Holy Trinity's Logan Daley builds back to her best after quad injury

Right now, Logan Daley views the race as a model, a jumping off point, what the next month should look like if everything goes according to plan. All but four other athletes in the state view the same race as something to shoot for. The Holy Trinity sophomore ran 12.26 seconds in the 100-meter prelims at the New York Relays last month, her personal best and the fifth-best time in the state this spring, entering the weekend, according to milesplit.com.

It was the perfect blend of execution and precision, one that Daley hopes will carry her toward a run at a state title.

“That’s going to be my model race for the rest of the season,” she said. “My first couple of steps were very hard and aggressive. The momentum of that pushed me to PR in that race. At the end, when I was lifting my knees up and getting tall, it’s something I would like to continue doing throughout the season.”

Daley hopes that her outdoor season ends a little differently from her indoor one. Daley won the 55 and 300 at the Nassau-Suffolk CHSAA Indoor League Championships in January, earning track MVP honors at one of the top postseason meets of the season.

What looked like the beginning of a fruitful February and early March turned out to be a high point. Daley suffered a quad injury in practice after the league championships, forcing her to miss the CHSAA Intersectional Championships and, with it, a chance to qualify for the state championships. Daley’s goal of winning a state title would have to wait a bit longer.

Rehab took only a few weeks and Daley was back running before the end of the indoor season, but the inability to qualify for the state championships was a major blow.

“It felt longer,” she said of the relatively quick rehab. “Because it was around championship season and I really wanted to run, but I couldn’t.”

Still, Daley went to both the intersectional and state championships, each held on Staten Island. She couldn’t run, but she could watch, and visualize what winning a championship would eventually look like.

“Watching the girls run made me want to run even more,” she said. “I knew that if I even tried to run, I would injure myself even more. I knew I just had to rest and let it heal on its own before I stepped back on the track.”

Now she’s back and only a few milliseconds off the state pace. Mirra Klimov of Clarkstown North had the top time in the state (12.01) entering the weekend. But Daley is right there and believes that the next month will bring good things for her. The state championships are June 10-11 in upstate Cicero and Daley thinks she has as good a shot as anyone to stand at the top of the podium.

“I really do think so,” she said. “I’m just excited to see what’s to come.

Sullivan wins at Bob Pratt

It was a blisteringly sunny day at Smithtown East High School last Saturday, but not everything was quite so perfect for Harborfields’ Owen Sullivan. Down to the final two laps of the 1,600 at the Bob Pratt Invitational, Sullivan heard rumblings, both of feet and voices. He didn’t like either.

“I heard footsteps behind me and some kid on the sidelines yelling at the people behind me, saying that they could pass me,” Sullivan said. “I really hate hearing footsteps and hearing things like that … In the last 200 meters, I heard some kid say ‘[You’re] still able to pass him.’ I was like, ‘No way these kids are passing me. I can’t let that happen.’”

The voices were wrong. Sullivan wasn’t able to be caught, he wasn’t slowing down, and he would be the winner, finishing in 4:29.90, more than four seconds ahead of the field.

“It went semi according to plan,” Sullivan said. “My third lap was a little slower than I hoped for, but other than that, I thought I did really well.”

Sullivan, who also runs the 3,200, said after the victory that he thinks the 1,600 will be his main event in the postseason.