Track and field: Suffern's Duran with 3 golds, Monroe-Woodbury, Ketcham with big day

SUFFERN — Roughly 1,700 athletes competed Friday at the 44-school, Suffern Invitational track and field meet at Rockland Community College.

Just one ran to two individual and one team win.

That was Suffern senior Kaya Duran and she didn’t even compete in her best event.

In fact, running on the college’s old, flat rubberized fieldhouse track that’s just a lane-lined part of the overall floor, Duran did what few do there and clocked a personal-best time.

That came in the 300, where she ran 42.15 for the win with Monroe-Woodbury’s Kaylen Tenemille second (43.24).

Duran, who’ll run for Division I Binghamton next year, also won the girls 1,000 in little more than a blink over Tappan Zee’s Sofia Fenton, 3:05.11-3:05.74.

And she joined with teammates Karen Augustin, Sia Kortequee and Olivia Alm to capture the girls 4x200 relay in 1:51.62 with Monroe-Woodbury (1:55.95) second.

“I’ve been working on quickening my steps and (taking) shorter strides. I’m doing a few more 300s and this happened to be faster,” said Duran, who described the track’s surface as “weird” but nothing she thinks about while racing.

“(Running here) just makes (you) faster going (on) a spike track. Training is training, every day,” remarked Suffern coach Jeff Dempsey, who said Duran most likely will concentrate on the 600 this season with the plan to qualify again for the indoor state championships where she was third in the 600 last year among public school runners.

Walker since first grade coming back strong

Last winter, Mia Sisilli left those indoor state championships with a silver medal in the 1,500-meter racewalk.

Gold, the Monroe-Woodbury senior said, is a “realistic goal” this winter.

That’s despite problems she endured from last spring into this past fall.

“I had health issues all spring and most of cross-country. I’m very thankful to be back where I am,” said Sisilli, who summed up her approach as being to “kind of push past it and keep going.”

SisillI is a bit of an exception among local racewalkers, having picked up the sport not in high school bur rather as a first-grader on a junior track team.

As a result, she never found the racwalker gait “goofy” and finds racewalking “second nature.”

It looked very much like that Friday as she clocked a season-best 7:27.67 to win the Suffern title.

Washingtonville’s Samantha Mynio was second (7:29.33) and Pearl River’s Emily Dwyer (8:10.83), the first Section 1 finisher, was third out of 37 athletes.

From COVID to unexpected Millrose qualifier to Suffern1,000 winner

It would be hard to imagine anyone packing more ups and downs into the last few weeks than Suffern’s Ezra Koreen has.

The junior contracted COVID over the holidays, then rebounded better than anyone might expect.

First, with a teammate hurt, he was pulled up to Suffern’s top boys 4x400-meter relay team for Wednesday’s Millrose Games Trials.

Coach Jeff Dempsey didn’t expect that squad to qualify for next month’s prestigious Millrose Games.

Dempsey didn’t mind being wrong, seeing both his boys and girls 4x400 squads make the cut.

So, Friday night Koreen proudly sported a new Milrose Games T-shirt.

That was when he wasn’t running and winning the boys 1,000.

Koreen clocked 2:46.98 with Westbury’s Neklor Smith (2:47.41) second and Suffern’s Cooper Mitchell (2:48.25) third.

“I felt smooth the whole way,” said Koreen, who took the lead about a quarter of the way through the race.

Pearl River took gold in the boys 55 hurdles with Evan Cruz finishing in 8.43. Suffern’s John Givens (8.67) was second.

Monroe-Woodbury went 1-2 in the girls 55 hurdles. Emeline Clark (9.22) won and YvonneMae Campbell (9.3) was second.

Clarkstown North’s Marissa Gordon (9.37) was Section 1’s top finisher in third.

The boys 55 went to Westbury’s Jose Gilbert (6.89). Valhalla’s Richard Minott was second (6.95).

Valhalla also grabbed the second slot in the girls 55.

Kaylen Tenemille of Monroe-Woodbury took the race in 7.57 with Viking Juliette Sullivan (7.76) second.

And the Vikings were also second in boys pole vault.

Winner Todd Korman of Suffern and runner-up Jonah Smith of Valhalla both cleared 11-6 but Korman did so in fewer attempts.

Suffern also won the girls pole vault.

Olivia DeBellis cleared 10 feet for gold. Teammate Anna Riskin and Pearl River’s Kate Dowling tied for second at 8-0.

Beacon junior Damani Deloatch took gold in boys triple jump in a personal-best 43-10.

His win came on the heels of Deloatch winning at the Freedom Games at Ocean Breeze on Staten Island at 43-4.5.

“I’m excited he’s getting some consistency,” Beacon coach Jim Henry said.

Henry noted he’d crafted a three-year plan for Deloatch.

Last year, Deloatch qualified for the state championships by just a quarter of an inch. This year’s plan is for him to qualify again and maybe medal.

And senior year?

“Maybe change the color of the medal,” Henry remarked with a smile.

Just an inch separated Clarkstown North’s Victor Oduwegwu from second place in the event.

The senior, who plans to jump in college, went 43-6.5 to finish just behind Westbury’s Lenny Jean.

While 43-6.5 was a healthy jump, Oduwegwu was far from happy, describing it as a one on a 1-10 scale.

Oduwegwu, who only started competing in triple jump last year and who went 44-1 earlier this season at The Armory, has his sights set on making the state championship and nationals.

And he isn’t putting much of a limit on himself.

“I’m trying to go 48,” he said.

Other individual winners and runners-up

Westbury’s Jean captured the boys long jump at 21 feet. Rye Neck’s Ilias Alradi was second (19-3.5), just half an inch in front of North Rockland’s Logan Kapusinsky.

And Jean took the night’s final event, boys high jump, at 6-0. New Paltz’s Finn Gibson (5-9) was second. The first Section 1 finisher, Kapusinsky, was third at 5-6.

Ketcham’s Connor Hitt clocked 9:39.15 to easily win the boys 3,200. Minisink Valley’s Gavin Rossi (10:07.29) just edged Arlington’s Jack Handman (10:07.37) for second.

Ketcham's Abigail Kowalczyk ran 10:18.79 to take the girls 3,000. Tappan Zee’s Bridget Dunn (10:47.76) was second.

At 35-9.5, North Rockland’s Deborah Estabine won the girls shot put. New Paltz’s Veda Keon and Ketcham’s Hailey Hrouda both threw 30-5.75 but Keon took silver because her second best throw was better than Hrouda’s second best throw.

Pine Bush’s Shaylen Goslar captured the girls 600 in 1:42.63. Abigail Rondeau of Byram Hills (1:46.86) was second.

Clocking 4:29.89, Monroe-Woodburys Collin Catherwood won the boys 1,600. Fox Lane’s Noah Bender (4:38.35) was second.

Fox Lane went 1-2 in the girls 1,500 with Morgan Eigel winning in 5:02.63 and Willie Cuono second (5:06.78).

Suffern’s Kyra Skoglund tied her season best in clearing 5-2 to win the girls high jump. Pine Bush’s Madison Williams (5-0) was second.

But Williams took gold in the girls triple jump at 37-2 with teammate Mya Riquelme second (33-6) and she also won the girls long jump (17-8.5). Pine Bush’s Ella Galloway was second (16-5.5).

Pine Bush also came away with gold in boys shot put as Elijah Cruz threw 44-8. Monroe-Woodbury’s Aakash Yarlagadda was second at 43-8. The first Section 1 finisher was Valhalla’s Cheik Diallo (42-5).

Westbury grabbed the top two spots in the boys 300. Ali Bolling crossed in 37.87 and Neklor Smith in 38.08. The top Section 1 finisher was Ramapo’s Joseph Christophe, who won bronze in 38.16.

Beacon’s Henry Reinke clocked 1:26.69 to capture the boys 600. Pine Bush’s JamesMichael Vizzari was second (1:27.18) with Section 1 grabbing the third spot via a 1:28.42 run by Sleepy Hollow’s Callum Gallagher.

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Unseeded winners

Four events had unseeded heats and winners.

The winners included Ketcham’s John Hartmann in the boys 55 (7.17), Carmel’s Aine Lee in the girls 55 (8.21), Croton’s Finn Bergstorm-Glazer in the boys 55 hurdles (9.4) and Arlington’s Chiamaka Okafor in the girls 55 hurdles (10.8).

Other relay winners

Arlington (Jake VanDermark, Jack Pelusio, Jeyvi Ramirez-Valencia and James VanDongen) ran 9;01.24 to win the boys 4x800 relay. Suffern was second (9:05.96).

Monroe-Woodbury (Julia McHigh, Anna Kern, Natalie Harwood and Leah Smith) hit the finish in 10:43.79 to capture the girls 4x800 with Nanuet second (10:54.64).

Minisink Valley (Stephanie Cohen, Madison Jellema, Sierra Jones and Rihanna Burgher) ran 4:22.56 to capture the girls 4x400 relay. Tappan Zee was a close second in 4:22.63.

The boys 4x400 went to Westbury (Cameron Hayles, Joel Jean, Hugo Murillo and Sebastian Bonilla Reyes) in 3:41.85. Pine Bush as second in 3:42.81. Tappan Zee was the first Section 1 team to finish. It ran 3:53.34 for fourth.

The boys 4x200 was close, and then some.

Westbury (Josiah Aguilar, Abu Bakr Abdul Musawir, Jose Aguilar Paz and Kannon Allicock) won the boys 4x200 in 1:39.51.

Four teams finished in 1:40 and change.

Pine Bush took silver (1:40.2), just ahead of Section 1 top finisher Pearl River (1:40.35).

Nancy Haggerty covers cross-country, track & field, field hockey, skiing, ice hockey, basketball, girls lacrosse and other sporting events for The Journal News/lohud. Follow her on Twitter at both @HaggertyNancy 

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Track and field: Suffern's Duran wins 3 golds at 44-school invitational