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Girls Track: Tigers fall short of winning own meet
Updated: May 28, 2012 8:18AM
Elmwood Park’s goal of winning the home girls track invite was within its grasp, but it fell just a bit short as Latin took the girls crown at the Tiger Invite on Friday afternoon.
The Tigers finished with 225 points just ahead of Elmwood Park’s 220. St. Joseph took third with 52, while Guerin finished fourth with 21 points.
The Tigers won both of the throwing events with Patricia Wojcik taking the top spot in the shot put at 31 feet, 2 ½ inches with sophomore Yvonne Bucio winning the discus with her distance of 62-9 inches. Wojcik took second, throwing the discus 57-5 ½.
“Considering the conditions, I think I did OK,” Wojcik said. “I was more determined to finish as well as I could since it was our last home meet. It was kind of sad, but I’m excited for the future. Even though the weather was bad, it was still a good memory to get medals.”
Freshman Gianna Rubino earned some first-place medals on the day including in the 400 meters and as part of the 1600-meter relay team alongside sophomore Maricely Figueroa, junior Michelle Accettura, and senior Layla Alazawy.
“I never thought that I’d make it this far this fast and be an important part of the team,” Rubino said. “I’m the type who is really nervous before a race, but with the weather and the wind so strong, the nerves didn’t even get to me. I just wanted to get the race over with.”
Alazawy earned second place honors in the 300 hurdles with a time of 57.94 and well as in the 100 hurdles with her time of 19.25 seconds. She took second in the triple jump as well with her distance of 28-4.
“I didn’t do as well in the 300 hurdles as I had hoped, but I’m most proud of how I did in the (1600) mostly because my teammates and I had our best times of the season,” Alazawy said. “I’m glad I made them proud and helped us take first.”
Sophomore Linda Langkamp took first in the triple jump with a distance of 28-11½ and second in the long jump at 13-8¾. Her sister, Ruth, was part of the first-place 3200 team with Figueroa, Accettura and junior Bridget Ziegler. Langkamp also took second in the pole vault with a height of 6-6. Senior teammate Sarah Dickens took the top honors besting 7-0.
“I’m not concerned time-wise due to the weather conditions, but we didn’t expect to lose,” said head coach John Kingsmill. “It was a combination of Latin being better than we thought, and a couple of girls just not being as tough as they needed to be. We’re also very thin having lost (junior) Agnes Knych with a stress fracture. It’ll be another week before she can do anything, and that puts a major whole in the line-up, especially in the mile.”
