Garden City, St. Anthony's relays tops in nation
Garden City's Taryn Schmelzinger, Alexis Yeboah-Kodie, Taylor Hennig, Catherine Cafaro won the 4x400 relay at the Nike Nationals in Boston. (Mar. 5, 2010) Credit: Gregg T. Ordon
Relay teams usually don't get the same recognition as great individual track performances. But the Garden City girls and St. Anthony's boys relay teams went above and beyond this season and represented Long Island well on the national stage. Garden City's deep stable of middle-distance runners took home titles in both the 1,600-meter sprint medley and 4 x 400-meter races at the Nike Nationals in Boston.
Garden City
Garden City's sprint medley team of Emily Menges, Michelle Rotondo, Catherine Cafaro and Taryn Schmelzinger placed first in 4:02.84. Three of those four - Menges, Cafaro and Rotondo - teamed with Taylor Hennig to take home the 4 x 400 title in 3:50.7.
The plan all season for the Trojans was winning a national title.
"We got better as the season went along," Menges said after her team's win in the 4 x 400 at the Long Island Invitational at St. Anthony's. "The key was getting a good qualifying time that puts us in a good position at the nationals."
The Trojans followed their first-place finish at the L.I. Invitational a week later with a Federation championship in the 4 x 400 at Cornell.
That win was accentuated by the fact Menges and Rotondo didn't run in that race. Alexis Yeboah-Kodie ran the first leg.
"Everyone works hard on our team," Menges said. "Most of us can run on any of the relay teams."
St. Anthony's
The St. Anthony's boys followed suit as its quartet of Warner Cooley III, Patrick Murphy, Payton Hazzard and Marc Saracino took home the title in the 1,600 sprint medley in 3:30.76 at the National Scholastic Indoor championships at the Armory.
St. Anthony's success isn't a surprise to those who follow the team. The next day the Friars' 4 x 400 team of Cooley III, Hazzard, Saracino and Patrick Farmer placed second in a Long Island-record time of 3:19.15.
St. Anthony's coach Tim Dearie attributed it to hard work and the ability of his runners to adapt to any race. "We have guys on the team who can run pretty much anything from the 300 to the 1,000," Dearie said.
The Friars' vaunted 4 x 400 team will be tested this week at the Penn Relays.
Said Dearie: "We're going to be in a monster heat in that one."
