GIRLS CROSS-COUNTRY
Babylon’s Christine Gentile and Massapequa’s Tara Flynn are Long Island’s most illustrious runners. Last season, Gentile won her fourth consecutive Suffolk championship and second state Class B title (18:46.7). She also collected first-place finishes in the Suffolk Coaches, Nassau Coaches and St. Anthony’s invitationals and placed second in her Eastern States race. Flynn’s resume lists a first-place finish in the Nassau Confernce I meet and a fourth-place showing in the state Class A race (19:04.6). All that after opening the season with three consecutive major-meet victories.
West Islip sophomore Kelly Liljeblad displayed flashes of greatness last season, culminating with a victory in Suffolk’s Class A championship. Longwood‘s Jodi Lecki was the best of all Suffolk finishers in state A race (18th) after crossing the line second behind Liljeblad in the county meet. Katrina Kothe of Shoreham-Wading River and Laura Prestandrea of Miller Place rate a notch below Gentile in Class B.
Behind Flynn, Nassau’s best include Teri Dillingham of Wantagh (second in the 1985 state meet) and Jen Livingston of Hicksville (qualified for last two state meets).
In the Nassau-Suffolk Catholic League, Lenore Brough of Holy Trinity and three allstars from St. Anthony’s (Coleen Brady, Christine Schmidt, Debbie Allex) are headline performers. St. Anthony’s also has high hopes for transfer Karen McAuliffe, the Oklahoma state 800-meter champion as a sophomore last spring.
Jodi Leckie covered Cathedral Pines’ 3-mile course in 19:06 to pace Longwood‘s girls to a 25-31 win over Ward Melville. Sept. 30
Longwood 20 Smithown East 41 Oct. 7
Longwood 25 Connetquot 30. Oct. 14
Coaches Invitational at New York Tech
1. Christine Gentile (Babylon) 18:46.9. 2. Lecki (Longwood) 19:33.2. 3. Johnson (Columbia) 19:43.1. 4. Liljeblad (West Islip) 19:48.5. 5. Silver (Bronxville) 19:54.0. Team Scoring – Tri-Valley 71, Bronxville 108, Sachem 112, Columbia 118, Miller Place 122. Oct. 18
Floyd 27 Longwood 28. Oct. 7
Mary Melfi’s second-place finish in 19:44.0 helped Sachem defeat Longwood, 23-36, to win the girls League I title. Longwood‘s Jody Leckie won the race in 19:06.0.. Oct. 28
Conference I Championships
1. Jodi Leckie (Longwood) 19:40.7. 2. Kristen Dempsey (Centereach) 20:12.3. 3. Mary Melfi (Sachem) 20:21.3. Team Scoring – Floyd 50, Sachem 58, Centereach 117, Longwood 123, Connetquot 157. Nov. 1
Class A: 1. *Jennifer Norton (East Islip) 19:26.4; 2. *Leckie (Longwood) 19:34.41; 3. * Liljeblad (West Islip) 19:45; 4. *Dempsey (Connetquot) 19:57.7; 5. *Brunken (Smithtown East) 20:02.5. Team Scoring – Floyd 72, West Islip 88, Sachem 112, Centereach 195, Longwood 221. Nov. 8
Season Awards
MVP – Jodie Leckie
Bulldog -Susan Byrne
White Letter – Tracy Granshaw