Track and field: With little practice, North Rockland's Rivera, Ramapo's Gray win gold
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THIELLS — It's still relatively early in the high school track and field season.
But it's not too early to imagine what if.
There was a considerable amount of that going around Saturday at the second and final day of the 34th annual Red Raider Relays at North Rockland High.
Consider Destiny Gray, who, after years of long jumping and sprinting, decided little more than a week ago she'd like to try high jumping.
At Suffern's Mountie Madness, she cleared 4-feet, 6 inches.
But Saturday, the Ramapo senior cleared 5-0 and came within a hair— or, more accurately, a calf — of clearing 5-2.
Her 5-0 jump gave her the girls championship with Harrison's Ami Goble (personal-best 4-10) second and North Rockland's Skylah Zamor (4-8) third.
"I just wanted to try something new. ... I regret not doing it earlier," said Gray, whose day also included winning silver with teammates in the 4x100-meter relay.
In addition to speculation about just how good Gray could be if she'd been high jumping throughout high school, questions also centered on another senior, North Rockland's Brian Rivera.
Rivera, who plans to join his brother, Carlos, and throw next year for D-II New Haven, is mostly known for the shot put.
But he easily won the javelin — an event widely competed at college but infrequently competed in Section 1 high school meets, in part because it's not a state high school championship event in New York.
But there seems little doubt how popular it could be were more meets to include it.
Saturday, 31 athletes threw in the boys division and 13 threw in the girls.
Rivera, whose throws looked effortless, won the boys title at a personal-best 147-4 with Scarsdale's Ethan Rifkin second (137-3), Clarkstown North's Drew Obernesser (PB 124-4) third and Hackley's Rafael Green Arnone fourth (PR 122-4).
Rivera won despite using a borrowed javelin from Hen Hud, since North Rockland's had broken, and despite rarely practicing the javelin.
"He's a natural. We practice this once a week," Red Raider throws coach Peter Zecchin noted.
Rivera, who hopes to make the qualifying standard to compete in javelin in a couple of major upcoming meets, including the Loucks Games, believes he does well in the event because of his baseball background.
Before giving up baseball a couple of years ago at assistant track coach Rocco Marino's urging, Rivera was a pitcher and third baseman.
"He told me, 'You're not going to make it far in baseball. .. In track, you'll be recognized.' I'm thanking God I listened to him," Rivera said.
A push from a teammate
After Jack Gallagher set a huge personal-best mark to win the boys 400-meter hurdles in 57.29, the Yonkers senior credited a teammate.
In third place in that race, behind Cornwall's Victor Perez (PB 59.81) was Yonkers junior Ben Domingo (1:00.66), who edged Hen Hud's Jonathon Wong (1:00.82).
The daily Domingo-Gallagher practice sessions are clearly benefitting both.
"Everyday, he pushes me," Gallagher said of Domingo, noting he pushes Domingo in the 400 hurdles and Domingo pushes him in the 110 hurdles.
The two don't seem to be nearing their ceilings.
The same thing goes for Somers' boys 4x800 relay squad.
The Tuskers (Connor Phillips, Colin Brooks, Ryan Allen and Aidan Meza) ran a collective 8:30.33 to easily win the 4x800. East Meadow (Long Island) was a distant second at 8:51.92.
Somers' time was not just a season-best, but also was 15 seconds faster than the four ran the event indoors this past winter.
"A lot of the time, we were running alone today," Brooks said, referring to his team having a big lead.
If pushed, he said he believes the team can go under 8:50.
The main goal, though, the four agreed, is winning a Section 1 championship in the event.
Somers also recorded a couple of other wins Saturday.
Isabella Milojevic captured the girls 400 hurdles in 1:09.99.
North Rockland took silver and bronze with Rachel Ramirez running 1:10.92 and Riley Sheehan 1:12.08.
And Megan Spencer captured girls discus at 96-9.
Clarkstown North's Ella Maerz (89-0) was second and Suffern's Ja'nya Beepot (83-3) was third.
Manhattan-bound
Alex Bilello anchored Clarkstown North's Kyle Megerditichian, Shane McCorry and Kenny Louden to victory in the boys 4x100 relay.
The four clocked 44.61 with Somers second (44.7) and North Rockland third (45.11).
Bilello, who also took silver in the long jump at 20-2.5 behind Spring Valley's Terone Bullock (20-4.5), is shooting for a 23-foot long jump this spring and expects his relay squad to cut its time to low-44.
"Today we didn't have great handoffs," explained Bilello, who'll run and jump next year for Manhattan College.
Other winners
Pearl River's Mady Moroney, Catie Horan, Claire O'Sullivan and Una Boylan clocked 12:33.94 to win the girls distance medley relay.
Boylan said the group hoped to improve on that time next month at the famed Loucks Games at White Plains.
Placing second in three of five events and winning the 800 run, Hackley's Skyler Safriet captured the girls pentathlon with 2,241 points.
Hen Hud's Madeline McKinley (2,016) was second and Yorktown's Melissa Severino (1,921) was third.
Amityville's Ty'Jon Billinger (3,000 points) took the boys pentathlon. Evan Maasik of James O'Neill was second (2,827) was second and Yorktown's Jonathan Livadhi (2,549) was third.
The boys 100-meter dash went to Cornwall's Jiles Addison in 10.89 seconds.
Ramapo's Xavier Gaines (11.14) was second and Rye Country Day's Alexander Nichols
(11.23) was third.
Addison also won the boys 200 in a personal-best 22.17.
Gaines captured another silver in that race with a 22.38 clocking and Spring Valley's Andrew Sutherland won bronze (22.6).
And Addison, Charles Cypress, MarcSean Montero and Christian Sterling combined to win the boys 4x200 relay in 1:30.83.
North Rockland (1:35.17) was second and Somers (1:39.32) was third.
Spring Valley's Anaika Louis was a double winner.
She ran 12.41 for the girls 100 win.
North Rockland's Dami Modupe was second in 12.64 and Harrison's Mia Boda clocked a personal-best 13.06 for third.
And Louis took the girls 200 in 25.46.
North Rockland's Esther St. Fort (25.64) was second and Northport's Olivia Jaworski (27.46) was third.
St. Fort, though, won the girls 400 in 1:00.57.
Tappan Zee's Pilar Fernandez (1:01.13) was second and Cornwall's Kristina Garcia
(personal-best 1:03.42) was third.
St. Fort also joined with Dami Modupe, Gabriella Cabrera and Jade Pazmino in running 4:12.53 to win the girls 1,600 sprint medley relay.
North Babylon (4:19.77) was second and Somers (4:29.07) was third.
With a throw of 84-8, Ramapo's Ghianna Smith won the girls javelin.
Hen Hud's Karli Martin (74-2) took silver and Yorktown's Artesa Gashi (70-0) won bronze.
The top three finishers in the boys 400 all ran personal-best times.
Cornwall finished 1-2 with MarcSean Montero winning in 49.2 and teammate Charles Cypress crossing in 49.51.
Third place went to Briarcliff's Kevin Callaghan (49.88).
in a season-best 2:20.59, Harrison's Katrina Torelli took the girls 800.
Northport's Katie Hayes (2:22.88) and Emily Wickard (2:24.16) were second and third, respectively, Wickard edging Tappan Zee's Mackey Donovan (2:24.51) for bronze.
Northport's Wyeth Semo took the boys 800 in 1:57.82. Briarcliff's Kornel Smith ran a personal-best 1:59.43 for second and East Meadow's Sameer Grewal (PB 2:01.85) was third.
Amityville's Brandon Dennis (season-best 53-2.75) won the boys shot put.
Somers' Brian Luciano (45-10.25) was second and North Rockland's Jefferson Vargas (45-1) was third.
Shyanne Sibblies of North Babylon took the girls triple jump (34-0). Teammate Lianna Greenstein (33-1.25) was second and North Rockland's Abigail Coachy (32-11.25) was third.
The state championships may not include the racewalk for the outdoor season but many big meets do, including, locally, Red Raider.
And it was a Red Raider who captured the title as Alannah Perkins crossed the finish in 17:31.33 for the win.
North Babylon's Liah Ruvolo was second (18:38.76) and Briarcliff's Sophie Tanios (19:07.42) was third.
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Other relays
Cornwall (Jeremy Jean-Charles, Ryan Murray, Charles Cypress and Avo Sarkissian) clocked 10:45.57 to easily win the boys distance medley relay.
Hackley School (11:10.5) was second and Northport (11:23.75) was third.
North Babylon ran 50.34 to win the girls 4x100 relay.
Gray's Ramapo squad (52.52) was second and Hen Hud (53.43) was third.
Briarcliff (Smith, Kyle Phillips, Max Horgan and Callaghan) finished in 3:33.4 to win the boys 4x400.
Hackley (3:33.96) was second and Yonkers (3:35.94) was third.
The girls 4x400 went to North Babylon (4:27.9), Briarcliff was second (4:30.39) and Edgemont (4:56.85) was third.
In the girls 4x800 relay, locals were shut out of the top three spots as Long Island dominated.
Northport won in 9:59, East Meadow was second (10:31.74) and North Babylon was third (10:48.04).
North Babylon (1:50.55) took the girls 4x200 relay. North Rockland clocked 1:51.4 for second and East Meadow ran 2:00.72 for third.
The boys 1,600 SMR went to Northport (3:42.76) with Rye (3:42.88) second and Briarcliff (3:54.81) third.
Nancy Haggerty covers cross-country, track & field, field hockey, skiing, ice hockey, girls lacrosse and other sporting events for The Journal News/lohud. Follow her on Twitter at both @HaggertyNancy and at @LoHudHockey.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Track: North Rockland's Rivera, Somers' Spencer, Ramapo's Gray win gold
