Girls Track - Conference Champs

Aoi Nishmura is high over the hurdle.

Congratulations to the girl's varsity track team for capturing another Conference Championship for the Spring season. They finish the season with a perfect 13-0 record against schools in their conference. Completing the season with a sparkling 90 to 30 to 20 victory over Bellmore-JFK and Herricks last Tuesday the girls go into the division and county meets as one of the favorites. The girls have been competing in high level invitational meets on the weekends, as well as performing at championship levels during the week in the conference. With great depth and versatility, GC will be a tough match for perennial division and county challengers Hewlett, Lynbrook and Westbury, but the girls are primed for a great run.

Last weekend Coaches Cuzzo and Fregosi took a small contingent north to White Plains for the 41st Glenn D. Loucks Games, one of the oldest and most prestigious events for the Spring track season. The meet kicked off on Friday afternoon under very poor conditions - temperatures in the low 50's, heavy rains and strong winds. Not really Spring weather. But the girls who needed to compete stepped on the track and did just that. Eight grader Molly Josephs dominated the field in the one mile race walk with a time of 8:01, more than a 17 second margin of victory. Molly received 'the Olympian', the signature trophy of the Loucks games and one that is based on the Olympic torch - which by the way was carried into the stadium during the opening ceremonies.

Laura Martens strides through the last hurdle.

Also on Friday, Michelle Rotondo started her quest in the pentathlon by running the 100 meter hurdles in a personal best 16.4 seconds. But with the rain picking up momentum the second of five events, the high jump, was postponed until Saturday morning.

The rain didn't stop the running events and Brooke Senken had to step on the track in the top heat of the hotly contested 800 meter race and finished with a time of 2:23 - pretty good considering the conditions.

On Saturday the weather was a different story - sunny skies, still breezy, but somewhat warmer. Michelle competed throughout the day in the pentathlon and finished a strong fourth with 2,824 points - surpassing the state qualifying total and bringing home a medal against all juniors and seniors. The key to her total was a personal best performance of 5'00.05" in the high jump and a dominating 800 meter run of 2:20 at the end of the day when most other competitors are ready to call it a day.

Brooke Senken runs the third leg of the 4x800.

There were a number of additional fine performance and personal bests, the top being Catherine Cafaro turning in a personal best in the 400 and the 200 meters, with a 61.5 and a 27.16, respectively. Also doubling in those events, Taryn Schmelzinger, Deanna Ceriano and Jenna DeAngelo finished at or very near their season's bests. Taryn and Jenna also came back in the afternoon to run in the 4x800 relay, joining with seniors Brooke Senken and Maddie Adams to turn in a time of 9:48. Earlier in the day Maddie ran the 2000 meter steeplechase and finished with a time of 7:22.48.

Catherine Cafaro powers through the 200m.

Running the 200m and the 400 intermediate hurdles, as well as the 4x400, Lauren Williams and Laura Martens turned in their usual solid results, while seventh grader Aoi Nishumura had strong performances in the 400 hurdles and 4x400 relay.

The girls took off this past week from competitions to focus on training for the Division meet on Monday afternoon at Hewlett. Bring home another title to add to your fantastic run! Good Luck.

Molly Josephs pulls away on the wet track. Taryn Schmelzinger down the stretch of the 200m. Lauren Williams in the 4x400 relay. Michelle Rotondo flies through the 100 hurdles