Huntington Winter Girls’ Track Rebuilds

The Huntington High School indoor girls’ track and field team came through a rebuilding season in grand fashion with the 32 runners and throwers notching a long list of personal best performances in meets and invitationals.

Coached by Sarah Hall, Christopher Taylor and Mark Jackson and captained by Jannel Marroquin, Olivia Polinsky and Elizabeth James the team was led by sophomores Kohana Nakamura (55m and 300m dashes) and Emma Boyle (1500m run) and senior Andrea Mani-Munoz (1500m race walk).

Piper Davis (1000m run), Jesley Martinez Canales (shot put) and Marroquin (600m run) also post team bests in their respective events.

“This team is a wonderful example of how special track and field really is,” said Hall, a Huntington High School science teacher who served as the Blue Devils’ head coach. “We are a singular unit made up of 30-plus individual athletes that push themselves and each other to succeed. Every single person had a crucial role on our team, not matter how talented they were. It was the honor of my life thus far to be their head coach.”

Mani-Munoz placed ninth overall in the 1500m race walk in Suffolk, recording a personal best time of 8:05 in the state qualifier. “She has her sights set on breaking 8:00 this spring,” Hall said.

Nakamura cut more than one full second off her previous best time in the 55m dash, when she ran the distance in 7.69 seconds.

Boyle reduced her previous best time in the 1500m run by nearly 20 seconds with a 5:16 performance. She has her sights set on further lowering it to 5:10 in the spring.

The Blue Devils also engaged in a community service initiative that brought everyone together. “This season we started strong with a food drive that brought in over 150 canned foods and non-perishable items for Long Island Cares,” Hall said. “We worked as a cohesive unit to push every single athlete to compete at the top of their game at every meet and practice and built a strong family unit through silly questions during stretches and warm ups to sing-along bus rides.”

Most of the team was comprised of underclassmen. “As of now, we are expecting an almost 100 percent return rate for next year,” Hall said. “We are hoping to bring even more athletes into the post-season, including one or two relay teams.”