Going into the Division I State meet I felt good as a coach getting 9 individuals and all three relays qualified. As a young team we have made some big strides and have matured a good deal to get to this point.
As a strategy I wanted to establish that we would be competitive in all three relays both as a reward to our senior team leaders and also because we will return most of our kids in the relays next year and will look to improve on what we have built this year. We scratched both Mary and Kyra in the dash, Hannah in the 600 and Lucrecia, Emily and Alekhya in the mile for the relays.
Next year we return a great deal of our team on relays and if we grow as much as we did this year thanks to the leadership we could place well. Hannah Friedman did a great job of providing leadership in both the 4 x 400 and the 4 x 800 and we set team PRs in both events. Mary Testa took a lot of pride in leading our 4 x 200 and we have now set our team PR by 4 tenths of a second following a 5 tenths of a second PR in the DCL. That is almost a full second off of our 4 x 200 PR in the past two meets. We have run 3- 9th graders and 8 sophomores on varsity scoring relays this season so our future looks bright in that area.
We had a nice day across the board. We had 4 girls qualify for the Division championship in the mile and I had planned to run 3 of them while keeping Alekhya Chaparala fresh for the 4 x 800. We ended up running only Anna Rhatigan and she ran just a couple of ticks off of her PR in the mile placing 10th in 5:29.51. I have noticed that she runs the relay often better coming off of another race so doubling is not an issue for her. She then ran a thrilling lead of leg in the 4 x 800 in a 3 second PR of 2:21.9. Anna will not run the mile in All State and I kidded her that I would try to find a race for her in the parking lot prior to her 4 x 800 as she doubles so well. She was to run the mile with both Lucrecia Aguilar and Emily Caggiano, but Lucrecia who has done such a great job of rebounding from a long illness to post a PR of 5:21 going into this meet had a fever over the weekend. She really wanted to race and I am sure she would have if I told her to do so. But she has had such a stellar rebound from lengthy illness and I want her next race to be fully healthy so I scratched her from the mile and the 4 x 800. Emily Caggiano was now activated in the 4 x 800 to replace Lucrecia so I took her out of the mile to keep her fresh for that relay and also as an alternate for the 4 x 400.
In the 4 x 800 Anna followed her race plan to perfection and ran in the 2nd position the entire way and kicked us into 1st coming off of the final turn. Once I saw how well Anna ran as our opening leg I felt confident that we would place well and advance to All State. We had noted in our race plan talk that several of the better teams were running some of their better racers on the 2nd and 3rd legs according to the orders listed in the heat sheets so we told Hannah Friedman and Emily Caggiano to pick the right pace in the middle legs and hold steady. Both did an outstanding job of that. When Alekhya Chaparala got the baton she gave no doubt that we were going to hold the 4th position in the seeded heat (Lexington ran slightly faster in the 1st heat to take 4th). She went out like a rocket and put a lot of ground between us and the pursuing teams.
Her first split was 31 followed by a 64 split at the 400. She did an awesome job of holding on after going out so fast and sealed the deal for us despite getting knocked into and slowed by an official who had stepped on the track in her way trying to move high jump mats with 150 meters to go and that is a crucial point in the race and not a place to have your momentum stalled. She did a great job of finishing and is a true anchor. Joe Tranchita came up to me after the meet and told me he was so impressed with Alkehya and how good she looks racing. He called her the real deal and that was very nice to hear from Joe.
Kyra Visnick had a great day placing 8th in the long jump just 1.25 inches off of her PR and then gave us a lead in our heat of the 4 x 200. Lizzie Fineman ran a great 2nd leg and maintained the lead. Ester Cho a sophomore did not start the season on this relay, but her improvement during the course of the year has been such that she has become a fixture on this relay for us. She ran the best leg of her improved season and she had to lunge to make the hand off to Mary Testa. Mary got such a great get off on her leg that Ester had to really reach to make the hand off and then she went diving to the track. Their hand off was solid, but left no room for error. Ester got some scrapes, but was in good spirits due to the team PR. I love working with this relay. We have had to adjust legs all season due to illness and bumps, but when they come to practice they are very focused right down to our two 9th grade alternates. It was a good way to end our season with another PR. Mary could see the time as she finished and a huge smile and a very small hand pump showed that she was proud of her 4 x 200 girls. We placed 13th and we bettered our seed by 3 places.
We were down a few of our young kids in the 4 x 400 so Hannah Friedman, Emily Caggiano and Lizzie Fineman did extra duty coming back to the 4 x 400 after the 4 x 800 and 4 x 200 respectively. Our team of Hannah, Emily, Sophia Cen and Lizzie did a great job on little rest besting our seed time by 4 seconds. As a team we really wanted to complete all three relays and Sophia has worked so hard to earn her way into this meet and I felt it was important for her to get her chance. Lizzie had to run very tired on little rest, but she had a lot of courage to pull off her leg. This is a relay that has a lot of potential for growth in the next few years and we set the ground work for the future.
Anna Laurence has held down the 2 mile all season long and our 3-1 DCL season record is in large part due to her leadership. She ran a very solid race and led the pack at times in her heat. She was still near her season best with 800 to go and was giving a good effort.
