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Note: This file will be updated during the multiple-day national championships
NEW YORK — In some ways — at least collectively — Ivana Richards, Kylie Willis, Sofia Henao and Jane Hickey were an unknown.
The runners, ranging from the senior, Syracuse-bound Richards, to the eighth-grader Willis, had never competed in a sprint medley relay together.
But Friday, during the second day of the four-day Nike Indoor Nationals at The Armory, which includes 4,500 athletes from 49 states, Canada and Washington D.C., the four made sure their names were known.
The team ran a school record and the second fastest time ever for a Westchester-based girls 1,600-meter sprint medley relay squad in clocking 4:03.54 to win gold in a five-state, 18-team field.
"I fell over after the race with excitement. My head was in the clouds," said the junior Hickey, who has had an amazing winter competing in her first ever season of track.
She chalked the victory up to "chemistry and mentality."
"We really bring energy to everything," she said.
"We didn't know," Richards, now a three-time All-American in the SMR but first-time gold medalist, said of how the team would do before the starting gun sounded.
But, she said, she and the rest of her squad told each other they were going to win.
"We all worked 1,000% to do it," Henao said.
The four will try to repeat as All-Americans next week, traveling to Virginia Beach to compete in adidas Track Nationals.
North Rockland left The Armory with multiple athletes having gained All-American status with top-six finishes in championship (highest division) events.
But for the Red Raiders and their coach, Orlando Rivera, it was a day of harsh disappointment turned to happiness.
In late afternoon, North Rockland's Javon Lawrence, Darwin Almonte, Naji Mosley and Jaquan Johnson finished third in the boys 4x200-meter championship relay.
That was a major disappointment since not only was North Rockland the defending Nike Indoor Nationals boys 4x200 champion, but a week earlier it had also set a state record, running 1:27.22, in winning the state public and Federation (all schools) title.
The Nike relay went quickly awry when, as video showed, Lawrence, completing the first leg, was bumped as he was preparing to hand the baton to Almonte. Jostled, he slowed, and that small delay proved extremely costly.
Overtaking one runner, Johnson crossed the finish second in what was the top-seeded heat. But the Red Raiders ended up third in 1:28.55 as a squad from another heat ran the second fastest time.
The winner was Pennsylvania's Souderton High in 1:28.41.
A couple of hours later, the sting from that race hadn't worn off when Johnson, Naji Mosley, Lawrence and Claudel Chery prepared to run the boys championship 1,600-meter sprint medley relay.
And run they did.
The four broke not only their school and the Rockland County record but also the Section 1 record in crossing first in 3:26.93.
That time was, as of Friday night, the third fastest clocked by a high school team in the U.S. this season.
"I feel a lot better," Johnson said.
"We knew we had something to prove," Mosley added.
A week earlier, at the state track & field championships, two of the country's top high school weight throwers headed home in different moods.
Horace Greeley senior Daniel Ye, who was No. 1 in the state entering states and No. 7 in the country, had fouled on all three of his throws, failing to advance to the final.
His friend, Somers junior Charles Sullivan, who had been No. 2 in New York, took over that slot and leapfrogged to No. 7 in the country with a personal-best throw of 73-9.25.
That won him both state public and state Federation (all schools) gold medals.
But Saturday at Nike Indoor Nationals at The Armory, both throwers left happy.
That's what happens when you become an All-American.
Ye, who'll throw next year for Harvard, didn't reach his personal-best mark but did throw well, finishing fifth with a 71-foot, 8.25-inch toss.
He had a grin on his face both about his showing and thinking about knowing Sullivan had unleashed a big throw before Sullivan had.
That was one of 76-1, a personal best by more than two feet.
That throw not only cemented Sullivan in the No. 1 spot in the state but also moved him up to No. 4 in the country.
The No. 1 thrower in the country was the No. 1 thrower at The Armory, Rhode Island's Shamrock Thoun, who improved his national-leading performance by more than two-and-a-half feet with an 82-6.25 throw.
All three athletes will compete Saturday in Boston in the New Balance Indoor Nationals boys championship weight throw.
Of his turnaround from states, Ye said, "Live and learn," explaining he felt much more relaxed among "coaches and friends" and amid the "comfortability and familiarity" of The Armory, where he has thrown many more times than at the states venue on Staten Island.
He consistently surpassed 70 feet Saturday, a big positive that he'll try to use as a springboard for even better things Saturday.
But, as it is, he said gaining All-American honors was a "good way to end my senior season."
Sullivan, who noted that after the Nike awards ceremony, he was hopping in the car to head to Boston, will also look to improve there.
But he has already surpassed his expectations, noting when he realized his throw had gone beyond 75 feet, his reaction was, "Oh, my gosh."
That might have been the reaction to the Section 1 record-setting throw unleashed in the girls weight throw by Nanuet's Cornell-bound Gabriella Vizcarrondo.
At least initially.
Vizcarrondo, who won the girls public and Fed state titles a week earlier, entered Nike with a 54-11.25 personal-best distance.
She left with a PB of 57-3, a silver medal, All-American status and a Section 1 record, having topped former New Rochelle standout Monae Cooper, who had held the record at 55-5 for a decade.
"I'm pretty ecstatic. I was hoping for 55-6," said Vizcarrondo, who said when the weight left her hand she was thinking it would go about 51 feet.
Her throw placed her No. 6 all-time in New York among high school girls and No. 4 nationally for the season.
The win went to Rhode Island's Vanessa Jones at 58-1.75.
Freshman Adriana Pettinelli has been a rock for Scarsdale all season long — a rock that can really run.
Pettinelli, running a two-second personal-best time for her 1,600-meter leg, picked off two teams as she and teammates Rachel Rakower, Alice Nicassio and Zoe Dichter ran a collective 11:52.53 to gain All-American status in fifth place in the girls championship distance medley relay.
"This is my first All-American. It's extra exciting for me," Nicassio said.
The senior Dichter, who has won multiple All-Amercian honors, remarked, "All-American always feels special."
But making this more special was the fact her team's time was, as she explained, "a giant school record."
The meet started Thursday with Hastings senior Caitlin Thomas and two Section 1 relays gaining All-American honors.
Thomas was fifth in the girls championship 5,000-meter race.
The Georgia Tech-commit, who was the girls state Class C cross-country champion (also a 5,000-meter race), clocked 16:57.18 Thursday.
Suffern (Todd Korman, Karen Augustin, Micheal Cromwell and Kayla Darius) ran 3:38.56 to finish second in the 22-team mixed (co-ed) 4x400 championship relay.
Also earning All-American honors was Nanuet (Jarell Gibbs, Aliyah Wilson, Bryan Santana and Olivia Santos). The four ran 3:41.74 for sixth.
Another Suffern squad (Jake Tarrant, Avi Sanon, Uriah Dieujuste and Emma Pelecova) just missed AA status, clocking 3:43.09 for seventh.
Hen Hud's Victor Delgado had qualified for the boys 2-mile championship race but opted to run in the lower emerging elite division because that race was Friday morning and the championship race was Friday afternoon, much closer to the sprint medley relay he also wanted to run.
Delgado, who coach Marcia Bailey noted will also run the mile Sunday in Boston at the competing New Balance Indoor Nationals, clocked 9:15.65, the top time run at that distance this season by a New York high school athlete and a better than 10-second personal best.
In the championship division of the boys 2-mile, North Rockland's Ryan Tuohy was 35th in 9:16.92 and Horace Greeley's Ryan Sykes was 36th in 9:17.86.
North Rockland (Desirae Hernandez, Gabriella Cabrera, Hope Italiano and Nya Thomas) just missed becoming All-Americans in the girls championship 4x200 relay.
The four finished in1:43.34 for seventh out of 21 teams. That was just .24 off the time posted by Florida's Buchholz High, which gained AA honors in sixth place.
Suffern (Avi Sanon, Emma Pelecova, Kayla Darius and Karen Augustin) was eighth in 1:44.11.
Lakeland/Panas's Hannah Arbid threw a more than two-foot personal best in winning the girls emerging elite weight throw at 46-7.25.
Hackley (Ashley Hollingsworth, Zena Hume, Emma Curran and Caitlin Morrow) ran 4:15.52 for third out of 28 teams in the girls emerging elite 1,600-meter SMR.
Greeley (Gillian Raniolo, Josephine Shipper, Gabriela Sangil Cantalapiedra and Malina Santee) finished in the top 10 in that event at 4:19.81.
Rye Neck junior Beckett Alberts also finished top-10, taking ninth, in the boys emerging elite weight throw at 57-0.25.
The meet, which has attracted athletes from all states except Arkansas, is scheduled to run 9 a.m. until about 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. until shortly after 4 p.m.
Nancy Haggerty covers cross-country, track & field, field hockey, skiing, ice hockey, basketball, girls lacrosse and other sporting events for The Journal News/lohud. Follow her on Twitter at @HaggertyNancy.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Nike Nationals: Ursuline, North Rockland relays golden; records fall
Continue reading...
NEW YORK — In some ways — at least collectively — Ivana Richards, Kylie Willis, Sofia Henao and Jane Hickey were an unknown.
The runners, ranging from the senior, Syracuse-bound Richards, to the eighth-grader Willis, had never competed in a sprint medley relay together.
But Friday, during the second day of the four-day Nike Indoor Nationals at The Armory, which includes 4,500 athletes from 49 states, Canada and Washington D.C., the four made sure their names were known.
The team ran a school record and the second fastest time ever for a Westchester-based girls 1,600-meter sprint medley relay squad in clocking 4:03.54 to win gold in a five-state, 18-team field.
You must be registered for see images attach
"I fell over after the race with excitement. My head was in the clouds," said the junior Hickey, who has had an amazing winter competing in her first ever season of track.
She chalked the victory up to "chemistry and mentality."
"We really bring energy to everything," she said.
"We didn't know," Richards, now a three-time All-American in the SMR but first-time gold medalist, said of how the team would do before the starting gun sounded.
But, she said, she and the rest of her squad told each other they were going to win.
"We all worked 1,000% to do it," Henao said.
The four will try to repeat as All-Americans next week, traveling to Virginia Beach to compete in adidas Track Nationals.
North Rockland erases some of 4x200 disappointment with national title and Section 1 record in the boys 1,600 SMR
North Rockland left The Armory with multiple athletes having gained All-American status with top-six finishes in championship (highest division) events.
But for the Red Raiders and their coach, Orlando Rivera, it was a day of harsh disappointment turned to happiness.
In late afternoon, North Rockland's Javon Lawrence, Darwin Almonte, Naji Mosley and Jaquan Johnson finished third in the boys 4x200-meter championship relay.
That was a major disappointment since not only was North Rockland the defending Nike Indoor Nationals boys 4x200 champion, but a week earlier it had also set a state record, running 1:27.22, in winning the state public and Federation (all schools) title.
The Nike relay went quickly awry when, as video showed, Lawrence, completing the first leg, was bumped as he was preparing to hand the baton to Almonte. Jostled, he slowed, and that small delay proved extremely costly.
Overtaking one runner, Johnson crossed the finish second in what was the top-seeded heat. But the Red Raiders ended up third in 1:28.55 as a squad from another heat ran the second fastest time.
The winner was Pennsylvania's Souderton High in 1:28.41.
A couple of hours later, the sting from that race hadn't worn off when Johnson, Naji Mosley, Lawrence and Claudel Chery prepared to run the boys championship 1,600-meter sprint medley relay.
And run they did.
The four broke not only their school and the Rockland County record but also the Section 1 record in crossing first in 3:26.93.
That time was, as of Friday night, the third fastest clocked by a high school team in the U.S. this season.
"I feel a lot better," Johnson said.
"We knew we had something to prove," Mosley added.
You must be registered for see images attach
Section 1 has three All-American weight throwers with two silvers and one fifth-place finish
A week earlier, at the state track & field championships, two of the country's top high school weight throwers headed home in different moods.
Horace Greeley senior Daniel Ye, who was No. 1 in the state entering states and No. 7 in the country, had fouled on all three of his throws, failing to advance to the final.
His friend, Somers junior Charles Sullivan, who had been No. 2 in New York, took over that slot and leapfrogged to No. 7 in the country with a personal-best throw of 73-9.25.
That won him both state public and state Federation (all schools) gold medals.
But Saturday at Nike Indoor Nationals at The Armory, both throwers left happy.
That's what happens when you become an All-American.
Ye, who'll throw next year for Harvard, didn't reach his personal-best mark but did throw well, finishing fifth with a 71-foot, 8.25-inch toss.
He had a grin on his face both about his showing and thinking about knowing Sullivan had unleashed a big throw before Sullivan had.
You must be registered for see images attach
That was one of 76-1, a personal best by more than two feet.
That throw not only cemented Sullivan in the No. 1 spot in the state but also moved him up to No. 4 in the country.
The No. 1 thrower in the country was the No. 1 thrower at The Armory, Rhode Island's Shamrock Thoun, who improved his national-leading performance by more than two-and-a-half feet with an 82-6.25 throw.
All three athletes will compete Saturday in Boston in the New Balance Indoor Nationals boys championship weight throw.
Of his turnaround from states, Ye said, "Live and learn," explaining he felt much more relaxed among "coaches and friends" and amid the "comfortability and familiarity" of The Armory, where he has thrown many more times than at the states venue on Staten Island.
You must be registered for see images attach
He consistently surpassed 70 feet Saturday, a big positive that he'll try to use as a springboard for even better things Saturday.
But, as it is, he said gaining All-American honors was a "good way to end my senior season."
Sullivan, who noted that after the Nike awards ceremony, he was hopping in the car to head to Boston, will also look to improve there.
But he has already surpassed his expectations, noting when he realized his throw had gone beyond 75 feet, his reaction was, "Oh, my gosh."
That might have been the reaction to the Section 1 record-setting throw unleashed in the girls weight throw by Nanuet's Cornell-bound Gabriella Vizcarrondo.
At least initially.
You must be registered for see images attach
Vizcarrondo, who won the girls public and Fed state titles a week earlier, entered Nike with a 54-11.25 personal-best distance.
She left with a PB of 57-3, a silver medal, All-American status and a Section 1 record, having topped former New Rochelle standout Monae Cooper, who had held the record at 55-5 for a decade.
"I'm pretty ecstatic. I was hoping for 55-6," said Vizcarrondo, who said when the weight left her hand she was thinking it would go about 51 feet.
Her throw placed her No. 6 all-time in New York among high school girls and No. 4 nationally for the season.
The win went to Rhode Island's Vanessa Jones at 58-1.75.
Scarsdale All-American in relay
Freshman Adriana Pettinelli has been a rock for Scarsdale all season long — a rock that can really run.
Pettinelli, running a two-second personal-best time for her 1,600-meter leg, picked off two teams as she and teammates Rachel Rakower, Alice Nicassio and Zoe Dichter ran a collective 11:52.53 to gain All-American status in fifth place in the girls championship distance medley relay.
"This is my first All-American. It's extra exciting for me," Nicassio said.
The senior Dichter, who has won multiple All-Amercian honors, remarked, "All-American always feels special."
But making this more special was the fact her team's time was, as she explained, "a giant school record."
You must be registered for see images attach
Hastings' Caitlin Thomas in 5,000 and Suffern and mixed relays
The meet started Thursday with Hastings senior Caitlin Thomas and two Section 1 relays gaining All-American honors.
Thomas was fifth in the girls championship 5,000-meter race.
The Georgia Tech-commit, who was the girls state Class C cross-country champion (also a 5,000-meter race), clocked 16:57.18 Thursday.
Suffern (Todd Korman, Karen Augustin, Micheal Cromwell and Kayla Darius) ran 3:38.56 to finish second in the 22-team mixed (co-ed) 4x400 championship relay.
Also earning All-American honors was Nanuet (Jarell Gibbs, Aliyah Wilson, Bryan Santana and Olivia Santos). The four ran 3:41.74 for sixth.
Another Suffern squad (Jake Tarrant, Avi Sanon, Uriah Dieujuste and Emma Pelecova) just missed AA status, clocking 3:43.09 for seventh.
Other results: Hen Hud's Delgado No. 1 in NY for season 2-mile
Hen Hud's Victor Delgado had qualified for the boys 2-mile championship race but opted to run in the lower emerging elite division because that race was Friday morning and the championship race was Friday afternoon, much closer to the sprint medley relay he also wanted to run.
Delgado, who coach Marcia Bailey noted will also run the mile Sunday in Boston at the competing New Balance Indoor Nationals, clocked 9:15.65, the top time run at that distance this season by a New York high school athlete and a better than 10-second personal best.
In the championship division of the boys 2-mile, North Rockland's Ryan Tuohy was 35th in 9:16.92 and Horace Greeley's Ryan Sykes was 36th in 9:17.86.
North Rockland (Desirae Hernandez, Gabriella Cabrera, Hope Italiano and Nya Thomas) just missed becoming All-Americans in the girls championship 4x200 relay.
The four finished in1:43.34 for seventh out of 21 teams. That was just .24 off the time posted by Florida's Buchholz High, which gained AA honors in sixth place.
Suffern (Avi Sanon, Emma Pelecova, Kayla Darius and Karen Augustin) was eighth in 1:44.11.
Lakeland/Panas's Hannah Arbid threw a more than two-foot personal best in winning the girls emerging elite weight throw at 46-7.25.
Hackley (Ashley Hollingsworth, Zena Hume, Emma Curran and Caitlin Morrow) ran 4:15.52 for third out of 28 teams in the girls emerging elite 1,600-meter SMR.
Greeley (Gillian Raniolo, Josephine Shipper, Gabriela Sangil Cantalapiedra and Malina Santee) finished in the top 10 in that event at 4:19.81.
Rye Neck junior Beckett Alberts also finished top-10, taking ninth, in the boys emerging elite weight throw at 57-0.25.
The meet, which has attracted athletes from all states except Arkansas, is scheduled to run 9 a.m. until about 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. until shortly after 4 p.m.
Nancy Haggerty covers cross-country, track & field, field hockey, skiing, ice hockey, basketball, girls lacrosse and other sporting events for The Journal News/lohud. Follow her on Twitter at @HaggertyNancy.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Nike Nationals: Ursuline, North Rockland relays golden; records fall
Continue reading...
