St. Anthony's SMR raced for awareness, which fed into dramatic drive to finish

 

Besides winning a national championship, there was something else on the minds of the St. Anthony’s foursome before lining up for the finals of the sprint medley relay.

“We were running also for breast-cancer awareness because one of our track girls, her mom, passed away early this year,” said Sebastian Pierce. “We knew, representing her, that we had to run our hearts out.”

Pierce and his remaining teammates did just that on Saturday afternoon, holding off fellow New York rival Warwick Valley to win the SMR at the New Balance Nationals with a nation-best of 3 minutes, 26.16 seconds. Warwick settled for second at 3:26.09 (US #2) and Union Catholic of N.J., placed third at 3:26.16 (US # 3).

Pierre and senior Monzai Nelson ran strong 200 legs for St. Anthony’s, averaging about 22-seconds each. Trailing early-race leader Union Catholic by a considerable margin, junior Marlon Montague closed the gap with a 49.14 split.

Union Catholic’s third leg was Jordan Jimerson, ranked No. 11 in the 300.

“I knew coming into the race that I had a lot of competition.  I was running against one of the fastest 300 runners in the country,” he said. “I did my best to make sure that there was no gap that would open up between me and first place and that’s what I did. And here we are. It feels good.”

Senior Louis Santilli blazed the anchor for St. Anthony’s with a 1:52.61 split. He battled back and forth with Warwick’s Tom Reilly, who was timed in 1:52.01.

“That was a nail-biter. Going into it, I wanted to pass Union (Catholic’s Anthony Gizzone) the first 400,” he said.  “I caught him and then I realized the pace was slow and I just tried to pull away.”

“With 200 to go I was saying I think I got this….I just focused and said I have to win this. My team is depending on me. I got to go,” he added. “We have the national championship, All American, it’s incredible.”

In the girls’ race, Columbia, N.J., came short of its goal to break the national record (3:53.17), but still won easily with the country’s fastest time this year of 3:57.19 Connecticut’s Wilbur Cross was a distance second at 4:02.68.

Senior teammates Maya Hinton and Kayla Richardson averaged 26 seconds for their 200 legs. Junior Emile Cowan was 55.67 for her 400 and senior Olivia Baker finished it off with an anchor of 2:09.30 for her 800.

 

Championship Boys SMR (View Official Results)

M Sprint Medley Relay - Finals
Place Overall Team Result Heat  
1 1 Saint Anthony's 3:25.95 4  
2 2 Warwick Valley 3:26.09 4  
3 3 Union Catholic Reg. HS 3:26.16 4  
4 4 Western Branch High School 3:31.48 4  
5 5 Dunbar 3:31.97 2  
6 6 McQuaid Jesuit 3:32.17 2  
7 7 McDonogh School 3:32.18 1  
8 8 Fork Union 3:32.39 3  
9 9 Rahway HS 3:33.08 3  
10 10 New Horizon 3:33.23 4  
11 11 Xavier 3:33.39 1  
12 12 Port Jefferson 3:33.41 3  
13 13 Ridgewood HS 3:33.55 3  
14 14 Don Bosco Prep 3:34.27 1  
15 15 Clara Barton 3:36.58 1  
16 16 Chantilly 3:37.69 3  
17 17 Benjamin Banneker Academy 3:51.12 2  
18 18 DePaul Catholic HS 3:56.90 4