Blue Devils Snag Second At Invitational

Photo courtesy of Shawn Anderson
The Huntington Girls track team took home second place at the Paul Limmer Invitational earlier this month.

By Jano Tantongco
jtantongco@longislandergroup.com

Even with a team not at its full roster, the Huntington High School girls track team was able to take home second place at the Paul Limmer Invitational at W.C. Mepham High School on April 8.

They came just 4.75 points short of gold in the 18-team invitational, bested by upstate Arlington High School, who earned 35.75 to the Blue Devils’ 31.

“We’ve had some of the smallest numbers we’ve had in a while, so sometimes our depth isn’t exactly where we’d like it to be, but I think the high quality of our athletes is there,” head coach for the spring, Shawn Anderson said. “It still showed that how early in the season how we could put up some quality performances.”

Competing within the team were Marina Ruzic and Rebecca Caballero who matched each other jump for jump until Ruzic lept 16-08 1/2 feet for second place in the high jump event, just ahead of Caballero’s third-place 16-08 feet.

In the 800-meter run, Alexis Pastorelli (2:36.10) and Louise Koepele (2:36.45) placed in the top 10. In the 1,500-meter, Hadley Clayton finished fifth in 5:24.24.

In the 4x800-meter relay, Ruzic, Caballero, Pastorelli and Koepele finished fourth in a time of 10:51.34. Just behind were Keily Rivas, Alexandra McKenzie, Hadley Clayton and Sophie Dellecave with a time of 11:05.55 to take fifth place.

As for the triple jump, Cabellero and Mackenzie Joseph tied for fourth place, launching 32-04 1/2 feet. Meanwhile, Dellecave finished second with a jump of 32-01 1/2 feet.

In the discus event, Nephar Durand threw 91-02 feet to finish second. Jolena Smith took fourth with 88-03 feet. Freshman Mya Davis threw 51-07 feet in her first competition, finishing 14th out of 40.

In shot put, Smith finished second (30-10 feet) and Durand placed fourth (29-09 feet).

And, in the pole vault, Joseph reached a height of 8-06 feet for second place, missing the top spot based only on misses. McKenzie came in fifth with a height of 7-06 feet.

More recently, the team took the lead against Deer Park at a home meet on Friday, 84-70. Up next, they’ll compete in another invitational at Westhampton Beach High School at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

Looking ahead, Anderson was confident the team would compete “at the highest levels in Suffolk.”

“We’re going against some tough competition. Our girls are definitely capable of competing at those levels… I think we have a good shot at possibly placing in the top three in the division and maybe even sending up one or two kids upstate,” Anderson said.