This was it, Ava Vaccarella’s final chance to qualify for this year’s New York State track and field championships in the 3,000 meters, and the Mattituck High School eighth-grader was nowhere to be found. READ
Tag: Chris Robinson
The Southold/Greenport girls track and field team was so close that it could see the first league championship in its history just over the horizon. All the First Settlers needed to do in their final dual meet of the season was clear one final hurdle.
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It’s a good bet that the Mattituck High School girls track and field team will once again have a strong 4×100-meter relay team. The only question is: Who will be the fourth member of that team? READ
Emily Russell might have been the only girl who had to hustle back and forth between the high jump and shot put areas Monday night. That didn’t prevent the Southold/Greenport senior from setting a personal record in the shot put, though. READ
Sunday didn’t start off promisingly for Emily Russell. She missed the Southold/Greenport girls winter track team’s bus for the Suffolk County League V Championships. What next, she may have thought.
“I thought it was going to be a terrible day,” she said.
Well, a terrible day turned into a great day. Russell’s parents, Sondra and David, drove her to Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood for the meet and got to see their daughter win league titles in both the high jump and shot put. READ
The youngest runner on the Mattituck High School girls cross-country team just happens to be the fastest. It’s a little unusual, but it’s also a testament to Ava Vaccarella’s ability.
Personal records seem to be a weekly occurrence for the eighth-grader, so perhaps it was to be expected when Vaccarella ran her fastest time ever at Sunken Meadow State Park Saturday. The fact that she did so in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Championships just made it that much sweeter. READ
Payton Maddaloni, a junior in her fourth year on the Mattituck High School girls cross-country team, didn’t know eighth-grader Ava Vaccarella before this season. It didn’t take Maddaloni long, however, to understand how much of an impact the newcomer would have on the Tuckers. READ
The Mattituck High School girls cross-country team has enjoyed astounding success the past six years, each of those times winning a Suffolk County championship and competing in the state meet as a team.
Do the Tuckers have it in them for a seventh straight time? READ
Baseball isn’t the only sport that features scoreboard watching. Scoreboard watching is a habit at the New York State track and field championships, too.
After the Mattituck girls 4 x 100-meter relay team completed its heat Friday afternoon, the four Tuckers and coach Chris Robinson all converged on the track infield and stared at the large scoreboard at Cicero North Syracuse High School’s Michael J. Bragman Athletic Complex as results from the two Division II heats were flashed on the big board.
They stared in dead silence. READ
Handoffs may be the Mattituck High School girls 4 x 100-meter relay team’s greatest strength. That’s ironic because a handoff nightmare spelled the end of its season last year.
Because of a handoff outside the exchange zone, the Tuckers were disqualified in last year’s state track and field meet. As painful an experience as that was, it sowed the seeds for this season. READ