold medal in two races.
- Sachem’s 4×1600 were surprised at Coach Young’s predicted seed time of 20:45 for the quartet of Ashley Miskovsky, Taylor Buechner, Siobhan O’Gorman and Jenn Weiss. They felt the time was too fast. The girls beat the seed time with a 24:40.03 race time.