GIRLS TRACK AND FIELD PREVIEW: Tuckers have high hopes for underclassmen

Mattituck High School will field a young, but talented girls track and field team this year that will try to improve on a 4-5 season in Suffolk County League VII.

Not surprisingly, three of the Tuckers’ outstanding runners are underclassmen and one isn’t even attending high school yet.

Kaylee Bergen is an eighth grader who was moved up to the varsity after running a 5-minute 30-second mile last spring.

“We have high hopes,” Coach Jean Mahoney said.

Sophomore Sara Paparatto, who qualified for the cross-country state championships as a freshman but was plagued by an injury in the fall, is expected to run long-distance races this spring.

Junior Savanna Campbell, who reached the state meet in cross-country last fall, is slated for long-distance events as well as sophomore Megan Finn, who was labeled “another promising distance runner” by Mahoney.

Mahoney listed another dozen girls whom she expects to do well.

The juniors include Tracy Grim (hurdles, sprints), Carly Batist (race walk), Melissa Milowski (200 meters), Amy Secaida (jumping, 400) and Alisha Brown (jumping, sprints).

Anna Goerler (middle distance), Lyndsie Taylor (jumping, sprints), Nicole Murphy (sprinting, 100, 200), Amanda Gatz (hurdles, middle distance, 400), Steph Reisenberg (middle distance, 800), Yuliya Palianok (middle distance, long distance) and Morgan Wilsberg (100 hurdles, sprints) are among the key sophomores.

The Tuckers have two seniors back, Morgan Zuhoski, who excelled in the 800 last year, and Kim Fenoy, a 100-meter hurdler “with realistic plans to go to the states,” Mahoney said.

However, both seniors are injured and are working with physical therapy to get back into shape.

Mattituck will open its season at Port Jefferson on March 31.