Impromptu medley team works for Southampton

BY MARCUS HENRY | marcus.henry@newsday.com

May 4, 2008

Suffolk girls track Shoreham-Wading River Invitational

Southampton's (left to right) Jena Arnister, Katie Laffey and Esther Altomare share the moment at the finish line after winning the distance medley relay at the Shoreham-Wading River Invitational. (Photo by Joseph D. Sullivan / May 4, 2008)

Southampton girls track coach Ed Arnold said he had a sound plan for winning races at the Shoreham-Wading River girls relay invitational Saturday: run strong in the 4x100 and 4x200-meter relays with his top runners.

But problems quickly arose when two of his sprinters couldn't participate because of illness.

With only 11 girls on the team, there weren't any replacements available. So Arnold scrapped the plan to run in the 4x100 and 4x200 and entered four of his top runners in the sprint medley relay (400-200-200-800). It was a move that paid dividends as the team finished first by a wide margin.

"I had to move people around because this was our strongest opportunity today," Arnold said.

It wasn't an easy sell for the team, however, as Arnold had to convince them that running in the sprint medley relay gave them the best chance to win.

"At first, it was hard to get them to do races they don't normally do," Arnold said. "But it's about stepping up and accepting responsibility. They did it and look what happened."

Arnold said he put the sprint medley crew together yesterday morning and that the team had no idea what they were running. "I thought I was doing the 4x100 and the 4x200," said Jen Arnister, who ran the 400 portion of the medley. "If I knew before we were doing this, I probably would've wanted to do the 200. But we pulled it all together and ran well."

Esther Altomare and Imani Richardson ran the two 200 portions of the relay, and Katie Laffey anchored the relay in the 800.

Richardson said she knew she would be running the 200, but didn't know it would be in the sprint medley. "I ran in the medley maybe once a couple of years ago," she said. "But it makes me feel good to know we can run a race unexpectedly and do well in it."

The race brought out the best in the team, according to Altomare. "It shows that we are capable of doing more than we have," Altomare said. "We don't always apply ourselves as much as we can."

For Laffey, the win was special as she posted a personal best in the 800 with a time of 2:45. "I was pretty nervous because I've never really done relays before today," Laffey said. "My best time was 2:51 and I ran that earlier today in the 4x800."