OCIAA girls league indoor track championships

League lore

OCIAA girls best many of last year’s times and distances; Eldred is Sullivan County leader as Warwick wins again

By RICHARD A. ROSS

WEST POINT, NY — This year’s crop of girl athletes far surpassed the performances turned in a year ago at the OCIAA championship in 11 of the day’s 17 events. Many Sullivan County runners set personal records on February 9 as they turned up their intensity for one of the season’s biggest meets. (See chart on page 39 for a comparison to last year’s OCIAA, along with other races and records).

Warwick successfully defended its league title as it piled up 94 points to outpace second-place Newburgh, which garnered 70 points. Monroe-Woodbury took third place with 67 points. For county schools, the agenda was not about winning against the monolithic big schools, but about peaking at just the right point of the season with their best efforts.

Eldred was tops among Sullivan County schools with eight points for an 11th-place finish. Those points came from one of the most electrifying performances of the day as sophomore sprinter Christina Watts finished second in the 55 with a time of 7:58. Her prior personal record (PR) time of 7.4 would have given her the gold medal ahead of Millbrook’s Rachel Pierantozzi, who turned in a winning time of 7.46. Both runners surpassed last year’s winning sprint of 7.61.

Tri-Valley finished 14th overall with six points, while Sullivan West, Liberty and Monticello tied for 17th place with four points apiece.

Here’s a quick rundown of the events, along with the top Sullivan County finishers.

55: Christina Watts of Eldred finished second (7:58). In the unseeded 55, Eldred’s Oquanna King was fifth (8:52). 300: Sullivan West’s Katie Manzi took 13th with a PR time of 46.18. 600: Monticello’s Emma Cohen (46.34) finished 16th. 1000: Monticello’s Jessica Fingers (3:05.58) took fifth. Coming into the race, Fingers had the fastest seed time of 3:03.66. Teammate Rebecca Concors (3:16.95) set a PR and finished 12th. Tri-Valley’s Courtney Roosa was 15th in 3:18.59. Eldred’s Grace Babula finished 17th with a PR of 3:19.91. Teammate Kristina Brown also recorded a PR with a time of 3:41.19, knocking off more than five seconds from her previous best.

1500: Monticello’s Marisela Acevedo (5:16.29) recorded a PR and took 10th. Teammate Danielle Schnitzer (5:13.81) also had a PR. Sullivan West’s Chelsie Schadt (5:24.94) was 13th. Teammate Kasi Pilny turned in a PR of 5:31.11. 3000: Sullivan West’s Rianne Erlwein (11:32.54) finished eighth. Tri-Valley’s Rachel Sanborn (11:37.06) took 11th and Schnitzer (11:37.66) was 13th.

1500 racewalk: Tri-Valley’s Ashley Weintraub recorded a PR of 8:13.57 and took third in the event. 55 hurdles: Sullivan West’s Sara Alsdorf, the ninth seeded hurdler, knocked down the first hurdle and still ended up with one of the fastest preliminary times. She finished third in her heat but did not qualify for the finals. In the unseeded event, Tri-Valley’s Casey Offringa (10:56) took fourth. Eldred’s Erika Vorstadt (11:04) came in eighth.

800 relay: Sullivan West (1:55.62) took fifth in the event as Alsdorf, Elizabeth Peters, Katie Manzi and Morgan Hawkins set a new personal best. They beat out Wallkill, Monroe-Woodbury, Warwick, Cornwall and Kingston in the event. 1600 relay: Eldred’s team of Grace Babula, Christine Donnelly, Oquanna King and Watts turned in a seventh-place time of 4:35.99 that topped their previous best of 4:39.3.

3200 relay: Tri-Valley (11:07.38) took 10th. The team was comprised of Courtney Roosa, Caroline Bertholf, Rachel Sanborn and Naomi Weise. High Jump: Tri-Valley’s Agnes Pompeii and Sullivan West’s Kendra Barker tied for seventh with leaps of 4-6. Pole Vault: Liberty’s Kim McKay took fourth with a mark of 8-6. Sullivan West’s Morgan Hawkins was fifth with a leap of 7-6. Long Jump: Alsdorf of Sullivan West was 14th with a jump of 13-10.25. Eldred’s Rachel Doran (13-08.50) was 16th. Liberty’s Sabrina Mastrogiovanni (13-04.25) was 18th. Triple Jump: Eldred’s Lauren Alves (28-08) finished 19th. Shot Put: Sullivan West’s Brittany Reddish set a PR with a mark of 28-01.75. She finished 10th. Weight Throw: Eldred’s Paulina Renggli (35-00.50) took second place in the event, setting a new PR and a new school record as she bettered her 13th ranked state throw of 31-11.17 by a hefty margin.

Next up are the sectional meets slated for February 15 and 16. The “A” group of schools, with 600 or more students, will gear it up for their meet on the 15th. Monticello is the only Sullivan County school in that category. The “B” group meet will be held on February 16.

Visit riverreportersports.com for complete results of the meet and an album of pictures.