rNorth coaches were very pleased with all aspects of theFlaming Arrows race day performances today. The team was focused, warm-ups were great and team members understood race goals and achieved most of the goals set out for the team for race packs and for individual runners. Northport – Long Island’s top-ranked Class A team – ran like the highly-touted team coaches and rankers believe them to be. The one-sided meet score reflected Northport’s talent level. And they ran without Cara Jozefowski, one of their top runners.
Still, Sachem ran a great meet. Elise Ramirez and Northport’s Brigid Brennan ran neck and neck for more than two miles of the Storm Sandy-shortened 2.8 mile course. It should be understood that Brigid is the greatest harrier in Northport history and one of NYS’s highly regarded XC runners.
Brigid holds school records at Sunken Meadow’s 5K (18:52) and 3 mile (18:21) courses. Brigid pulled ahead near the two mile mark, Elise gave chase and finished 3 seconds behind her Northport rival.
Northport demonstrated its race dominance as the Tigers took the next four race spots. Sachem answered with its own pack of Mackenzie Coleman, Katie Michta and Dowon Hwang. Northport took the next three places and Sachem answered with their second pack of Oriana Howell, Monica Abrams and Gabriella Mott.
Other Sachem race packs – developed out of training groups in team workouts held together today. This will matter more as the team looks ahead to its mid-October schedule beginning at the Manhattan Invitational on October 12.
The meet was the team’s third tough challenge in eight days. The team responded well to today’s challenge in large part because of summer training and motivational leadership by team captains Dowon, Oriana and Elise. Sachem returns to Sunken Meadow for Suffolk Coaches Invitational on Saturday. The Arrows will look to qualify for County Championships by hitting the team standard of 23:00 minutes for its top five runners.
- Hailey Lynch was running behind Gabriella Czerw before she made a wrong turn ( a quick left up Cardiac after Snake Hill) and was not seen by the team again until nearly two minutes after Sachem’s last runner crossed the finish line.
- Coach O’Brien was just beginning the team search for Hailey when he saw her approaching the finish line. Coach Young estimates that Hailey ran nearly 3 ½ miles, more than double the Rookie Loop she was supposed to run.