Swarms of fans piled into the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex in Staten Island Sunday morning. As Ciara Dursee dug her spikes into the track, awaiting the pistol to fire from the official, the fans fell silent. The pistol fired. Dursee took off, finishing her part of the 4×800 meter relay in just 2:21. Dursee would hand it off to Julia Schneider who would run a 2:26, keeping the Blue Devils at the head of the pack, behind just Union Catholic. Anna Kylish would be the third leg in the relay, running a 2:24. She then handed it off to Sonia Olson, the anchor. Olson would keep the Blue Devils out in front of the pack, also running a 2:24. The relay would go on to place second with a time of 9:37. Union Catholic took home first place in the event.
“They just ran some of their fastest times of the season,” said head coach Joe Berardi. He added, “Hopefully it’ll give us some momentum going into nationals.”
The 4×800 meter relay will travel to Boston, Massachusetts, next weekend to compete in the New Balance Indoor National meet after qualifying earlier in the season.
Sean O’Brien also continued her historic winter campaign this weekend in both the 55 meter and 200 meter dash. O’Brien continues to shatter personal best after personal best. Back in January, she broke her own school record in the 55 meter dash, clocking a 7.32. On Sunday she kept it going. O’Brien placed fourth overall in the preliminary qualification round, running a 7.22. O’Brien continued her dominance in the final, running a 7.18. She already had an outstanding day, but she wasn’t done just yet. O’Brien had also qualified for the 200 meter dash earlier in the season. She laced up her spikes yet again, awaited the pistol and took off. She finished with a time of 25.63, which put her at 11th overall in the event.
The girls had just one race left on the day, the 4×400 meter relay. The quartet of Dursee, Darcy Scheiner, Gabby Demeter and Maura Hyland was slated to go next. Dursee was forced to step down from the relays after suffering a quad injury while warming up for the relay. A smart decision that will help keep Dursee healthy and allow her move forward into nationals this weekend. To avoid forfeiting the spot, O’Brien stepped in to help try and fill Dursee’s place. O’Brien, however, also has plans for the national meet and after dealing with quad cramps, Berardi decided that it would be best for the three girls to run to get a time and avoid messing training up for nationals. O’Brien was then slotted to run in the anchor spot with the plan being for her to drop out of the race after the baton was passed to her from Hyland.
“We just wanted to give Gabby and Darcy a chance to run well. Maura has been a little iffy, but came in and ran her best race of the season,” said Berardi. Talking about O’Brien, “she obviously had a big day. We really didn’t want her working herself, she has nationals next week,” said Berardi.
Even with the fate of their relay’s outcome, the trio of Scheiner, Demeter and Hyland didn’t let it affect them. Scheiner would hand the baton off to Demeter after posting a 1:00.11 split and Demeter went on to run a 59.42. Hyland then received the baton and ran a 1:01.28 and handed it off to O’Brien who carried out the plan discussed prior to the race.
The girls will suit up for nationals in Boston next weekend where they will look to continue their historic season.
