From the moment that the gun went off, it was clear that the girls 200 meter relay was going to be something special. After the first 200 meters, senior Darcy Scheiner had taken a commanding lead, which only grew throughout the race. Scheiner, Gabby Demeter, Maura Hyland and Sean O’Brien not only captured gold in the event, but they broke the school record in a time of 1 minute and 44.61 seconds.
“I thought the meet went really well,” remarked head coach Joseph Berardi. “Everybody responded coming off of Saturday’s performance.”
On Saturday, just four days prior, the girls track and field team traveled to the Bennett Indoor Athletic Complex in Toms River, New Jersey, for the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association Sectional Championships, with dreams of becoming the North 2, Group 4 sectional champions. Everyone ran their hearts out, but in the end, Ridge High School came out on top by just three points.
The loss was devastating as the team has never won a sectional title in winter track history. However, Westfield is not the kind of team to give up or give in to adversity. When they arrived at the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex in Staten Island, New York, on Feb. 7, they arrived with a chip on their shoulder.
The meet started off more stress-inducing than usual, as the bus that was supposed to drive the girls to the meet arrived almost two hours later than anticipated after being unexpectedly cancelled.
“Our bus got here so late, so we had only thirty minutes to warm up,” recalls sophomore Rachel Werner who was running the first event of the day.
However, the 1600 runners started off the meet with a bang, getting the races off to an exceptional start. Junior Emma Pranke would lead the way for the girls, running a 5:20.26 in the 1600 to set a new personal record and secure a standout fifth place finish.
“The race went out really fast,” said Pranke. “But the chaos got me pumped up and ready.” Almost simultaneously, junior Lilly Petrie would line up for her 55-meter hurdle performance where she would take silver with a time of 8.76 seconds in the finals. “I had less than a half hour to get my hurdle drills in and my normal drills in…I just have to trust that my body knows what it’s doing,” said Petrie after the race.
Scheiner, O’Brien and Demeter would also race the 200 before they raced their historic relay, and the three of them secured the first, second and fifth spots overall, splitting times of 25.42, 25.76 and 26.81 seconds. Scheiner’s time would make another WHS record fall for the girls 200 meter, proving how well the girls performed at the meet.
Although the team hoped to win the sectional championship, they secured a spot at the Group 4 championships in Toms River with their second-place finish.
“I don’t think the approach is going to be any different from what we just did,” said Berardi when asked about his strategy going into the meet. “We have nothing to lose.”
