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Island track teams in league championships: Andrea Napoles breaks school record, earns All-League honor

Shelter Island track athletes had a great showing over the weekend at the Section XI League 5 championships meets at Suffolk Community College in Brentwood.

The boys team of junior Noah Green and sophomore Jaxson Rylott competed first, with both entered in the 1,600 meters. Jaxson finished 12th with a time of 5:11.0.

Jaxson Rylott running the mile at Ocean Breeze. (Courtesy photo)

Noah Green had a huge personal record of 5:41.9, good for 20th place. It was a 20-second improvement from his previous best time.

At what was the biggest meet of the season for the Island girls, the team recorded their best performance of the season. Nearly all eight girls had their best times of the season at this championship meet.

The strength of the team is in the shot put. School record holder Sophie Clark, coming back from a chronic ankle injury, and Kaitlyn Gulluscio started the meet with good showings, with Clark coming in 7th place with a toss of 25’2” and Gulluscio in 8th place with a toss of 24’7”.

In the track 55 meters sprint, Islanders Susie Kane, Madison (Quen) Sojahana and Lili Kuhr set PR’s (personal records), with Kane and Sojahana winning the heats. Freshmen Elena Schack won her 600-meter heat with a time of 2:18.3.

In the 1,500 meters, junior MacKenzie Speece bettered her best time by 21 seconds and finished in 19th place overall in 5:58.3.

MacKenzie Speece in the mile at Ocean Breeze. (Courtesy photo)

Susie Kane and Madison Sojahana, fresh off their best in the 55 meters, came back with another PR in the 300 meters. Sojahana was 1st in her heat followed closely by Kane in 2nd place with the times of :54.6 and :55.4. 

The biggest bonus of the day was senior team captain Andrea Napoles smashing the school record set in 2018 by Francesca Frasco, with a time of 9:58.8. The old record was 10:18.0.  Andrea came home with the bronze medal (3rd place) and earned All-League status for her effort.

On Jan. 7 the teams traveled to Ocean Breeze on Staten Island to compete in the biggest meet in the country that weekend, the Ocean Breeze Freedom Games.

Over 300 schools from four states were represented. Jaxson Rylott was the star of the meet for the Islanders, cruising to 3rd place in his heat with a time of 5:09.9. 

The Shelter Island School girls track and filed team. Elena Schack, Sophie Clark, Andrea Napoles, MacKenzie Speece, Kaitlyn Gulluscio, Susie Kane, Madison Sojahana and Lili Kuhr. (Courtesy photo)

Ahead for the tracksters is the Last Chance Meet this Saturday in Brentwood and the County championship meet on Feb. 4.