Track and field: Suffern's Joseph wins 4 Rockland titles, SV's Miller 3; Suffern team champs
Nancy Haggerty
SPRING VALLEY — Skylar Rosenberg's back was hurting Thursday when she stepped to the line to throw the shot put during the Rockland County Track and Field Championships.
Normally, that would not be a good thing.
But Rosenberg, who wages a regular battle with nerves, explaining, "I (am) so in my head each meet," found her expectations and, in turn, stress reduced due to her injury.
That led to great things.
The Clarkstown South senior threw the shot 42 feet, 2.75 inches on her last attempt to win the Rockland girls championship.
The throw was a personal best and, moreover, was the top throw all season in New York by a high school girl.
North Rockland's Deborah Estabine, who was in the top spot statewide at 42-1, had been leading at 40-10 and, following Rosenberg's last throw, still had a chance to win. But Estabine had to settle for silver when her final throw landed out of bounds.
Ramapo's Alisha Polynice took bronze at 33-8.
Rosenberg's ascent to the top has been swift.
The former competitive swimmer, whose specialty was the shoulder-taxing butterfly, decided to pursue track as a sophomore.
She went to tryouts and, never having thrown the shot put before, out-threw all returning members of the Viking girls team.
"I always liked being strong and lifting things," said Rosenberg. "(I figured) a heavy metal ball has got to be my thing."
While COVID-19 cancelled her sophomore season before it began, she threw last year and now has committed to completing next year for Division I Albany.
"I worked out over the summer and realized I can be good," said Rosenberg, who threw 40-2.5 indoors this past winter and whose outdoor best was 39-7 prior to Thursday.
Now, she's hoping to hit 45 feet, qualify for states and medal there.
Miller dominant
Simara Miller will be a favorite to qualify for states out of Section 1 in more than one event.
The Spring Valley senior won three county championships, although taking only half the jumps for which she was eligible in two events Thursday to conserve energy.
Miller won the girls long jump at 17-10 with Nyack's Nephlini Desrosiers (16-11) edging Clarkstown North's Mirra Klimov (16-10.5) for second.
Miller also cleared a personal-best 5-1 to win the girls high jump.
Suffern's Kyra Skoglund also cleared 5-1 but in more attempts, so was second, and Ramapo's Destiny Gray (4-10) was third.
And Wednesday, during the first day of the two-day meet, Miller captured the girls triple jump at a meet-record 38-1.
Nyack's Makayla Dorvil was second (35-10) and North Rockland's Abigail Coachy was third (35-2).
Miller also ran Thursday on Spring Valley's 4x100-meter relay, which finished in 50.4 for second behind North Rockland (50.3). Nyack (51.27) was third.
Photo finish in girls 100 hurdles
Most top runners like to be pushed and Nyack's Dorvil and North Rockland's Dami Modupe are no exception.
At the end of the girls 100-meter hurdles final both knew they'd profited by running side by side.
In fact, both set personal-best times.
Or, time — singular.
With both Dorvil and Modupe clocking 15.37, cameras were used and determined Dorvil to be the winner. (Tappan Zee's Pilar Fernandez, at 16.09, was third.)
Modupe happily sprinted to Dorvil with their confirmed time right after the race, hi-5'd her and then quickly ran from there to compete in a heat of the 100-meter dash, leaving Dorvil to watch and cheer.
"I love that girl," Dorvil said, adding, as Modupe ran by, winning her heat, "Look at her go."
The hurdles win made Dorvil a repeat champion.
Modupe ended up second later in the 100 girls final.
The 100 win went to Spring Valley's Anaika Louis in 12.39. Modupe crossed in 12.56 and, in another eye-lash finish, Spring Valley's Regine Mesidor edged Nyack's Alina Kukielczak for third, with both running 13.17.
Louis also captured the girls 200, clocking 25.51.
North Rockland's Esther St. Fort (25.66) was second and Nyack's Amber McDonald (27.21) was third.
Suffern's boys and girls teams winner, Joseph wins 4 individual events
Out of 11 teams, Suffern, North Rockland and Nyack finished 1-2-3 in team scoring for both boys and girls.
Suffern got a boost on the boys side from senior Samson Joseph, who won the boys triple jump Wednesday, then the 200-meter and 400-meter races and long jump Thursday.
Joseph's 44-5.5 triple jump was a personal best and tied him for eighth best in the state among high school boys this spring.
As part of a Suffern 1-2-3 sweep of that event, Jephthah Joseph took second (42-7.5) and Jeffrey Li Rivera was third (42-4).
Samson Joseph edged runner-up Alexander Bilello of Clarkstown North by just an inch, 21-8 to 21-7 to take the long jump with Nyack's Putu Sutayasa (20-5.5) third.
Joseph clocked 22.28 in the 200 with Ramapo's Xavier Gaines (22.54) second and Spring Valley's Andrew Sutherland (22.59) third.
Gaines ran a personal-best 10.93 to win the boys 100.
Spring Valley's Sutherland was second (11.05) and Clarkstown North's Alexander Bilello was third (11.24).
North Rockland's Detton St. Paul threw a personal-best 135-9 to capture the boys discus.
Clarkstown South's Isaiah Williams (123-8) was second and Suffern's Trevor Iwuagwu (121-6) was third.
"It feels good, definitely," the junior St. Paul said of winning.
"I want to keep topping myself," he explained of his goal for the rest of the season.
Nyack's Schutzbank double winner
Lap after lap in the boys 3,200, Nyack's Mattew Schutzbank hung half a step behind Nanuet senior and future Division I collegiate runner John Fontanez.
"I just wanted to conserve as much energy as possible," he'd later explain.
That is until the last lap. That's when the sophomore put himself in another gear, prompting Fontanez to later remark about Schutzbank's amazing kick.
By the finish, Schutzbank, who'd go on to also win the boys 1,600, had a more than five-second lead on Fontanez.
Schutzbank crossed in 9:38.04 with Fontanez second (9:44.33) and Clarkstown South's Harrison Caprara third (9:50.24).
"He follows the plan. That's all I ask of him," Nyack coach Adam Klein said.
And Schutzbank did the same in the boys 1,600.
In that race, he clocked 4:32.73 to edge Clarkstown South junior Kieran Dudek (4:33.14) for the gold with North Rockland's Eduardo Nava not far behind in third (4:34.76).
The girls 1,500 went right down to the wire with North Rockland senior Jade Pazmino getting to the finish in 4;48.56, just ahead of Pearl River's Una Boylan (4:48.9).
Third place went to Tappan Zee's Cassidy Donovan (4:54.03).
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Suffern's Duran 400 and 800 champion
Three girls broke one minute in the 400-meter run.
The winner, Suffern's Kaya Duran, finished in 58.25.
Silver went to North Rockand's St. Fort in 59.01 and the bronze winner was Nyack's Amanda Marshall (59.71).
Duran also led the field in the girls 800, winning in 2:20.39.
Pearl River's Mady Moroney was second (2:24.56) and Donovan of Tappan Zee took third (2:25.46).
In the boys 800, Clarkstown South's Julian Rime clocked 2;00.66 for the win.
Nyack's Freddie Hurson (2:01.11) was second and Nyack's Bobby Royston (2:01.32) was third.
At 10-6, Nanuet's Declan Kelly captured the boys pole vault.
Suffern teammates Emanuel Ramirez and Gus Smith tied for second at 9-0.
Suffern finished 1-2 in the boys high jump.
Matthew Oluwole won at 6-3 with Dona Dorcelly second (5-10).
North Rockland's Sebastian Farrar took the third spot at 5-8.
Nanuet and Suffern won one of the most grueling events, the pentathlon, whose events spanned two days.
Suffern junior Olivia Alm, with 2,337 points, took the girls title.
Alyssa Croke of Pearl River (2,259) won silver and Tappan Zee's Veronica Valentik (2,107) won bronze.
Nanuet's Daniel Nyamollo won the boys pent high jump and shot put en route to edging Suffern's Anthony Couch for the overall title, 2,511-2,496.
Suffern also garnered third-place points with Azariah Smith finishing with 2,431 points.
Despite a bad hamstring, North Rockland's David Joseph captured the boys 110 hurdles in 15.29.
Suffern's Jeffrey Li Rivera clocked 16.06 for second and Pearl River's Evan Cruz crossed in 16.38 for third.
Nanuet's Samantha Dow (1:05.91) won the girls 400 hurdles title.
Suffern's Karen Augustin (1:07.89) was second and Tappan Zee's Pilar Fernandez (1:10.56) was third.
Pearl River took two of the top three spots in the boys 400 hurdles.
The win went to Pirate Evan Cruz in 59.53.
North Rockland's Michael LaCour (1:00.61) was second and Pearl River's Eamon O'Meara (1:00.72) took the bronze.
Other relay winners
Clocking 44.71, Ramapo won the boys 4x100 relay.
Clarkstown South (3:32.27) took the boys 4x400 and Nyack (8:19.33) won the boys 4x800.
Suffern (4:03.54) won the girls 4x400.
The girls 4x800 went to Pearl River (10:06.85).
More day 1 results
Spring Valley, which hadn't hosted the Rockland championships since 1985, was the site of Thursday's events.
Preliminary heats and some finals were held during a shorter first day of the championships Wednesday at Tappan Zee and Suffern High.
The most interesting event might have been the boys 3,000 steeplechase at Suffern.
Nyack's Royston, who won last year's title when the boys steeple was only 2,000 meters, decided to pace himself off Suffern's Mason Mayer, who'd had experience running the longer distance.
Royston had a small lead on the last lap but caught a foot hurdling a barrier and fell.
He immediately went into a tuck and roll and popped up but, even so, Mayer took about a 10-meter lead as a result of Royston's fall.
But he didn't hold it for long.
Royston caught and passed him on the water jump and finished the race in 10:14.44, a Nyack school record and the second best time logged in Section 1 this season.
Mayer (10:18.54) was second and North Rockland's Michael Niero (10:25.24) was third.
"It was all adrenaline," the senior Royston said. "I was just going to go. At that point (after falling), I decided not to lose."
His freshman teammate, Marcelle Seckin, took the girls 2,000 steeplechase in 7:33.64, also a second best Section 1 time for the spring.
Suffern's Fiona Young (7:36.94) was second and Tappan Zee's Cassidy Donovan (7:39.64) was third.
Seckin, who had already qualified for nationals in the event, lowered her own school record with her 7:33.64.
With a nearly four-foot personal best, Clarkstown North's Ella Maerz won the girls discus at 115-6.
Ramapo's Alisha Polynice (110-3) was second and Clarkstown South's Maggie Hansen (99-5) was third.
Maerz, a senior, was a long jumper, triple jumper and shot putter until trying discus more than halfway through the 2021 outdoor season. Now Maerz, who has given up jumping, is just five feet removed from making the standard to qualify for the state championship in discus.
Noting hitting the distance is her goal, she said, "I just have to work harder and lift more."
Clearing a season-best 11 feet, Clarkstown South's Madison Chalfin won the girls pole vault (and had the best vault of all athletes, female and male. Suffern's Olivia DeBellis (10-3) was second and Pearl River's Kate Dowling (8-0) was third.
North Rockland's Don Jordan Duplan (47-7) captured the boys shot put with North Rockland's St. Paul (47-1.5) second and Clarkstown South's Williams (46-7.5) third.
Nancy Haggerty covers cross-country, track & field, field hockey, skiing, ice hockey, girls lacrosse and other sporting events for The Journal News/lohud. Follow her on Twitter at both @HaggertyNancy and at @LoHudHockey.