Huntington Girls Excel & Make Time for Community Service

The Huntington varsity girls’ track and field team has excelled in a string of meets and invitationals in the past two weeks, while still having time to devote to important community service work.

Coached by Kevin Thorbourne and Sarah Hall, the team features dozens of athletes who compete in more than 15 separate events.

The Blue Devils found success in a string of regular seasons as well as numerous invitationals, including the Penn Relays in Philadelphia and the Mustang Invitational at Bishop McNamara High School in Maryland.

At the recent Suffolk Frosh/Soph Championships, Huntington tenth grader Elizabeth James captured first place in triple jump with a series of leaps that measured 36-10.5 feet. James also anchored the gold medal winning 4x400m relay that included Kohana Nakamura, Jamyn Husselbeck and Emma Boyle.

James also took third place in the 400m dash and Nakamura was fifth in the 100m dash. Kiley Barch was ninth in the 1500m run and Jesley Martinez Canales was 10th in shot put.

At the Massapequa Chiefs Under the Lights Invitational, the sprint medley relay team consisting of Nakamura, Hope Bilkey, James and Megan Donaghy finished first in 2:04.87.

In the 1500m run, Kiley Barch was third and Sophie Bradford was fourth. Husselbeck was sixth in the 400m dash. Bilkey also finished seventh in the 100m dash and Emma Boyle was seventh in the 800m run. More than 50 teams attended the competition.

“The meet ended at 11:15 p.m. and the girls turned out at 9 a.m. on Saturday morning to help the student government pack and distribute non-perishable foods to local food pantries,” Coach Thorbourne said.