Schumann’s big day helps Monarchs fly

It was the epitome of what makes the Bishop McGann-Mercy Monarchs girls track and field team so good.

There were so many good performances, so many good stories, in the Monarchs’ 84-57 home win over The Stony Brook Bears on Tuesday afternoon. Olivia Schumann won three individual events for McGann-Mercy (5-0 overall and in Suffolk County League VII). She was first in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles (1 minute 13.7 seconds), the 200 (27.8), the high jump (4 feet 8 inches) and ran the final leg of the winning 4 x 100-meter relay team (53.9) that also included Sasa Vann, Kayleigh Macchirole and Karli Nunez.

“Olivia is so talented,” McGann-Mercy Coach Tricia Nunez said. “She is dedicated and hardworking. She is a coach’s dream.”

Vann won the 100 in 13.1 and the long jump at 14-9 3/4. Karli Nunez was victorious in the triple jump at 30-6 and came in second in the 100-meter high hurdles in 18.7. Macchirole won the 400 in 1:04.7.

In the long-distance races, McGann-Mercy’s Emily Venesenina won the 1,500 in 5:38, and teammate Lauren Valle took first in the 3,000 in 12:54. McGann-Mercy freshman Lindsey Gelling captured the 1,500-meter racewalk in 8:45. Tricia Nunez called Gelling’s performance “awesome.”

The Monarchs also won the final two relay races. The 4 x 400 relay team of Tori Cataldo, Tori Cremble, Venesenina and Ashly Yakabowski was clocked in 4:39. In the 4 x 800 relay, Celia Hague, Tiffany Holohan, Callie Gelling and Valle were timed in 11:48.2.

Cataldo, a freshman who Tricia Nunez said “is so versatile, she has the most potential on the team,” also won the 800 in 2:38.

The loss dropped Stony Brook’s record to 1-3, 1-3.

Tricia Nunez was pleased with her team’s effort.

“This is an amazingly talented group of kids,” she said. “They are hardworking. You couldn’t ask for a nicer bunch of girls to work with.”