Girls Track Continues Winning Season





All smiles - Michelle, Brooke, Emily and Maddie

All smiles – Michelle, Brooke, Emily and Maddie

The Garden City girls stepped up to the challenge of the Pepsi National Hall of Fame meet at the Armory last Saturday entering four relay teams. The Lady Trojans had a great showing and came away with a first place finish in the invitational championship 4×800 relay, a fifth place finish in the sprint medley relay and a sixth place finish in the varsity 4×800 relay. The fourth team, entered in the SMR, was running strong but had the misfortune of having the baton knocked from their hand along the backstretch.

As reported on the Armory website, “Garden City took the same type of approach as several dominating performers into the girls invitational 4×800 relay. They grabbed hold of the pace from the start and never let go. Garden City, with the team of Emily Menges (2:11.8), Michelle Rotondo (2:25.0), Brooke Senken (2:18.5) and Madeline Adams (2:15.0) finished in 9:10.36, the fourth-fastest time in the country this season. The time also bettered the same quartets current school record of 9:11.8 from earlier this season.

Rachel Dooley sprints the 200m leg

Rachel Dooley sprints the 200m leg


“Menges gave her team the lead on the leadoff, holding off North Shore’s Brianna Welch (2:12.0). Rotondo though, broke the race open.

“Each of us just wanted to make the lead bigger for the next person,” Senken said. “We try just to run our hearts out and see what happens.”

Liz Weber running strong.

Liz Weber running strong.


The varsity 4×800 relay team of Liz Slattery, Jenna DeAngelo, Liz Weber and Taryn Schmelzinger followed up the winning performance with a terrific sixth place finish in a time of 9:55.78 which included a couple of personal bests by Liz and Taryn.

The Sprint Medley Relay team of Laura Martens, Lauren Williams, Katie Reilly and Maddie Adams won their heat and finished with a solid 4:16.32 time for an overall fifth place finish. The key to the fast time was a blistering anchor leg by Maddie.

While the SMR team of Brooke Senken, Brittany Stufano, Rachel Dooley and Emily Menges had the misfortune of having the baton knocked out of their hands and forced to try to make up a significant gap. The girls did well to finish fifth in the heat with a time of 4:19.08 and ninth overall out of the 38 competing teams.

Taryn Schmelzinger anchors the varsity 4x800.

Taryn Schmelzinger anchors the varsity 4×800.


Next up for the girls is the 71st running of the Eastern States Championships at the Armory on Feb. 26th. Then it’s on to the NY State Championships at Cornell University on March 8th and the Nike National Championships in Maryland on March 15th and 16th. Congratulations to the girls and their coaches Fregosi, Skrivanek and Lucas.



Laura Martens leads off the SMR.

Laura Martens leads off the SMR.

Liz Slattery leads off varsity 4x800.

Liz Slattery leads off varsity 4×800.

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