Emma Gallagher takes the lead The Garden City girl’s team sprinted into the championship leg of their season with a rousing victory at the Millrose Games in the inaugural 4x800 invitational run at Madison Square Garden. The foursome of seventh grader Emma Gallagher, sophomores Jenna DeAngelo and Taylor Hennig and junior anchor Michelle Rotondo ran into the Millrose record books with a solid time of 9:22.66 - a time they are confident they can improve upon under ‘normal condition’, meaning, on a typical 200 meter oval rather than the approximately 140 meter somewhat round track at the Garden. With the tight turns there were several spills among the 26 races that took place on the evening but our girls were able to navigate the track without much difficulty.

The Millrose Games are one of the oldest track & field events in the US and this was the 103rd running of the star filled classic. The Games are the kickoff meet of the USA Track and Field Visa Championship Series on the indoor professional circuit. Competing amongst Olympians, US Champions and World Championship medal winners, coaches Fregosi and Skrivanek had the honor of bringing two of their relay teams to the Games. And the girls that were honored with the invites performed exceptionally well - especially when considering not one of them had stepped foot on the MSG track to compete in front of several thousand fans (including many of their teammates and parents).

Taylor Hennig battles the challengers. First up was the 4x400 team of Alexis Yeboah-Kodie, Catherine Cafaro, Katie O’Neill and anchor Taryn Schmelzinger competing against the top teams from Long Island. With a strong showing, the girls medaled with a third place finish in a very tight race. Holy Cross bound senior Cafaro put the girls in medal contention with an outstanding second leg after Alexis did her job by getting out quickly at the start of the race. With strong third and anchor legs from Katie and Taryn, the girls put together a terrific performance on the small Garden track with a time of 4:05.

Jenna DeAngelo pushes out the lead. In the 4x800 the girls were seeded in the middle of the pack but right from the start they were determined to show that they belong at the top of the leader board. Going against rivals North Shore and Bronxille, the Trojans got an unexpected start to the race as seventh grader Emma Gallagher took it to a field that included Duke bound Brianna Welch, and handed off after her 5 and 1/2 laps at the front of the pack to Taylor Hennig. Taylor went head to head with Syosset’s terrific middle distance runner Rachel Ngu as they went into the third hand off together. Next up was Jenna DeAngelo and her battle with runners from Syosset and Bronxville as the three teams started to break away some from the pack. Jenna turned it up as she approached anchor Michelle Rotondo slightly ahead of Bronxville, the second ranked team in the nation. Michelle took the baton and with each lap extended GC’s lead over the competition to win by more than 2 seconds - a pretty big margin against such a talented field. The only thing left were the interviews with MSG Varsity, Newsday and the Armory website. Congratulations on a job well done and another memorable feat for these talented young ladies!

Anchor Michelle Rotondo puts the race away.
The Champion 4x800 meter relay.
The 4x400, Catherine, Taryn, Katie and Alexis.