Emily Menges State Champ in the 1000m. As most coaches and athletes are preparing for the Spring season, Coach Erica Fregosi still has the winter track team working hard to achieve their goals. This past weekend nine of our talented young ladies boarded the Nassau County Section VIII bus for the 5 hour drive to run at the NY State Championships Meet at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Leading the group that qualified for the State meet was Emily Menges who qualified in the 1000m, as well as the 4x800 and 4x400 relays - a feat that many followers thought would be an impossible task considering the 4x400 final was to be run minutes after the 4x800 would finish. Well, those that know Emily also know that her competitive spirit, that is matched only by her amazing talent, would make this a very good possibility. And she proved it by coming home with a gold, a silver and a bronze medal to cap a tremendous season. That is until she got a call to appear on News 12's Sports Rush on Sunday night. Emily unfortunately will not be able to run in next weeks Nationals because of a prior commitment to play soccer in a nationally recognized tournament in Las Vegas.

Bronze medal winners for the 4x400 on the medal stand. On the Cornell track, first up were the preliminary heats of the 4x400 with the top eight teams going on to the finals at the end of the day. Running in heat 2, the quartet of Taryn Schmelzinger, Taylor Hennig, Catherine Cafaro and Victoria Chimento posted the fourth fastest time (4:06.63) to qualify for the finals. Victoria was stepping in for Emily in the prelims and helped the team to a terrific qualifying time.

Then in her first event, Emily took to the track for the 1000m race very determined to get off to a strong start. And that she did, never really letting anyone else in the race and won with a wire to wire effort in a time of 2:54.12 for the 1000 meter State Championship.

In the 1500m race walk it was Molly Josephs putting in a solid effort in a very deep field, especially from familiar competitors from Long Island. Molly's time of 7:15.22 was good enough to get her on the medal podium with a 4th place finish.

Molly Josephs with a medal performance in the 1500 race walk. Next up was the 4x800 relay team of Emily, Liz Slattery, Jenna DeAngelo and Michelle Rotondo competing against some highly ranked teams from across the state. Running very consistent from the first leg with Emily through the anchor with Michelle, the girls produced a time of 9:24.51 for a second place finish to take home the silver medal. In her leg, the second, Liz produced a personal best of 2:22.4 and helped stretch the field to a two team race.

And in the last race of the night for our girls, it was the 4x400 foursome of Taryn, Taylor, Catherine and Emily coming back in the finals knowing that they would all have to be on top of their game to take home a medal. And on top of their game they were in producing a school record by more than 5 seconds with a stunning 4:00.23. Catherine ran a personal best 59.3 leg and Emily closed with a 57.7 and leaned in for a third place finish and a bronze medal to top off the night.

So Garden City sent nine girls to Cornell representing not only GC but also Section VIII, and all nine did their jobs and came home with medals and All State honors in their events. They can also be proud of the fact that they helped Section VIII take home the unofficial county title. What a great showing for a talented group of girls. With another chance for coach Fregosi to showcase some of her runners, the girls travel to Boston today for the Nike Nationals at the Reggie Lewis Center.

Liz Slattery runs in the 2nd place 4x800.

Jenna DeAngelo runs in the 2nd place 4x800 Michelle Rotondo anchors the 2nd place 4x800. Taryn Schmelzinger runs in the 3rd place 4x400. Silver medal winners for the 4x800. Catherine Cafaro runs in the 3rd place 4x400.