Sullivan County Indoor Track Championships

Dawgs’ show

Sullivan West girls win county meet of champions; Ellenville boys prevail

By RICHARD A. ROSS

LOCH SHELDRAKE, NY — The radiant glow of success continues to follow the Sullivan West’s girls team this season as they added to their recently garnered first-ever Division IV title over rival Tri-Valley with a stunning ascendancy over all contending Sullivan County schools in the annual meet of champions held on February 6.

This season, the Lady Bulldogs posted a 15-0 overall record and were 9-0 in their division.

Although often obscured by the plethora of coverage of basketball, their accomplishments deserve banner headlines.

Facing challenges from defending champion Monticello, and the omnipresent threat from Tri-Valley as well as Eldred, Liberty, Livingston Manor and Ellenville, the Lady Dawgs piled up 98 points to outscore second-place Tri-Valley (67), third-place Eldred (66) and fourth-place Monticello (63), who competed without standout Jessica Fingers. A year ago, Fingers won the 1000 and the 600. Tri-Valley competed without senior impact-runner Courtney Roosa. Both young women were recuperating from recent illnesses.

Ellenville, Liberty and Livingston Manor took fifth through seventh places with 38, 29 and 10 points respectively.

Sullivan West got winning performances in the 3000 from Rianne Erlwein (11:33,1), down 6.7 seconds from her third-place finish a year ago, and a win in the 55 hurdles by Sara Alsdorf (9:99), who finished second to Tri-Valley’s Casey Offringa in ’07. The Lady Bulldogs 800 relay team was also victorious in a time of 1:56.5. Alsdorf, Katherine Manzi, Morgan Hawkins and Liz Peters combined for the win. The quartet would surpass that time with a fifth-place finish in 1:55.62 at the OCIAA league meet (See League lore on page 38).

Their time bested last year’s county-winning time of two minutes flat posted by Ellenville.

Sullivan West added points from Chelsie Schadt who took fourth in the 3000 (12:01.9), while Peters took third in the 55. Erlwein was fourth in the 1000 and Hawkins took second in the 55 hurdles (10.53) and fourth in the 300. Teammates Peters (46.83) and Manzi (48.08) nailed down second and third in the event. Schadt (5:22.3) added a third-place finish in the 1500.

Sullivan West’s 3200 relay team took third and shot putter Brittany Reddish garnered second with a throw of 27-7. Manor’s Diana Hartling (28-1) took first in the event.

Eldred’s Christina Watts (7.98) won the 55 and the 300 (46.54). Watts would go on to take second in the league meet with a time of 7.68. Teammate Grace Babula (5:21.7) won the 1500, surpassing last year’s time of 5:22.8 posted by Roosa. Babula placed second in the 1000 with a time of 3:22.7. Monticello’s Rebecca Concors won that race in 3:20.7. Concors was also part of Monticello’s winning 1600 relay that featured Marisela Acevedo, Emma Cohen and Emily Martin. The Lady Panthers clocked an impressive 4:34.7 in that event. Their time beat last year’s winning time of 4:40.6 set by Liberty.

Cohen went on to win the 600 as well in 1:54.8, but without Fingers in the mix, Monticello missed out defending its title.

Continuing to accrue points, Sullivan West got second place in the high jump from Kendra Barker, whose leap of 4-6 was shy of Tri-Valley’s Agnes Pompeii, who cleared 4-8 to win the medal. Pompeii’s leap beat last year’s winning mark of 4-6 set by Ellenville’s Nicole Thayer.

Ellenville boys prevail over second-place Monticello

Last year, Tri-Valley’s boys walked off with the Sullivan County title but this year the Bears, who lost a significant number of points with the cancellation of the weight throw, couldn’t overcome Ellenville’s edge. The Blue Devils took first place in the 55 dash, the 1600 relay, the 55 high hurdles and the 800 relay as they amassed 91 points to second-place Monticello’s 82. Liberty was third with 60. Tri-Valley took fourth with 56. Sullivan West got fifth with 37, while Eldred and Livingston Manor finished with 31 and 13 respectively.

Monticello’s Brendan Devine (10:33.5) cruised to an easy win in the 3200. Sullivan West’s Colin Seidl and Manor’s Greg Lewis took second and third. Devine (4:49.5) also captured the 1600, while teammate Dave Wilbur (4:51.6) took second. Seidl and Lewis were third and fourth in the run. Devine’s time was one second faster than last year.

The Panthers won the 3200 relay (8:59), sparked by the running of Robert Venditti, Devine, Wilbur and Tom Gonzalez.

Wilbur (2:49) beat out Seidl (2:50.6) in the 1000. Monticello’s Robert Venditti was third (2:57.8).

Liberty’s Matt Arielly captured the high jump with a leap of 5-7. Teammate Matthew Strother took second in the event. Fellow Indian Saeed Robinson added points with a second-place finish in the 55 with a time of 7:10. Robinson went on to win the 300 in a time of 39.6.

Eldred’s Matt Campanella (1:34.4) captured the 600 and finished second to Robinson in the 55 (39.8). Teammate Joey Counts finished second in the 55 hurdles with a time of 9.0.

Tri-Valley thrower Tanzeel Khan added his second title this week as he captured the shot put with a mark of 45-8½, shy of his winning throw at the OCIAA league meet on February 2.

Teammate Garrett Grey (45-3) took second in the event. Later in the week, Grey finished fifth in the weight throw with a mark of 57-03.75 in the New York City Armory Collegiate Invitational.

Visit riverreportersports.com for an album of photos.