The Huntington High School boys’ and girls’ track and field teams qualified athletes in six different events for next month’s state championships during nearly five hours of grueling competition at Suffolk-West in Brentwood on Monday night.
The Blue Devil boys’ and girls’ squads qualified athletes in three events each for the state finals at Ocean Breeze Track & Field Complex in Staten Island on Saturday, March 7.
Alicia Brooks will advance to the state championships in the 55m dash and Analisse Batista will compete for a state gold medal in the 600m run. The Blue Devils’ 4x200m relay consisting of Batista, Brooks, Hope Bilkey and Olivia Conte easily qualified, outrunning their nearest competitor by nearly two seconds. (Caroline O’Rourke and Brianna Halbeisen are alternates on the relay.)
The Huntington boys’ team also enjoyed a great night with Anthony Joseph qualifying for the state championships in long jump and Justin Stevens and CJ Kiviat advancing in the 600m run. Kiviat nipped Stevens at the finish line by one-fifth of a second in the qualifying race.
The Blue Devil boys’ 4x400m relay is also headed to the state championships. Kiviat, Stevens, Joseph and Isaiah James easily turned back runner-up Smithtown West by nearly two seconds in the finals. Huntington is ranked No. 1 in the state in the event.
Earlier in the night, Julio Martinez and Quincy Chery joined James and Joseph to send Huntington to the 4x400m relay finals. Running in the preliminary relay race, Martinez and Chery helped save the legs of Kiviat and Stevens for their 600m race and for the 4x400m relay finals.
At the state championships, Huntington’s 4x400m relay is expected to feature Kiviat, Stevens, Joseph and Tyriek Mays-McKoy with James and Martinez serving as alternates.
It wasn’t a perfect night for the Blue Devils, but all things considered, it was pretty darn good.
“The team preformed extraordinarily well,” Kiviat said. “Running the 600 and 4x4 double was definitely challenging. However, we were able to come out with victory in both 4x4 and 600 placing 1-2 in the 600 and devastating the competition in the 4x4 finals.”