Track & Field: Riverhead sets four school records at St. Anthony’s Invitational
As a defending state champion, Riverhead senior Melodee Riley is used to the pressure that comes in a big meet. In high school track & field, few meets bring out the level of competition like the St. Anthony’s Invitational.
Competing over the weekend against some of the top athletes from across Long Island, including private schools, Riley won her signature event with a top mark of 39 feet 11 inches in the triple jump.
Riley, who’s been consistently near 40 feet all spring, was more than two feet better than the runner-up, Cypher McCloud of Copiague who jumped 37-01.
Riley’s win highlighted a strong overall performance from both the boys and girls teams, which combined to break four school records.
The Riverhead girls finished 11th in team points with 23. There were 39 teams that scored at least one point in the meet. Uniondale scored 55 points to with the girls meet. St. Anthony’s easily won the boys meet with 85 1/2 points, more than doubling the next best team.
Sophomore Madison Blom had a big meet for the girls by scoring in both the shot put and discus. She was third in the shot put with a top mark of 35-02 1/2. The winner was Jocelyn Harris of Great Neck. In the discus she threw 100 for fifth place.
The girls 4 x 400 relay team ripped five seconds off the school record by running 4 minutes 0.14 seconds for fourth place. That gives the Blue Waves the third fastest time in the county so far this season behind Bay Shore and Brentwood, both of which historically have tremendous relay teams. Both teams have run sub-4 minute times this year, which they did at St. Anthony’s.
The relay team for Riverhead included Riley, sophomore Destiny McElroy, sophomore Rachel Conti and eighth-grader Dezerae Brown. The previous record set last year was 4:05.78.
Riley also ran the 400 dash and finished sixth in 58.28.
Riverhead also ran the 4 x 1,600 and set a mark of 24:12. There was no previous record for the 4 x 1,600, an unusual event that’s not contested at dual meets or most invitationals. The team included senior Gabby Escallier, Conti, freshman Maria Dillingham and eighth-grader Meghan Van Bommel.
Riverhead finished 12th in the event.
Sophomore Destiny McElroy was 10th in the 400 hurdles in 69.89.
On the boys side sophomore Travis Wooten broke his own school record in the 3,200 by running 10:11.4. His previous best was 10:15, which he ran earlier this year.
Shoreham-Wading River senior John Lee finished third in the 3,200 in 9:24.12 and was the top performer for the Wildcats.
Riverhead junior Anthony Galvan set a school record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. He ran 10:07.27 for ninth place in only his second attempt in the event for his career. The previous record of 10:10.04 was set in 2008.
Junior Jonah Spaeth was fourth in the pole vault after clearing 13-06. Senior Anthony Stimpfel was seventh in the shot put with a top mark of 48-05 1/2. Junior Jeff Pittman was ninth in the 200 in 23.22. He was also 11th in the triple jump with a top mark of 42-04 1/4.
McGann-Mercy senior Sasa Vann and sophomore Delina Auciello went one-two in the unseeded 400 dash. Vann ran 59.84 and Auciello was 1:01.01. Vann would have had the eighth best time among the seeded runners. Auciello also ran the seeded 800 and was 16th in 2:25.85.
Mercy eighth-grader Meg Tuthill ran the unseeded 800 and finished third in 2:24.68. Junior Dani Gehring was sixth in 2:28.35.
