Rebuilding Season for Blue Devil Girls’ Winter Track
Despite obvious talent sprinkled across the 30-person roster, the Huntington girls’ winter track and field team knew this would be a rebuilding season. But, it turned out to be much more than that as a group of underclassmen quickly matured and started to shine.
Huntington was led by freshman Hannah Helrich, sophomores Dania Merilan and Molly Arceri and juniors Emilie Pugliese, Cristina Badalamenti and Alexandra Krapf. The highlight of the campaign came in the Grinch Games at Fordham University where the Blue Devils finished second.
Cheskes called the year “a wonderful rebuilding season. These athletes learned new events and used their knowledge and skill to improve at their meets.” Helrich was All-League in the triple jump, breaking the school record in the event. Merilan shattered Huntington’s mark in the 300m and also earned All-League honors. Aceri won the league crown in the shot put and Pugliese garnered All-League recognition in the 600m.
The 4 x 200m relay team consisting of Merilan, Helrich, Badalamenti and Krapf, won the Suffolk championship in the event for the first time in school history and broke the Blue Devil record. “Their hard work shined at the top levels,” Cheskes said.
Badalamenti took fourth place in the county in long jump and is an outstanding athlete and Pugliese is “extremely hardworking and a very valuable middle distance runner,” Cheskes said. The pair will play crucial roles for the Blue Devils as the program looks to climb several rungs on the success ladder next winter.
The Grinch Games in particular offered the young team an opportunity to gain confidence. “Medals were won by almost all competitors, proving to the team it could hold its own against teams from Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens and Westchester,” Cheskes said.
Huntington’s fortunes appear to clearly be on the rise. “With the loss of only one senior, I expect a strong team next year,” Cheskes said. “I hope with the experience this team has gained, we can move up to the top three teams in the league.”
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