Blue Devils Put on Show at State Track Championships
It was a great day for the Blue Devils at the New York State Indoor Track & Field Championships at Cornell University in Ithaca on Saturday.
Head coach Ron Wilson and assistant coach Eli Acosta had to be happy with the performance of their athletes. While the pair would have loved to come home with gold medals in every event, the duo is seasoned enough to know that is a longshot considering the wealth of talent that competes at the state meet.
Huntington’s exceptional 4x400m relay team successfully defended its state championship in the event. Infinite Tucker, Kyree Johnson, Lawrence Leake and Shane McGuire combined to run ahead of all competitors to capture gold medals for each of the four sensational athletes. Mitch Rudish and Exzayvian Crowell ran in place of Johnson and Leake in a preliminary qualifying race to help the Blue Devils reach the finals.
Tucker won a gold medal in the 55m high hurdles in dramatic fashion. The senior clipped one of the five hurdles and sent it flying before diving over the finish line to nip No. 1 seeded Kelly Brown of Wilson Magnet School in Rochester by 2/100ths of a second. Tucker’s time of 7.38 seconds was slightly off his best of the winter, but still good enough to win the state crown in the event.
Tucker also claimed a silver medal in long jump. Seeded sixth in the event, the Blue Devil star leaped 23-01.75 feet on his fifth and final jump to finish second behind Beacon senior Terrel Davis, who won by soaring 23-07.00 feet. The rest of the 30-athlete strong field trailed far in the distance.
“Individually we are like a drop of water, but together we are an ocean,” said Tucker, turning philosophical after the competition had ended. “If there’s one thing that I learned from Coach Wilson and Coach Acosta it’s that hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”
Johnson experienced some degree of heartbreak in the 55m dash, winning a silver medal when he was nipped by 1/100th of a second. The Huntington junior was clocked at 6.40 seconds, just behind Wilson Magnet senior Kelly Brown, who was seeded No. 1 coming into the state championships and who edged Johnson in the final step of the blistering fast race.
“From the bus ride up, the only thought in my head was to win,” Johnson said. “Everything was strictly business from then until it was over. Coming home as a two-time state champion was definitely a major goal, but I also wanted to win the 55m dash because it was all up to me in that race. After coming in a close second in the 55m, I knew I had to let go of that and give all my focus to the 4x400m relay. Seeing your team cross the finish line first again at the state championships is one of the best feelings around. I know everyone is proud of us and what we accomplished. I am going home happy.”
Seeded No. 1, Leake ran the second fastest qualifying time of anyone in the 300m dash preliminary heat, turning in a performance that was clocked at 35.45 seconds. He went on to place eighth in the finals in a time of 37.57 seconds, well off his season best time of 34.65 seconds. The teenager came back a few minutes later to help Huntington win the 4x400m relay with a great second leg.
Tucker ran the anchor leg of the Blue Devils relay and his strong performance helped Huntington hold off hard charging Newburgh Free Academy, Hempstead and North Rockland. Johnson and McGuire also ran legs in the finals after Rudish and Crowell had run legs in the qualifying round race.
The Blue Devils relay finished in a time of 3:24.02, well off its best of the season, a mark of 3:17.36 notched in February at the Millrose Games, but faster than anyone else in New York.
Latoya Shand Wins Silver Medal
Huntington senior Latoya Shand won a silver medal with Section XI-Suffolk’s intersectional medley relay team. The Blue Devil star ran the 200m leg of the race in fine fashion.
Head coach Debra Cheskes and assistant coach Shawn Anderson were very pleased with Shand’s performance and happy the senior went home with a medal after giving the Huntington program four great indoor seasons.