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05/09/2013 12:00 AMThe weather held off at Crisafi Field on May 8 as the East Haven girls’ track team took on SCC foes Career and Sheehan. The Yellowjackets came away with a 114-31 win over Career, but lost to Sheehan 77-73 in a meet that came down to the final event.
“I knew it would be like that against Sheehan,” Head Coach Rusty Dunne said. “I knew we were going to out-man Career, but I knew it was going to be tough against Sheehan. I knew it was going to come right down to it.”
Sheehan had a 71-70 lead entering the final event—the pole vault—and already locked up one point with a third-place finish. First place (five points) and second (three points) were still up for grabs as East Haven freshman Annie Coleman and Sheehan’s Mackenzie Mendygral stood neck-and-neck in the heat. They both cleared 7-6, which was a personal record for Coleman, but Mendygral was able to clear eight feet on her third and final attempt to earn the win for Sheehan. Had she failed to eclipse eight feet, the meet would’ve ended in a 75-75 tie as Coleman cleared 7-6 on her first attempt and Mendygral did not.
“We would’ve tied the meet 75-75 had that happened, but that’s not the case,” Dunne said. “Sheehan’s a pretty good team, but we had chances in different spots and didn’t score points.”
Where East Haven made up a majority of its points was on the jumps and the sprints. The Yellowjackets edged Sheehan in the 100, 200, 4x100 relay, 100 high hurdles, triple jump, high jump, and long jump. Sheehan owned the throwing and distance running events and it proved to be enough.
In the sprints, Danielle Stevens was a member of the winning 4x100 team and was edged by .2 seconds by teammate Kelli Carfora in the 100 and set a personal record in the 200 (26.6).
“I’ve been working a lot on my starts, trying my best to run the curve hard and I’m happy with the time today,” Stevens said. “My coaches have been telling me to keep my form on the straightaway and I did my best to maintain that today.”
East Haven earned nine points in both the 100 and 200 against Sheehan as Megan Kikosicki placed third in the 100 and Coleman finished behind Stevens and Carfora in the 200.
“The sprints have been great to us for a long time,” Dunne said. “We have a lot of speed this year.”
Rebekah Vineyard owned the jumping events, winning the long jump and high jump outright and earning a total of six points in the triple jump after defeating all Sheehan jumpers and coming in third to those from Career. She set her personal records in the high jump (4-10), triple jump (31-0), and long jump (15-0 1/2).
“I didn’t do anything different today, so I guess it’s because it’s Senior Night and I wanted to go out with a bang,” Vineyard said about her historic day. “My first three years I ran both hurdles events and then coach realized I hated them and let me stop doing them so I can do high jump. I’m really mad that I didn’t do it from the start because it’s my favorite.”
She still runs the 100 high hurdles and finished third overall (18.3) behind Career and teammate Amanda Garcia (16.9). Garcia also set a personal record in the 300 intermediate hurdles (50.6) despite finishing a tenth of a second behind Sheehan’s Mendygral.
Notable times and distances also came from the 4x100 team of Briana Wiel, Danielle Stevens, Megan Kikosicki, and Carfora (52.2); Carfora (12.7), Stevens (12.9), and Kikosicki (13.1) in the 100; Stevens (26.6), Carfora (27.1), and Coleman (28.9) in the 200, and in the triple jump, Kikosicki (30 3/4).
Dunne was very happy with the amount of personal records his team set at the meet.
“It’s that time of the year where that’s what you hope is happening,” he said. “It’s the time for that stuff to start going the right direction. The championship meets are coming up and we have big point scorers.”
On a day where almost every other sport was rained out, the girls’ track team was able to beat the weather and put forth a great meet.
“I can’t believe it held off. I thought we were going to be completely drenched,” Dunne said. “I was concerned about it before the meet, but it ended up not being an issue. I thought it was going to be a torrential down pour.”