Seven Huntington High School track and field athletes will compete for state titles this weekend when New York’s best gathers at Cicero-North Syracuse High School.
Blue Devil senior Olivia Conte will race in the 100m hurdles The teenager owns one of the fastest times in the state this spring and is expected to be in the mix for a medal. The Huntington star also excels in several other events, but she is concentrating on her bread and butter with the hurdles. She is headed to the University of Connecticut in the fall where is she considering participating in its NCAA Division track program.
The Blue Devil boys’ team is sending a large contingent to the state championships after a spectacular set of performances in last week’s state qualifier at Comsewogue.
Huntington’s Quincy Chery won a pair of individual event Suffolk titles. The senior captured the 400m intermediate hurdles with a time of 54.88 seconds, a personal best that ranks him No. 4 in the state. He also won the long jump with a leap of 21-09.25 feet.
Senior Julio Martinez also enjoyed a splendid day, winning the county championship in the 400m dash in a personal best time of 49.11 seconds, which ranks him No. 5 in the state.
Chery and Martinez later on teamed up with senior Nick Grover and sophomore Jahmar Francis in the 4x400m relay to capture gold and another county crown and berth in the New State championships. Juniors Matt Armstrong and Kender Edouazin are also headed to the state finals as alternates for the relay.
In other action at the state qualifier, Armstrong ran personal best times in the 800m run (2:01) and 1600m (4:34), sophomore Johan Fajardo hit a personal mark in the high jump with a leap of 6-0 feet for a fourth place finish and senior Clayton Ward competed in the pentathlon, but unfortunately fouled out in the long jump, which eliminated his county title hopes.
Huntington’s 4x400m relay is ranked No. 5 in the state. The Blue Devils are hoping to keep the relay title in their hands. The last outdoor 4x400m relay state champions was Huntington in 2019 before the pandemic hit. In 2020, Huntington was well on its way to winning again, but the pandemic put the brakes on holding the state meet. The state meet was also cancelled last June.
Huntington also won the indoor 4x400m state championship in 2020. The Blue Devils have the event on Long Island since 2014. They won county titles in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022’ state titles in 2016 and 2019 and the national title in 2016.