SMR National Champs - Michelle , Taryn, Catherine, and Emily The Garden City girls capped an amazing indoor track season by taking home TWO National Championships at the Nike Indoor National Meet at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston. Oh, and they also had a second and fifth place finish in 2 other events, making them the most decorated track and field team in school history, as well as on Long Island this season, with 13 All American designations. Coach Erica Fregosi delights in showcasing the talent we have in Garden City during this part of the season and makes the trip with the girls each year looking to bring home All American statuses. Well this year there were 10 girls on the trip to Nationals and 8 came home as Indoor Track All Americans; with Michelle Rotondo and Emily Menges being honored three times and Catherine Cafaro twice. The threesome joined up for both gold medal victories, partnering with Taryn Schmelzinger for the Sprint Medley Championship on Saturday and then Taylor Hennig for the 4x400 Relay Championship on Sunday. Also on Saturday, Jenna DeAngelo and Emma Gallagher joined Michelle and Emily as part of the 4x800 silver medal performance. And in the Mile Race Walk Molly Josephs took home the fifth place medal from the Boston meet on Saturday and then traveled home to race in National Scholastic Indoor Championship on Sunday at the Armory in NY and completed the double with a fourth place finish. For Molly this is the second year in a row that she has driven back and forth on I95 to bring home All American honors from both meets.

4x800 Silver Medal - Emma, Emily, Michelle and Jenna On Saturday, first up was the Sprint Medley Relay, an event that had the Trojan girls running in the top heat, seeded fourth. Breaking out of the blocks quickly with the first 200 meter leg was Taryn Schmelzinger, who knew she had to get out fast and push through the handoff. And with a 27.4 leg Taryn put Catherine Cafaro in third position for the second 200 meter leg. As Catherine accelerated off the first turn she quickly got GC near the front of the pack and as she came down the stretch for the handoff to Michelle Rotondo she was closing on second after a blazing 25.9. With a small gap to second, Michelle erased it off the first turn and set her sights on the lead down the backstretch of her first 200m. And running smooth and loose she got to the lead after 300 meters and GC never looked back. Rotondo finished off her 400 meters in 57.6 to give the baton to Emily with a 20 meter lead. Menges took the stick and put to rest any notion that she is still feeling the effects of some nagging injuries. As Menges came through the first 400 meters in approximately 62.6 the only thing left in doubt was where the GC time would place on the US list; because as everyone who has seen her run knows - Emily will not be caught down the stretch! So as she broke the tape and the time of 4:02.84 flashed across the screen Garden City had the US #1 and a National Championship. All that was left was collecting their shirts, flags, flowers and being sized for their championship rings!

Katie O’Neill runs a personal best 800 meters. 4x400 National Champs - Taylor, Catherine, Coach Fregosi, Michelle and Emily. Following up the relay was Molly Josephs and her first one mile racewalk of the weekend. In a loaded field of competitors, Molly had to use not only her legs but her head to put herself in medal contention. And working through a full field, Molly stayed with the lead pack throughout the race and came through the finish line in a personal best time of 7:41.63 and a fifth place All American finish.

Jen Gerland works hard in the 2 mile run. Also running on Saturday afternoon was the individual 400 meter event and the Trojans had Taylor Hennig and Katie O’Neill representing GC. The girls ran strong races in a very tough event at Nationals, both using this race as a warm-up for their events on Sunday.

Next up in the busy day for Ms. Fregosi’s group was the 4x800 relay team of Emma Gallagher, Jenna DeAngelo, Michelle Rotondo and Emily Menges. With almost a 4 hour break, Michelle and Emily appeared rested and ready to challenge for another shot at the medal stand. Leading off with a personal best 800 leg, seventh grader Gallagher had GC right with the leader as she passed the baton to Jenna. DeAngelo got out quickly pushing the pace and trying to hold off Fayetteville-Manilus runner, but got to the handoff in second place. As Jenna handed to Michelle it started to look like the race was for second because FM was just too tough. As Rotondo battled each lap with eventual third place finisher Shenendehowa, she was able to hand off with a slight lead for second to Menges. With Emily coming of a terrific 2:11 earlier, the Trojans were in good shape, however the Shen anchor would not give in as she battled Emily every step of the way. But Emily would not relent and kept her on her outside shoulder the entire 800 meters to cross the finish line less than 3 tenths of a second ahead of Shenendehowa for the silver medal. By the way, Manilus took first with a time of 9:02.80! So GC hit the medal stand for the third time on the day with Menges and Rotondo getting their second shot at the stand.

2 time All American 1 Mile Race Walker - Molly Josephs The last event on Saturday, was seventh grader Jennifer Gerland’s introduction to the Nike Nationals in the 2 mile run. And Jen took advantage of the experience and ran a very strong race with a time of 11:28.43 to finish in the top half of the rather large group of runners.

Some of the girls came back to the Reggie Lewis Center first thing on Sunday morning for a couple of individual events - Michelle in the 60m hurdles and Emma, Katie and Jenna in the open 800m. And although Taylor, Michelle and Emily all qualified for the 800, they scratched to prepare for the 4x400 later in the day. So in a field of very strong hurdlers, Michelle ran close to her personal best in the but chalked this one up to experience and a good early workout for later in the day. As for the 800, all three youngsters ran close to or better than their personal bests. Running in an unseeded heat, Emma had the 2nd best time of the early morning. And after the top two sections ran later in the day, Gallagher’s time of 2:16.31 was still good enough for 14th place out of a field of 71 runners, while O’neill’s 2:18.98 was good for 33rd.

The last event of the meet for Ms. Fregosi’s merry band was the ‘vaunted’ 4x400 (as they have been referred to in the past) of Taylor, Catherine, Michelle and Emily. As the foursome warmed up and awaited their heat, they were loose but somewhat apprehensive about the competition. In the top heat as the 4th seed, the girls were confident in hitting the medal stand but not too sure on which step they would be standing. As the gun sounded, it appeared to be an all out sprint for the first lap and Taylor had tucked herself in behind the leaders. By the second 200 meters Taylor started to accelerate and handed off to Catherine in third place, just off the leader. As Cafaro rounded the first turn she settled into second and kept her eyes on her target. And with a burst in the last 20 meters, Catherine put the baton into Michelle’s hands right on the lead. It was then up to Rotondo to hold off the challenge of 2 strong runners. After the first 100 meters Michelle found herself in second by five steps, but staying focused on her goal, even from lane two, she turned up the jets off the last turn and handed off to Menges with a 3 step lead. And as I said earlier, once Emily has the lead the GC girls are pretty confident. Although Emily got passed in the first 100 meters, she was determined to take this race home. With about 150 meters left, Menges passed a stunned Columbia, NJ runner and kept her off her outside shoulder to the finish tape and had a victory by less than a second in 3:50.70! For Emily, Michelle and Catherine it was their second Championship of the meet and an opportunity to get fitted for their second Championship ring.

Just like their races, the girls finished the season with a winning sprint! For Holy Cross bound Cafaro it was a perfect ending to an outstanding final indoor season. The sprinter adds her All American honors as part of the 2 championship relays (4x400 and SMR) to her All State performance as the anchor of the State Champion 4x400 relay team and to her All County 300m and 4x400 relay performances.

And for Georgetown bound Menges it means that she completes an amazing indoor career as arguably the best middle distance runner, not only in GC history but on Long Island throughout her 4 years. Emily had to battle a number of nagging injuries this season coming off an All State soccer season, but she rounded into form at the right time. Running a 2:11 split on the SMR winning relay proved to the track world that she was back! And back indeed, with a vengeance, as the two championships and one runner-up national ranking will attest. Congratulations to two fine ladies and two fierce competitors for their outstanding indoor careers!

The girls are looking forward to putting their terrific times to the test with the upcoming Spring season, but they are more likely looking forward to the week off from running before getting back out onto the track - weather permitting. And what an outdoor season it should be. With the majority of this group returning to the track, the team has the depth and youth to keep attaining new and higher levels.

As for coach Erica Fregosi, it marks the end to an outstanding season that had a number of tremendous outcomes. With so many high points - 2 National Champions, a US#1 ranking, a State Champion and another County Championship, oh yeah, and a marriage, I guess I should have asked her what was her most memorable event of this Winter!

A special thanks to the Men’s Association for their tremendous support of the winter track team as they helped defray most of the cost of the trip to Nationals and continue to support the girls each season.