Sports
Nanuet Relays Bring 33 Teams To Rockland On Saturday
The annual track and field event is in its 45th year and includes athletes from 33 schools including Albertus Magnus, Clarkstown North, Clarkstown South, Nyack, Pearl River and Tappan Zee.
Nanuet High School will host the 45th annual Nanuet Relays Saturday, featuring 33 high school track and field teams from Rockland, as well as from outside the county.
The yearly event raises money for the Nanuet track and field club, as well as the Black & Gold Club, the school’s booster club, which raises funds for scholarships, to help students attend summer athletic camps and to donate equipment to athletic teams at the school.
It’s still early in the season, and the girls team is 2-0 so far in dual meets with wins against Albertus Magnus and Tappan Zee. The boys are 1-1 after beating Albertus but losing to Tappan Zee.
“We’re still in the feeling out stage,” said girls Head Coach Gary Brissing. “I’m very positive how the season will end up for the team, though. At Nanuet, we really focus on the later meets, the county and section meets. Those are May issues. So right now we’re only in April, and we’re figuring out what the athletes can do, which events they can all compete in and which events are their best. From that, we’ll get into specialized training and get stronger as the year goes on.”
Brissing said another reason he thinks the team will get stronger as the year goes on is because they’re still getting healthy. He said runners Megan Young, Lauren Fernandez, Brooke Madry and Stephanie Mungroo are working their way back to full health. He said this week they had probably their best workout so far this spring.
So far this season, Brissing said the team’s gotten a fast start from Jordana Schucker in the 100 and 200 meters.
On the boys side, Head Coach Larry Beckerle said his team is also still finding itself.
“We have only five seniors, so we’ve got a lot of new people,” he said. “We’re still learning what they can all do, and learning how they perform in the different events.”
He said one constant so far this year has been Tom Flannery, who won the 110 hurdles earlier this year at the Ram Relays. He finished third in the 300 hurdles. Beckerle said Flannery is one of their top all-around performers.
He added that he’s also been impressed with Charlie Miller in the 1,600 meter and relays, as well as Shawn Celestin in the hurdles and jumps.
The event starts at 9 a.m. Saturday at the high school, with the freshmen and junior varsity going earlier in the day, and varsity starting later. Beckerle said Sheri Dempsey, a former track coach, has been big in organizing the event as its co-chair, along with Beckerle.
He added that he expects all of the Rockland County Schools to participate except for North Rockland.
