Sachem North’s girls cross country team finished a stretch of 12 days and 12 ½ miles of their toughest races of the season this week. Eastern States (Manhattan College Invitational), a Senior Day dual meet against the always-tough Ward Melville Patriots, Brown University’s Championship Race and Division Championships put Sachem on four straight high stakes starting lines in less than two weeks.
The team achieved its goal today of finishing in the top three in the championship race and placing second behind Northport in Division I rankings. Still – at the end of today’s race, many runners were physically and emotionally spent.
It took a collective team effort to place third in the Championship Race. Elise Ramirez’ legs lacked some of the zip that carried her to outstanding finishes at Eastern States and at Brown. Mackenzie was having a difficult time breathing. And after a strong start, Monica’s legs were feeling fatigued.
All kept their wits about them and stayed in their races. Katie Michta and Oriana Howell were having strong races. Both moved ahead of Mackenzie around the halfway point of the race aware that their teammate was not having her typically strong race. This played into coaches’ beliefs that their No. 2-7 runners are interchangeable.
Dowon Hwang and Gabriella Mott filled the fourth and fifth spots for Sachem as runners returned to the Picnic Grounds after their charge up Cardiac Hill. Elise was Sachem’s first finisher today with Katie and Oriana finishing second and third respectively for the Sachem. Mackenzie’s finish just after Gabriella had the effect of displacing many athletes from rival teams. Monica had a strong finish in her race as well.
If Sachem could look in a crystal ball and know that the team would finish third in the Championship race and second in Divisions with a chance to advance to the Federation Championship following next week’s County Championship Meet, the team would have cheered. After a long warm-down, the Championship race squad began to look ahead to the task that lies ahead next week. But first they headed out to the Picnic Grounds to cheer on teammates running in the Individual Qualifier (IQ) Race.
Emily Lin led the IQ racers in the finest race of her rookie season. The mostly Brown squad of
Patricia Romano, Natalie DeQuarto, Brigid Rattiger (who did could not attend Brown because of PSAT testing), Katie Pfeil, Julia Reilly and Ashley Miskovsky rounded out top seven scoring for the North Flaming Arrows. Cheers were especially loud for frosh Hailey Lynch today. Hailey was running her first-ever Sunken Meadow 5K. Hailey’s time was faster than her best home course time. Sunken Meadow’s Storm Sandy-adjusted course runs considerably slower than Sachem North’s home 5K course.
Team spirits were already high at the conclusion of Sachem’s second and final race of the day as sophomore rookie Meghan Tozza addressed the team. Meghan expressed the wonderful experience she had on the team this season. Then she spoke the special and magic words, What better way to say thank you than with food? The cookies and chocolate-covered strawberries were a delicious way to end a perfect cross country day.
-Words submitted by Sachem coach Alex Young