Girls Winter Track Recap
Thank you, Coach Jarvis for the write-up on the 2023-2024 Girls Winter Track Season!
The girls’ season has slowly been heating up since Sectionals. This year has been one that was slow getting off the ground. We had some bad weather along the way as well as sicknesses running their way through the school and through the team. The team did well at State Relays winning the 4x800m relay and placing 2nd in the DMR. Let’s pick up from Sectionals.
The state meet saw Kerry O’Day make a huge breakthrough. Her first sub-5-minute mile. Running 4:59.23, she finished 4th. That time is the 2nd fastest indoor 1600m in school history. She followed that up placing 3rd in the 3200m running 11:05.15. That is her indoor PR and the 3rd fastest time ever run indoors. Maddie Meder had a great race clocking 11:22.04 to place 4th.
Heading into MOC’s Kerry had qualified in the 16 and 32 and Maddie earned a wildcard berth. Our 4x800 also qualified for the showcase event. Before MOC, the team traveled up to the Armory with the hopes of running a fast DMR. The trip was well worth it as the team of Megan Niglio, Madison Van Haren, Madeline Meder and Kerry O’Day won the Eastern States DMR for the first time ever in program history. Megan started things off running 3:49.10 to hand off in 2nd place. Maddie clocked a 400m split of 59.29 still in 2nd place. Meder was up next clocking a 2:25.33 moving into 1st place. Kerry anchored with a 5:03.01(#4 indoor all time split) to stop the clock at 12:16.72. At the time it was NJ #1 and US #8. It is also the 5th fastest relay run indoors.
It was finally time for the Meet of Champions. The meet started off with the 4x800m team running 9:46.34 to place 9th. They just missed the podium by .04 seconds, but had some amazing splits. Alyssa Suriano ran her fastest time of the season clocking 2:26.42, newcomer, Brooke Hibbs, ran out of her shoes with a 2:23.66 (15th fastest split indoors all-time) followed by Alaina Bromley 2:32.23 and Megan Niglio 2:24.05. Impressive job by these four ladies!
The 1600m was up next. Kerry O’Day was running in a loaded field that saw the best milers in the state. She finished 7th running a new pr of 4:58.54 lowering her #2 all time mark.
A little over an hour later, she decided to come back in the 3200m. Maddie Meder was unfortunately sick the previous week and was unable to run at MOC’s. Kerry once again was fortunate to be in a race that went out very fast. She just got locked in and decided to not give up. She earned her second MOC medal of the day finishing in 8th place with a new lifetime best of 10:51.65. That time is the 2nd fastest 3200m ever run indoors.
Since this update, the girls also competed at the New Balance Nationals in Boston from March 7th-10th. The team of Maddie Meder, Alaina Bromley, Megan Niglio, and Kerry O’Day placed 23rd in the 4xmile relay in a time of 21:47.10, Meder, Niglio, and O’Day joined with Alyssa Suriano in the 4x800 to place 18th in 9:40.89, and the DMR team of Niglio, Madison Van Haren, Meder and O’Day placed 24th in 12:24.92.
From Coach Jarvis: These trips for me are never about the performance but about the experience. The performance sometimes is the icing on the cake as it was this afternoon with Bobby [Poplau in the Boys 800]. The contributions that the alumni give our programs allow our athletes to compete on the biggest stage and help prepare them for college and beyond. Two girls that have never had the opportunity to compete at Nationals did over the days we have been here. A lot of great memories were made on and off the track.
Your donations to 4xAlumni have and will continue to fund entry fees, travel and lodging for championship meets and invitationals, recognition/awards (varsity jackets, for instance) for state championship/high achieving teams and athletes, scholarships for graduating seniors, and much more to come! Thank you for your support.
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