Girls Track At States

Jenna, Emily, Maddie and Aoi all smiles.

The girl's varsity track team continued their fine season by representing Garden City and Section VIII, Nassau County at the NY State Championship meet at the University of Buffalo. Wearing their maroon colors, Garden City was led by Emily Menges who ran twice in the 800 meter race, as well as in the 4x800 and the 4x400 relays. Joining Emily on the 4x800 relay were Maddie Adams, Jenna DeAngelo and Aoi Nishimura. While she was joined on the 4x400 relay team was Brooke Senken, Catherine Cafaro, Taryn Schmelzinger and Laura Martens.

While the State meet brings together representatives from all public, catholic and private schools there are actually two titles at stake in each event - State Champion and Federation Champion. The State Champion competition consists of all public schools, while the Federation has all schools at the meet competing for titles.

So, on Friday Emily ran the State Championship 800m race and finished third with a time of 2:13.17 gaining All State honors. She then came back later that afternoon and ran the anchor leg of the 4x400 relay. Running into a tremendous head wind down the stretch, the girls turned in a good time of 3:59.47, but it wasn't enough to qualify for the finals on Saturday. They still finished tenth overall in the state - not too bad.

Maddie Adams runs in the 4x800 relay.

On Saturday, Emily came back to run in the Federation championship 800 meter race and once again medaled by finishing third with a school record time of 2:09.58. The time would have been a Nassau record if not for the fact that the winner of the race was from Hempstead and ran an amazing 2:07.46!

Then, before the clouds and rain came back in, the 4x800 relay team had their chance to shine and they did just that, running a very solid 9:14.77 to take 5th place and earn All State honors for Emily, Maddie Adams, Jenna DeAngelo and Aoi Nishimura.

Throughout the two days, Michelle Rotondo competed in the pentathlon, running the 100 hurdles, high jumping and throwing the shot put on Friday and then finishing up on Saturday with the long jump and 800 meter run. Completing the 5 events with a point total of 2,839 Michelle finished ninth overall - just missing a medal by less than 50 points. She had personal bests in the high jump (5'1.75"), long jump (15'06") and 800m (2:19). With that total, she has the second highest point total for GC as well as the freshman record.

Catherine Cafaro runs in the 4x400 relay

Great job at States, now go down to North Carolina and represent Garden City well in the Nike Nationals. Good Luck!

Brooke Senken in the 4x400 relay. Emily Menges - All State - 800m & 4 x 800 relay Taryn Schmelzinger runs in the 4x400 relay Michelle Rotondo wins the Pentathlon's 800m.