H-ton 4x400m Relay Advances to State Championships

The Huntington High School boys’ track 4x400m relay is headed to the New York State championships this weekend at Cicero-North Syracuse after winning first place and meeting the state meet qualifying time standard at the Massapequa Last Chance Invitational this past Monday.

With senior Niko Lulewich pulling up in the hurdles at last week’s state qualifier at Comsewogue, a state bid seemed unlikely for the Blue Devils’ 4x400m relay. Huntington has dominated the event over the past decade, with a national title and state record time of 3:10.93 in 2016 when current volunteer coach Shane McGuire was running the second leg.

Huntington used senior David Dorilus Dax as an alternate to Lulewich at last week’s state qualifier, but came up short in the finals. “But thank goodness for the Last Chance Invitational at Massapequa,” Blue Devil head coach Ronald E. Wilson said.

With Huntington down to its final opportunity to qualify for this weekend’s state championships, Wilson inserted its other alternate, junior Carolos Marroquin into the race at Massapequa and following great performances by Gueniel Elysee and Nicholas Rosan, he ran a phenomenal third leg to keep the Blue Devils out in front and ahead of Half Hollow Hills West, Massapequa and Westbury.

Senior anchor leg Jahmar Francis took the baton from Marroquin and kept his foot on the gas and motored his team to victory in a time of 3:21.38 to give the Blue Devils the super standard and a berth in the state championships. Hills West ran 3:21.54 for second and Massapequa 3:22.16 for third. All three are heading to Cicero-North Syracuse.