Northport distance runners show their unity with unique finish in 3,000-meter run at Suffolk 2A championships
From left, the Northport team of Fiona King, Jane Tucker, Kayla Forsch, Mia Wickard and Finnley Wickard cross the finish line together during the 3,000-meter run at the Suffolk 2A track and field championships on Tuesday at Commack. Credit: Dawn McCormick
What the Northport girls track and field team pulled off on Tuesday at Commack may never be seen again.
The Tigers placed the first five finishers in the 3,000-meter run at the Suffolk 2A championships — but it was no ordinary one-after-the-other finish.
Before the race began, knowing that they had a chance to place the top five, they coordinated their finish in a specific way to display their unity as teammates.
The five girls — eighth-graders Jane Tucker and Fiona King, sophomore twins Mia and Finnley Wickard and junior Kayla Forsch — all decided to line up next to each other and cross the finish line simultaneously. Their decision actually frustrated the official scorekeeper, whose job it is to determine a winner, but they did not care.
“Going into the race, we were just focusing on staying in a group and getting as many points as possible for our team,” Finnley Wickard said. “Honestly, we only cared about the points.”
Tucker was credited as the winner with a final time of 10 minutes, 58.47 seconds, as she was deemed to have been the first one with her chest completely across the finish line. However, her time was identical to Forsch’s, who finished second. Mia Wickard was officially third with a 10:58.48, followed by King at 10:58.49 and Finnley Wickard at 10:58.51.
“It’s all about the team, never the individual,” Mia Wickard said. “We never want to put ourselves in a position to where we’re by ourselves; we want the team around us supporting us. It’s an amazing feeling to have four other girls that I can run with and tell them that we’re going to run it as a team.”
Forsch ran a season-best time by 23.83 seconds to be a part of their special moment.
“I think we’re very lucky to have a team of girls that’s so close in time together,” Forsch said. “We know a lot of girls who don’t get to have other people to run with, so I think we’re very blessed that we get to be together for all of our races.”
They almost did it again in the 1,500, as Mia Wickard won it in 4:47.98, but Bellport senior Ella Masem crashed the party and finished second. King, Forsch, Finnley Wickard and Tucker then finished third through sixth. Tucker, Finnley Wickard, Forsch and Mia Wickard all ran the 4x800-meter relay to end the meet and combined to run a 9:53.03 to win it.
Naturally, the cluster of points from those three races alone pushed Northport to its first outdoor team championship with 119 points. They had other champions, as well. In the 4x400, senior Sam DeNisco, junior Ella Cancro, freshman Phoebe Powers and senior Madison Duffy ran a collective 4:07.69. In the 200, Duffy sprinted a 25.41 to get some revenge from earlier in the day on Bellport senior Nevaeh Pedraza.
Pedraza, a College of Staten Island commit, ran a 12.16 in the 100 to narrowly beat Duffy by four hundredths of a second. Later, she flew a personal-record 18 feet, 3 inches in the long jump — over a foot and a half ahead of the pack. To end her night, she anchored Bellport’s championship-winning 4x100 team to finish in 49.21 seconds. Juniors Ava Cooley, Shania Creary and Arielle Ross ran the legs before her.
“I put in a lot of work for this, so I feel like it’s deserved,” Pedraza said. “Back in the winter season, I wouldn’t have expected me to do this at all, but I’m here now. It feels great and I’m happy to be here.”
Deer Park also had a good showing, led by sophomore Chelsea Cornelia, who overcame some nerves to win the 800 in 2:16.99 and the 2,000-meter steeplechase in 7:12.84.
“I always think, ‘How bad do you want it?’” Cornelia said. “I always pretend that the finish line is five feet in front of me. That really just gives me the motivation to not let up. What you think you are, I think you could always push it even farther.”
Her teammates, freshman Riley Girard and sophomore Nadia Elsergany, both won field events. Girard cleared five feet in the high jump, while Elsergany threw the shot put 36 feet, 3 1/2 inches to each become county champions. Junior Vanessa Cayea won the pentathlon for Deer Park with a total of 2,212 points.
Elsewhere, Smithtown East sophomore Rayshelle Brown won her first career outdoor county title with a 15.03 in the 100-meter hurdles. In the 400 hurdles, Half Hollow Hills East senior Brooke Hyland ran a 1:08.45 to win it. Commack eighth-grader Leah Harris defended her home turf by running a personal-best 59.64 seconds en route to the 400-meter championship, and her senior teammate Sam Familio finished in 7:19.08 to win the 1,500-meter race walk.
In the field, Huntington senior Elizabeth James flew 36-3 to win the triple jump, Commack junior Kenzie Albano cleared 10-6 to claim the pole vault and West Babylon junior Xena Smith took the discus title with a throw of 106-5.
Mike Anderson is a high school sports reporter who has covered 12 sports so far at Newsday. He was the sports editor of Stony Brook University's campus newspaper for two years.
