Oceanside fourth in county meet

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Oceanside’s girls track team placed fourth out of 17 schools at the Nassau County Class AAA championships, producing two individual champs during the meet at Long Beach High School on May 25. 

Junior Andria Scaglione clocked in at 10:50.18 to win the 3000-meters run and placed second in the 1500 meters at 4:48.23.  

“Andria is the best distance runner to come to the program in a long time,” said fifth-year head coach Michael Howley. 

Senior Natalie Goldstein entered the final shot put round in first place but dropped to fourth after three opponents out-threw her. The final throw of her high school career fell at 34 feet 7 1/4 inches, the longest shot of the meet that edged out runner-up Ashley Makolo of Uniondale.

“For Natalie to go out on a high note like that on the last throw of her career was special,” Howley said.

Scaglione’s sister, Nicola, took second in the 2000-meters steeplechase with a time of 7:19.64, the junior’s best time in the event by 15 seconds.

“It is probably the most grueling race on the track, but Nikki is always up for the challenge and steps up for the team,” Howley said.

The Scaglione sisters and senior Christina Moran and junior Sera King placed in the 4x800 relay.

Moran and senior Josena Joseph trailed Andria Scaglione in the 3000 meters, placing second and third respectively.

“That was a really nice race for us because we had three girls score in the 3000,” Howley said.

The Lady Sailors placed third in the winter county championships, and many on that team carried over to the spring program. Howley said several underclassmen started to feed off of each other this spring and produced better times. The experienced athletes cared as much about how their younger teammates performed as they did their own races. Seven Lady Sailors earned All-County honors this season, winter and spring, the most during Howley’s tenure.

“One of our slogans when we started when these girls were freshmen was ‘tradition starts here, and this year we got t-shirts that said ‘tradition never graduates,’” he said of the seniors. “The idea was that they were going to do something that was going to last. It was important to pass that on to the underclassman.”  

The week before the counties, the Sailors won the Division 1A championship, a goal the coach set for his squad this spring after losing by five points to Uniondale last year.

Senior Lauren Rullo injured her foot but was the division champ in the 100 high hurdles at 16.03, and she took second in the 400 intermediate hurdles at 66.71. Even though her pain intensified at the counties, she still scored points for the team by placing sixth in the 100 hurdles.   

“It was a gutsy performance, and she is someone the girls look up to because of how strong and tough she was,” Howley said. “It’s an example of our senior leaders and what they can do.”