Track & Field: Relay teams run personal bests at nationals
All throughout the spring track & field season, the four runners on McGann-Mercy’s 4 x 100 relay team posted faster and faster times every time they took the track.
At the state championships last weekend in Syracuse, their goal was to hit the qualifying mark for the New Balance Outdoor Nationals. They accomplished that goal, running a personal best of 50.42 seconds.
Soon after the girls were packing their bags for North Carolina. And on Friday, in their final race together, the girls lowered their personal best mark by running 50.37 in the emerging elite race at North Carolina A&T University.
The quartet featured Julianna Cintron, Adafih Blackburn, Delaney Macchirole and Danisha Carter.
Carter is the only senior in the group and the team’s anchor runner.
The 50.37 time put them 32nd among the 42 teams that competed. The winning time was 47.93 by East Kentwood, a Michigan school.
Shoreham-Wading River had a boys team run the 4 x 800 relay Friday. The team ran its personal best of 7:57.52 for a ninth place finish among 45 teams.
The relay team of Matt Gladysz, Connor McAlary, Keith Steinbrecher and Ryan Udvadia continued to improve at each race late in the spring season. They entered the division championships with a seed time of 8:24.24. They ran 8:06.54 at that meet and followed that up with an 8:04.11 at the state qualifier, which was fourth best.
The nationals continue today through Sunday.
