Bohan, Daniel ignite South Side

Posted

A pair of personal bests extended the seasons of South Side girls’ track and field standouts Claire Bohan and Victoria Daniel at last weekend’s state qualifier at North Shore, following a haul of nine combined All-County and All-Division finishes for the duo, which included Bohan’s two county titles and Daniel’s pair of division championships in May.

Bohan’s 7:23.11 second-place finish in the 2000 steeplechase at the qualifier left her a half-second back of winner Isabella Spagnoli of Great Neck South, ending the South Side junior's bid at a trip to the state championships this week in Middletown – but the personal-best mark qualified Bohan for the New Balance Nationals Outdoor tournament later this month in Philadelphia.

“Claire has been our most consistent runner, very strong in distance for us,” South Side coach Keith Bosch said of the reigning county indoor and now outdoor champion in the 3000-meter run after winning in a season-best 10:36.33 at last month's Nassau Class AA championships, where Bohan also took the spring county title in the 1500 meters. "And now she's going to nationals," Bosch said.

Daniel, meanwhile, was able to use her second-place finish in the 100-meter dash at the qualifier as a passport to state – the Cyclones sophomore having met a state standard in the 100 dash at the county meet, placing second in a personal-best 12.48 seconds to ensure a state berth contingent on a top-two finish at the qualifier.

“Victoria Daniel has really blossomed this year; she keeps getting better and better," said Bosch, whose team ranked second in Division 3A going 11-1 in regular season meets. "She really came through [at the qualifier] by finishing second place in the hundred."

Daniel – who won division titles this spring in both the 100 dash and 100 high hurdles – finished All-County in the 100 dash (runner-up) and ran on South Side’s division- and county-title-winning 4x100 relay, alongside juniors Cate Ford and Hannah Porter and senior anchor Jasmine Mason-Rudolph, who finished first at division in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles and second the 100 high hurdles.

"Jasmine really stepped up this year," Bosch said. "She scored lots of points in league meets as a hurdler, and she's a vital part of our relay. She doesn't talk a lot, just performs. A silent assassin."

Sophomore Lana Jewett took the division title for South Side in the 3000-meter run (11:43.65), while Porter placed second at division in the long jump (15 feet, 11.5 inches). Cyclones junior Morgan McKenna placed third in the 3000 meters to take All-Division honors, as did senior teammate Cameron Coletti, who finished third at division in the 1500 capping her comeback from an injury sustained this winter.

"It's upsetting such a high-achieving runner didn't get to run at the level she could have in spring," Bosch said of the Johns Hopkins University-bound Coletti. "But Cameron had some good races, and she came to practice every day and was like an extra coach."

"That was really the only real shock this year," Bosch added. "Overall, we knew we'd be competitive going into the season. This was a very strong team."