The girls winter track season was one full of broken records. Time and time again, school records were being taken down. Runners such as seniors Darcy Scheiner, Sean O’Brien and Gabby Demeter just kept on smashing their own records from meets prior.
However, nothing less was expected of them. Head coach Joseph Berardi said, “We had a lot of school records set by mostly seniors sprinters this year. We sat down with all of them before the season started and measured out their goals and what they wanted to achieve. They were able to hit most of them, if not all of them, whether it was individual or relay.”
Despite all of the success in the history books, the team still faced some adversity, notably in the North 2, Group 4 Sectional Championship. The team fell short to Ridge, placing second by only a few points. “We lost the sectional meet by like two points,” said Berardi. “Who knows, if you go back, there’s probably a million ways you could split it where we come out on top.” The girls have never won the sectional title, so coming that close was painful.
Nonetheless, Demeter was still proud of the team’s effort at sectionals. She said their best moment all season “was honestly putting it all on the line for winter sectionals. We didn’t quite get the win, but we were pretty close, and we all worked really hard,” she said.
In the meet only four days after the sectional championship, the Shore Coaches Invitational, the girls turned it around. They dominated all around and set more school records. The 4×200 relay of Scheiner, Demeter, O’Brien and Maura Hyland captured gold and broke a school record with a time of 1 minute 44.61 seconds. In the individual 200 meter, Scheiner, O’Brien and Demeter placed first, second and fifth, respectively. Scheiner’s 25.42 time broke a school record. She said, “My favorite moment from the season was the meet that we had right after sectionals because we were coming off of a tough loss we lost by like two points. So at the meet after that everyone wanted to perform well and do their best, and I think that we really did that, so it was really fun.”
Following the Shore Coaches Invitational, the girls went to the Group 4 Championship. Their second-place finish in the sectional meet earned them that spot. In the group championship, O’Brien took first in the 55 meter dash with a time of 7.23 seconds. Demeter won the high jump with a 5 feet 4 inch jump.
This was the first time that the team had two individual group champions. “We’ve never had that before. So that was pretty exciting,” said Berardi. After the group meet, Berardi said, “We sent seven girls to the Meet of Champions which is awesome.”
The girls went on to Yale University for the New Balance Nationals meet. “[It was a] good team bonding experience. An overall real positive experience for a lot of them,” said Berardi. The ultimate goal for the team was making it there, and that they did. Their success came greatly as a result of the team chemistry throughout the season. “We saw everybody come closer together,” said Demeter. “I think with a lot of team bonding we were able to push each other and get PRs because we were just more motivated to do well for each other.”
Looking towards next year, the team is losing valuable seniors. Scheiner, O’Brien and Demeter are all running in college next year at American, Colombia and Davidson, respectively.
“It’s a job at the next level,” said Berardi. “I think they were good role models, and they led by example. And I think that even though they leave, they leave behind a legacy that hopefully a lot of other girls will look to emulate and to step into. We wish them the best at the next level, hopefully we will get to see them.”
As for the Blue Devils, they have younger runners that are going to step up next year. Scheiner said, “I think next year’s team will definitely step up. We have a lot of good girls. Girls like Alexis Ray, Lilly Petrie and Anna Kylish. I can definitely see they’re going to step up, and the team is going to be good for years to come.”
Despite all the adversity, especially with the close sectional finish, the team stayed on track. “There was probably more asked of this group than any other group I’ve ever had in the past, and a lot of the stuff was out of their control. I thought they handled it well. And hopefully it’ll set up for a big spring,” said Berardi. With his best runners leaving for college, Berardi said that there are “definitely big shoes to fill. But we have a lot of good girls coming back. So we’re excited about next year.”
