Lady Red Devil Trackteam Edges Gr. Lowellin Last Event to Win Title

The Chelsea High girls track & field team headed to Greater Lowell last Thursday to face the undefeated Gryphons in a battle for the Commonwealth Athletic Conference championship.

“We knew we were going to face a tough Greater Lowell team,” said CHS head coach Kim Huffer. “We knew that we would need to have a great day on the track to win against such a strong team.”

The meet started well for both Greater Lowell and Chelsea. Both teams received strong performances

and the score remained close throughout the meet. With three events remaining (the 800, 200, and 4 x 400 relay), Chelsea trailed 62-51.

“In our conference, 69 points is necessary to win a dual meet,” noted Huffer. “We thought we could score in all of these events, but we knew that we would need first place finishes in each, as well as at least one second place finish, to win the meet. Going into those events, the girls knew we were behind in the score and pushed hard to cross the finish line before Greater Lowell. It was stressful, yet exciting.”

The Lady Red Devils came through with flying colors, shutting out Greater Lowell the rest of the way. Chelsea swept the 800 and 200 to clinch the meet and then applied the icing to their victory cake with a victory in the 4 x 400 relay, tying the CHS school record of 4:38 in the process, for a final winning tally of 74-62.

“I couldn’t be happier for this team,” said Huffer. “We had 27 personals bests during this meet. One of our distance runners, Arandeni Ramos, improved her time by 44 seconds to finish second in the two mile. One of

our throwers, Bahiya Nasuuna, threw over two feet further than her previous best to finish in third place in the shotput. It was a total team effort and I am extremely proud of them.”

The triumph enabled the Lady Red Devils to complete another undefeated season at 8-0 and capture an undisputed CAC title. Many Lady Red Devils turned in strong performances including:

Shot Put: 1. Diana Batists

(26’2”), 3. Bahiya Nasuuna

Discus: 3. Rebecca Torrento

Javelin: 2. Cristal Rodriguez,

3. Zuleima Castillo

High Jump: 2. Mursal Hassan,

3. Wendy Chung

Long Jump: 2. Stephanie

Moni, 3. Shuly Sejour

Triple Jump: 3. Thien-Ly

Che 100 Hurdles: 1. Shuly Sejour,

2. Thien-Ly Che

100 dash: 2. Stephanie Moni,

3. Zuleima Castillo

2 Mile: 2. Arandeni Ramos

Mile: 1. Anelsa Beqo (6.19),

2. Jennifer Medrano

400 Hurdles: 2. Thien-Ly

Che, 3. Mursal Hassan

400 dash: 2. Quinnee

Valenzona, 3. Tatyana Almeida

800: 1. Jesenia Contreras

(2:48), 2. Belinda Beqo, 3.

Jennifer Medrano

200: 1. Wendy Chung (28.6),

2. Shuly Sejour, 3. Karolyn

Moni

4×400 Relay: 1. Tatyana

Almeida, Loren Ramos, Mursal

Hassan, Jesenia Contreras

(4.38)** ties school record

The Lady Red Devils will take their momentum into the All-CAC Meet this Saturday at Greater Lowell at which all of the season’s top performers among the nine schools in the conference will compete.

“It will take another strong effort to win at our conference meet. The girls are peaking at the right time, and I’m hopeful we will have yet another day full of personal bests on Saturday,” said Huffer.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *