Day 2 Westchester track: Iona Prep 3-peats, New Rochelle girls back on top as county champs

YORKTOWN — It was the story of the familiar and a rekindling of the familiar.

When the second day of the Westchester County outdoor track and field championships ended Saturday, a school whose team victories at big meets had once seemed nearly automatic and another team that had been the best at counties for two straight years, were again No. 1.

Westchester track Day 1: Somers' Donovan, White Plains' McCormick and Arbid, Crisp win gold

New Rochelle, whose youth holds the promise of years of victories to come, took the Westchester girls team title for the first time since 2019.

And Iona Prep, a squad garnering points in everything from throws to distance running, to jumps to sprints, three-peated as Westchester County boys outdoor track and field team champion.

For kids like Tommy Flynn, that meant a lot.

The senior comes from family of runners, his three sisters, Anna, Lily and Sarah, starring at Ursuline before going on to run for Division I college teams.

But Flynn, who has shown enough good results and promise to be recruited by Division I Boston College, where all three of his sisters have run (Lily also ran for Stanford), has had, by his own account, a roller coaster running career.

Illness and injuries have had a good-size role in that and prior to this county championship, Flynn's biggest contribution to Iona Prep's showings at counties was probably his silver medal in steeplechase as a sophomore.

But on Friday at Hen Hud and Saturday at Yorktown High, Flynn erased much past disappointment.

Friday, he ran a personal-best 9:34.24 to garner second-place points in the boys 3,200.

Then Saturday, he won the boys 800 in a personal-best 1:57.51, just beating Dobbs Ferry's Chris Doherty (1:57.91) to the finish with John Jay-Cross River's Brodie Schneider third (1:58.39).

That was before Flynn anchored Iona Prep's 4x800 relay of Peter Winter, Michael Rynne and Quin O'Grady to a first-place win in 8:00.86.

That's the fastest time by any 4x800 team in the Section 1 area and 11th fastest this season in the state. It also was a mindboggling nine seconds faster than the group had previously run the relay.

And it was also a Westchester County track and field championships meet record.

"We were all working really, really hard," Flynn said of the relay. "Most everything went well. We all just believe in each other."

Counties — and the season itself — have given Flynn a sense of satisfaction and belief in himself sometimes lacking in the past.

"My enitre career has been ups and downs. I had sickness a lot. It kind of killed my confidence," he said.

"There's definitely pressure (following my sisters). But they all believe in me more than I believe in myself half the time," he said, noting the key to his success this year has been his ability to "string together healthy races."

Besides the expectation of competing at the state championships in a relay and likely individual events, Flynn and other Gaels hope to be at Adidas Nationals in North Carolina, a nice bow on his and others' high school careers.

That would include Justin Hargraves, who came within .01 of taking home four gold medals.

He joined with Declan McCauley, Landen Wiley and Terron Johnson in winning the 4x100 relay in a New York 2024 No. 1 41.69 with Horace Greeley (41.94) second and Stepinac (43.63) third.

Hargraves also won the long jump at 21-7.5 (Greeley's Ben Ho was second at 21-5 and New Rochelle's Minasi Simpkins was third at 21-3.25) and took the triple jump at a NY 2024 No. 4 46-4 the day before at Hen Hud.

McCauley, also a senior, edged both Hargraves and Greeley's Niko Wright for gold in the 100 dash.

McCauley ran 10.85 for gold, Hargraves 10.86 for silver and Wright 10.87 for bronze, also on Day 1 at Hen Hud.

At Yorktown on Saturday, Wright and teammate Seamus Finn edged McCauley in the 200, with all three running personal-best times.

Wright clocked a 2024 NY No. 5 21.64, Finn 21.85 and McCauley, a half breath behind, ran 21.86.

But Iona Prep, which also got first-place points Friday from javelin thrower Jake Gherard and pole vaulter Aidan Keating, picked up some second-place and fourth-place points in both shot and discus.

The discus win went to Pleasantville's Aiden Kayizzi at 144-11.

Iona Prep's Eric Mulqueen threw 138-2 for second, Rye Neck's Nathan Shpilberg was third at 138-3 and Iona Prep's Rowan Byrne threw 132 for fourth.

Mount Vernon's D'Andrew Shephard won gold in the boys shot put, throwing a personal-best 49-1.

Byrne was second (48-10.5), Kayizzi third (48-6.25) and Mulqueen fourth (47-11.75).

While the county steeplechase competition isn't slated to be competed until Monday, the outcome could not change the top two finishes in either the boys or girls team competitions.

In the boys, with 28 teams scoring, Iona Prep, which will probably gain points with Flynn later competing in steeple, had 159 points and Greeley was second with 85.5.

Third place was still up for grabs with Pleasantville having 44 points, New Rochelle 43 and Bronxville not out of it at 37.

For the girls, New Rochelle had 136, defending champion Ursuline 67 and several teams were possibly in the mix for third with the steeple pending, including Somers at 46, Scarsdale at 41 and Ardsley at 39.

COVID comeback for New Rochelle

As the scores indicated, 44-year coach Andy Capellan's New Rochelle girls team had quite the meet.

The credit extended to multiple athletes but among those who stood out were eighth-grader Elisa Crisp and ninth-grader Alexis Smith.

The two joined with Ryann Joseph and Alexis's sister, Aliva, to win the girls 4x100 relay in a season-best 49.13 with Yonkers second (49.82) and Hen Hud third (49.93).

Alexis Smith entered the girls 400 hurdles with some trepidation.

The field included Ursuline's Elena Olson and Ivana Richards, dominant hurdlers.

On Friday, Olson had run a personal-best and NY 2024 girls No. 3 time of 14.28 to win the girls 100 hurdles.

Richards had taken silver, also in a personal-best time.

"I was so nervous I was light-headed," Alexis Smith of her pre-race mindset.

But she didn't run like that.

Instead, she slashed two seconds off her personal-best in the event, picking up confidence and maybe even speed when seeing one of Ursuline's runners clip a hurdle.

When Smith hit the finish in front of everyone, her time might have astounded her.

It was a two-second personal best of 1:04.95. But the celebration was somewhat muted.

"I just wanted to sit down, I was so tired," said Smith, who, tired or not, hopes to lower her time to 1:02 or 1:03 by the end of the season.

Richards was second in a season-best 1:05.62. Olivia Smith took bronze, running a personal-best 1:07.23, and Olson was fourth (1:08.05).

Crisp also had a memorable two days.

After running a personal-best 12.15 to win the girls 100 on Friday, Crisp entered a stacked 200 and won.

It was quite the contest with the first six finishers all recording new personal-best times.

Crisp clocked a current NY No. 3 girls time of 24.61.

Somers junior Haylie Donovan, who a day earlier had crushed her very good fourth-place time at the Loucks Games to win the county girls 400, ran a state No. 7 24.86 for silver. Ardsley's Mioko Martin (25.73) was third.

New Rochelle's Gabrielle Barnett finished second in the girls pentathlon with 2,587 points and teammate Sophia Casimir took bronze with 2,325.

Winning the shot put, high jump and long jump, Eastchester freshman Phoebe Gauld amassed 2,793 points for the overall girls pent title.

New Rochelle also picked up second-place points in the girls 800.

Eastchester's Ava Pennachio won in 2:16.71. Silver went to New Rochelle's Olivia Solomon in a personal-best 2:18.08 and Scarsdale's Leia Patel (2:18.9) took bronze.

The Huguenots also finished second (10:09.55) and Somers third (10:17.18) in the girls 4x800 relay.

Ursuline (Kyleigh O'Keefe, Lily Mitchell, Keira McDonald and Sofia Henao) ran a season-best 9:56.71 to secure gold in that race.

A bronze in the 1,500-meter race walk went to New Rochelle's Jennifer Oliveros-Valerio (season-best 7:58.59).

White Plains' Julia Beckman (7:43.1) claimed the racewalk crown in 7:43.1 with Hen Hud's Chloe Howard (season-best 7:54.71) won silver.

New Rochelle also gained bronze in the girls shot put with freshman Zoe Chavis throwing 32-11.

The girls shot win went to White Plains' Isabella McGuire at 35-5 with Hastings Danae Morgan (32-2.5) taking silver.

Ardsley's Martin captured the girls long jump at 17-1.25.

Bronxville's Juliet Winiecki was second (16-11.75).

But New Rochelle again gained top-three points with Joseph also jumping 16-11.75 but finishing third in a tie-breaker.

Rye Country Day's Jocelyn Rice couldn't have been closer. She was only a quarter of an inch behind in fourth and New Rochelle's Alexis Smith got fifth-place points, finishing only half an inch behind Rice with a 16-11 jump.

New Rochelle also picked up third-place points in the girls 4x400 relay, clocking 4:01.41.

Somers, with Donovan on anchor picking up ground but running out of track, was second in 3:59.4.

But the big story there was the winner, Bronxville.

Juliet Winiecki, Eva Mihova, Ella McCalla and Kara Kochanski combined to win in 3:58.86. That was a whopping 10-second outdoor best for the group, which entered the race with the goal of hitting the 4:04 super-standard to qualify for the state championships.

An upset win for Scarsdale and, with it, a school record

In a sense, it wasn't as hard for Shannon Kelly to gain a personal best time Saturday as it was for some others to PB.

After all, the Scarsdale senior, who'd won silver Friday at 400 meters, had only once before run the 1,500 meters and hadn't broken five minutes.

But the fact she crushed her previous time and bested high-level, veteran 1,500 racers in winning the title was surprising — as was the fact that she set a Scarsdale school record in only her second time doing the event.

Chances are, if not pushed by Ava Pennachio, Kelly wouldn't now have the school record.

Kelly was leading halfway through the last 400-meter lap when Pennachio moved to the front.

But about 100 meters later, Kelly was able to regain it.

She finished in 4:42.61 with Pennachio crossing in 4:44.04 and Rye Neck's Ainara Schube Barriola taking bronze in 4:48.15.

"She pushed me. I was tired and wanted to give up but I was able to push myself," Kelly said. "I think competition is really good for me.. I obviously don't want to lose."

A former three-year sprinter, the Holy Cross commit, whose favorite distance is 800 meters (she also holds Scarsdale's girls record at that distance), said she trusted her kick.

More winners

Eastchester won arguably the most difficult individual title and it did so twice.

After Gauld's girls pentathlon win, teammate Jack Pennachio won the boys title.

The senior captured the boys pentathlon hurdles and was third in the final event, the 1,500-meter run, en route to taking boys overall pent championship with 2,757 points.

The battle for second was close. Pleasantville's Shane Horigan, who finished strong with a second-place 1,500, edged Ardsley's Nikolaj Lund, 2,662-2,643 points.

New Rochelle (Ryan Temistokle, Isaac Evans, Myles Johnson and Obinna Njoku) ran a big personal-best time of 3:23.59 for the boys 4x400 county crown.

The race capped a great weekend for Evans, who'd taken silver a day earlier with a more than two-foot personal best 45-7 triple jump.

Alexander Hamilton was a close second in the 4x400 at 3:23.95 and Bronxville was third (3:26.5).

Ryan Sykes also had himself quite a county meet.

The Horace Greeley freshman, who won the boys 3,200 title on Friday, ran 4:25.47 to win the 1,600 title Saturday.

Briarcliff's Miles Chamberlain (4:27.09) was second and John Jay-Cross River's Andy Condon (4:29.04) was third.

David Davitt, the Stepinac senior who'll run next year for Penn, is now in second statewide for the season in the boys 400 hurdles after his personal-best, 53.2 first-place finish Saturday.

Westchester track championships Day 1: Somers' Donovan, White Plains' McCormick and Arbid, Crisp win gold

Bronxville's Wyatt Gravier, who took the boys 110-meter hurdles crown a day earlier, was second and Iona Prep's Winter, in 58.35, was third with teammates Aaron Irsh-Bramble and Chris Somersel picking up fourth- and fifth-place points right behind him.

Byram Hillls picked up first-place points in the girls discus with Ryan Singer throwing 115-11 for the win.

White Plains' McGuire (99-9) was second and Yorktown's Jane Hanson (93-1) won bronze.

Nancy Haggerty covers cross-country, track & field, field hockey, skiing, ice hockey, basketball, girls lacrosse and other sporting events for The Journal News/lohud. Follow her on Twitter at @HaggertyNancy .

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Day 2 Westchester track: Iona Prep 3-peats, New Rochelle girls back on top as county champs