Trojan runners state champs

Trojan Runners Are State Champions

4x400 State Champs - Taryn, Taylor, Alexis and Catherine 4x400 State Champs - Taryn, Taylor, Alexis and Catherine The girls from Garden City do it again! Not only did they send an amazing 9 girls to represent Nassau County Section VIII to the NY State meet at Cornell University on Saturday, but each one of them came home with a medal and All State honors. Topping the accomplishments was the fabulous gold medal run of the 4x400 relay team of Alexis Yebhoah-Kodie, Taryn Schmelzinger, Taylor Hennig and Catherine Cafaro who came home as the State Champions.

Stepping on the track first thing in the morning for the preliminaries, the foursome wasn’t sure what to expect from the competition and were just looking for a qualifying time to get into the finals later in the day. Well they sure did set the tone with the top time in the prelims to sail into the finals later in the day. With all four running near top form, Alexis, Taryn, Taylor and Catherine were set to step into the history books as the first indoor State Champion relay for GC.

All State Race Walker Molly JosephsAll State Race Walker Molly Josephs In the finals, after running a solid opening leg, Alexis almost had the misfortune of being run off the track before her handoff, but kept her balance and focus to get the baton off to Taylor just as they approached the end of their handoff zone. The problems occurred when an opposing runner moved into Alexis’ lane after her hand off. Hennig made up a lot of the lost ground in the first 200 meters and then closed out her leg passing several girls to hand the baton off to Taryn in fourth place. Schmelzinger pushed herself to close the gap on the lead pack and handed the baton off to Cafaro in fourth, but only about 20 meters back of the lead. In the first 50 meters Catherine set her sights on the group in front of her and began to show signs of being able to catch them. And catch them she did. On the turn after the first 200 meters she got up next to the pack and pushed past them on the backstretch. Coming home in the last 50 meters she was clear of runner up Newburgh by almost a second to take first place and the gold. What an exciting race that had the crowd buzzing and the Trojan girls all smiling as they accepted their medals as State Champs. For senior Cafaro it was a tremendous outing and closes out a very successful Section VIII indoor career.

In the race prior, the 4x800 relay of Emma Gallagher, Jenna DeAngelo, Michelle Rotondo and Emily Menges also hit the medal stand with a fourth place finish. This was each of this foursomes second event and it looked like it may have taken just enough out of them to keep them from challenging the leaders. Emma, Michelle and Emily all ran in the individual 1000 meters about 90 minutes prior to the relay, with Emily medaling with a fifth place finish; while Jenna ran in the individual 600 meters about 2 hours earlier. The quartet will be back on the track together next week at the Indoor Nationals and will look to add to their All State honors.

The final All State performance came from Molly Josephs who finished fourth in the 1500 meter race walk. Molly broke out fast with the lead pack and finished strong with a season best time of 7:16.45; a time she is looking to better at next week’s Nike Nationals.

So it was another terrific weekend on the track for the Trojan runners and with one weekend to go in the indoor season they are piling up the post season honors. Last up will be the Nike Nationals this weekend with coach Erica Fregosi taking the 10 girls with qualifying times up to Boston for the prestigious meet. Good luck with Nationals!