Conference titles for East Meadow track

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East Meadow’s boys’ track and field team continued its conference dynasty, while the girls are hoping to start one of their own.

Sameer Grewal won the 600-meter run and helped lead the 4X800 relay team to victory and Leslie Villafuerte-Castro had three first-place finishes as the teams captured their respective conference championships at St. Anthony’s High School on Jan. 12. The boys’ run of conference titles extended to nine, while the girls claimed their first since 2016.

Sophomore Aaron Schlectman was the Jets’ other first-place winner on the boys’ side for the Jets, whose 120 points were 27 better than second-place Baldwin. Seniors Jessica Park (weight throw), Stephanie Pincus (shot put) and Janina Cichocki (pole vault) won their events and junior Mariah Perkins took the high jump to give the girls 140 points on the day, 24 ahead of Mepham.

“The boys was a complete team effort,” coach Michael Ringhauser said. “We’ve won nine straight and every year that’s our main goal. The girls’ meet was a really good competition with Mepham. Our throwers had an unbelievable meet and Leslie Villafuerte-Castro won three events, so they were really able to put up some big points.”

Grewal clocked 1 minute, 29.10 seconds in the 600-meter race – two seconds ahead of Guillermo Granados of Hicksville – and was fourth in the 1,000-meter run. The 4X800 foursome that also included Nick Chimienti, Samir Khan, and Leo Masaoka-Guevara cruised to a win in that final by over 36 seconds.  

“He had an unbelievable performance,” Ringhauser said. “It was the first time that he’s ever had to run three events. I sat down with him about 10 weeks before the meet and said, ‘I think you’re going to have to do this for us to win.’”

Grewal qualified for next week’s state championships in Staten Island with a season-best run of 1:26.26 on Feb. 16.

Kyle Li was third in the 55-meter hurdles and fourth in the triple jump and fellow senior Jahmire Da Cruz was second in the long jump and third in the triple jump. In four events, East Meadow had three competitors finish among the top six.

Villafuerte-Castro won the 1,500-meter run by more than four seconds but held on to win the 1,000 (by .18 seconds) and the 3,000-meter trips (1.46). Ringhauser said he used the same strategy with her as he did with Grewal.

“Leslie is by far the toughest runner I’ve coached,” he said. “She is someone who is 100 percent committed to the team. She’s another one that I sat down with at the beginning of the season and said, ‘For us to win, you’re going to have to go three times.’”

Park was the only weight thrower to reach 30 feet and will also be representing East Meadow at states after placing second at that qualifier. Cichocki took pole vault after reaching 7 feet, 6 inches in one fewer attempt than Plainview-Old Bethpage’s Taylor Korn, and Pincus won the shot put on her final attempt.