Sachem North takes third at track divisions

 

IMG_9133The Sachem North boy’s track & field team has been having a very successful post season with a number of its athletes. Sachem North placed third overall at the Suffolk County Division I championships with a total of 69 points.  That is the most points the team has compiled since winning the division in 2009 with 96 points.

Jose Morel put together a string of nice performances in the Pentathlon to grab 4th place for the Arrows.  The 4×800 team of Jack McGlinchey, Joe Varca, Jonathan Lauer and Chris Tibbetts ran hard to finish in 3rd place.  These were hard earned points that helped get the team’s final total up.  Besides the above races there were a bunch of individual events that the team excelled at.

Chris Fasano threw extremely well when the pressure was on him in both the Discus and Shot Put.

He had a lot of great competition that he was throwing against.  In the Discus he won by 1 foot with a throw of 153′ 7″.  The Shot Put was another nail biter with Chris taking home the gold with a throw of 53′ 7″, just  3/4 of an inch more than 2nd place.

Chris Tibbetts came into the meet seeded 1st in the 800 and 1600.  With a lot to live up to Chris took off in the lead and never gave it up during the 800 finishing  in a season best time of  1:55.56.  The 1600 on day 2 was going to be tough with a competitive field of talented runners.  The race started slow with a number of runners up in the front of the pack with Tibbetts.  On the last lap he made his move and coming in to the straightaway he was in the lead until he was passed by Bay Shore.  The race came down to the finish line and Tibbetts took first by four-tenths of a second.  He ran an impressive last lap at  56 seconds.  His reward, division champion in two events.

Jonathan Lauer was a heavy favorite to win the 3K Steeplechase in Division One.  He ran relaxed and took a commanding lead very early in the race.  That lead solidified his chances to take first but hindered his ability to reach the state standard for the event.  He came across the finish line 20 seconds before the next runner winning the race in a time of 9:39.26.  His time was unfortunately less than 2 seconds away from the state standard, leaving him with more pressure on him for the State Qualifier.

Connor Pallmann rounded out the slew of underclassmen having unbelievable success.  Though he is just a sophomore he jumped like a veteran when it came down to having three athletes left at the high jump.  The jumper from Longwood, as well as Wiliam Floyd looked very smooth as they cleared 6′ 1″.

The bar was raised to 6′ 2″ and Pallman would be the first to attempt the height.  With composure and confidence he made it on his first try.  The other athletes were unable to make it, giving Connor Division Champ Status.

When the meet was done Sachem North would have four athletes that were Division One Champions in 6 events.  This was exactly the type of momentum they wanted for entering the Section XI State Qualifier meet.

-Submitted by Sachem North coaching staff