Huntington Boys' Track Wins Suffolk Relays Crown
The Blue Devils did it. The Huntington High School boys' track and field team won the 66th annual Suffolk County Relays' small schools crown last Saturday at Bayport-Blue Point.
The competition dates to 1946 and is Long Island's longest running relay meet. The Blue Devils' title ended Bayport-Blue Point's five year reign as Suffolk's small school's champion.
One day earlier, six members of the Huntington squad traveled to Lindenhurst for the Town of Babylon Championship. Head coach Ron Wilson took five throwers, including sophomores Shaheem Lewis and Davon Nelson, junior Trayvon Toney and seniors Richie Fernandez and Dante Allen and sophomore hurdler Tyriek Johnson.
Toney captured the discus with a personal best throw of 158'3, which was less than one foot short of the school record of 159' set by Tyler Balzer at the 2007 county championships at Port Jeff.
Lewis placed second in the discus behind Toney with a throw of 134'6 while Allen took fourth place with a 125'10 effort, Fernandez finished fifth with a throw of 117' and Nelson threw a personal best of 113' to place seventh.
Huntington was just as strong in the shot put, with most entries establishing personal bests. Allen placed second with a put of 48'4' after a 54'6 toss was disallowed because of a foul. It would have been a new school record. Allen is confident that he will eventually break the school record of 52'11.75 set in 1982 by Hinton. Jovan Hairston came close to shattering that same mark in 2004 when he threw 52'7.75 at the Suffolk Division II championships.
Also in the shot put, Fernandez placed second with a put of 48', Toney was third with a personal best performance of 45'4 and Lewis was fourth with a put of 44'10, another personal best. Nelson placed sixth with a personal best of 43'9.
The meet at Lindenhurst was Johnson's first invitational hurdles race since tearing a hamstring during the indoor season. He won the 110m high hurdles in a time of 15.02 seconds despite a stiff wind. "Thanks to Dr. James Paci and his staff at Stony Brook University, Johnson was able to salvage this spring season," Wilson said. "We are very happy with the progress Johnson has made. We ran him in some long distance events so he can get some legs back underneath him."
In the Suffolk Relays, Huntington's 118 points easily outdistanced Bayport-Blue Point's 101. "They presented us with a huge trophy to be displayed in our trophy case," said Wilson about meet officials.
The Blue Devils' county relays contingent totaled 16. "It was our last invitational, so we all agreed just to compete and have some fun in doing so," Wilson said. "It was our underclassmen who stole the show. They performed very well in every event they entered.
Huntington's field event performances included:
• Johnson and freshman Y"Majesty Allen teamed up in the long jump to place second with a combine leap of 36'10.
• In the triple jump junior Dan McQuade and senior Jeff Moreira had a combined mark of 68' to place sixth.
• Once again, Huntington dominated the shot put Fernandez and Dante Allen teamed up to win with a combined mark of 93'8, only three feet short of the 27-year old meet record. Toney and Lewis had a combined distance of 85'3 to place second and sophomore Ray Vega and Nelson placed fourth with a combined distance of 82'6.
• "The discus saw the same results, just different teams," Wilson said. Toney and Allen threw a combined 269' to place first. The pair had set their sights on breaking the 19 year old meet record of 300' that was set by West Islip. However, Toney sustained a slight back injury while running the first leg of the sprint medley relay team. "We told him to not throw today, but he didn't want to disappoint his teammate, Dante Allen and his team, so he managed to throw the discus 128'2 to secure his team gold medals," added Wilson.
• The team of Lewis and Fernandez placed second with a joint effort measuring 242'. Nelson threw another personal best in the discus 119'7, but his partner Ray Vega fouled all three of his marks, so their mark was disallowed.
Huntington's top performances on the track included:
• Johnson and McQuade placed first in the 110m high hurdles relay with a combined time of 32.9 seconds.
• In the 400m hurdles, McQuade teamed up with freshmen great Joshua Watkins to place second with a combined time of 2:12.
• The Blue Devil sprint medley relay teams did very well, too, finished first and third, respectively. The "A" team of freshmen Giancarlo Puello and Y"Majesty Allen, junior Trayvon Toney and senior Eric Szilagy placed first in 1:41. "Toney was the first leg, but pulled up slightly because of some back pains that started shooting down his lower back," Wilson said. He still someway, somehow, managed to pass the baton to Puello, who was able to maintain a 5m lead. He passed it off to Allen who had to run the 200m part of the race. He opened that lead up to an additional 5m and passed it off to Szilagy who ran the 400m part of the race." Szilagy held the competition at bay and crossed the line first to give relay team members gold medals.
• The "B" team relay of freshmen Marquis Francis, Kyle Davis, Mark Sanon and John Ceide placed third in a time of 1:45.
• Freshman 4x100m relay team of Puello, Watkins, Allen and Francis finished first, besting the varsity level competition with a time of 46 seconds. "They are really something special," Wilson said. "My prayer is that they stay together, and then as juniors and seniors, they will win it all!"
• The 4x100m "B" relay team of Davis, Velasquez, Sanon and Moriera placed third with a time of 47 seconds.
• The 4x400m relay team of Dante Allen, Ryan Ackerman, Ceide, and Watkins placed third even after Allen dropped the baton while passing to Watkins.