For the second straight year, the St. Francis Prep, Fresh Meadows, girls’ varsity track team won the Brooklyn-Queens outdoor track championship, this time on May 15 at Icahn Stadium, Randall’s Island.
Led by head coach Jim May and assistants Margarita Sabogal and Jillian May, the L’il Terriers turned in a number of impressive performances to take home the crown.
Graduating senior and team captain Chiara Cinquemani won the 3,000-meter with a time of 11 minutes, 12.6 seconds, which earned her a second-straight title. She also placed second in the 1,500-meter, recording a personal-best time of 5:06.89.
Stephanie Zovich, a graduating senior and team captain, earned the city championship title in shot put for a second consecutive year with a distance of 31 feet, 6.5 inches. She also placed second in the diocesan championship in javelin at 84’5”.
Prep’s 4×800-meter relay team – featuring Melissa Gonzalez, Mikayla Barnave, Elena Duffy and anchored by Tara Mansfield – overtook three teams in the final 100 meters to win the city championship at 10:48.51. The school also scored well in the 100-meter dash, discus, triple jump and long jump.
The team will have a new look next year, as the seniors move on to the next stage of their lives. This fall, Cinquemani will attend Tufts University in Massachusetts; Zovich is heading to Amherst College, also in Massachusetts; and discus thrower Amanda Joseph will continue her field career at Adelphi University, Garden City, L.I.
“Track has been such an important part of my four years at Prep,” Zovich said. “It has given me a family, brought many fond memories and set me up for the future. I am so grateful that a team as special as this one came into my life.”
“Running cross-country and track means to me an opportunity to set goals, work hard to accomplish them and having a second family in my team who supports me through it all,” Cinquemani said.
The seniors have paved the way for the next group of St. Francis student-athletes to thrive both in their events and in the classroom.
The girls’ high school softball season wrapped up with some exciting action on the diamond. The following teams had impressive showings in the playoffs:
In the varsity Tier 1 diocesan championship, Archbishop Molloy H.S., Briarwood, beat Xaverian H.S., Bay Ridge. The Stanners went on to defeat Moore Catholic Academy, Staten Island, to take home the city championship crown. The team then reached the finals of the state championship but ultimately fell to St. Anthony’s H.S., South Huntington, L.I.
The junior varsity Tier 1 city championship featured a game so good that it took two days to complete.
Fontbonne Hall Academy, Bay Ridge, and Archbishop Molloy were deadlocked after eight innings of the championship, and so they had to return the following day to complete the game. Fontbonne came away with the city crown.
Even with the news of their school closing still on their minds, the Bishop Kearney H.S., Bensonhurst, Tigers fought through the adversity to win the junior varsity Tier 2 title over St. Catherine Academy, the Bronx.
In the girls’ varsity lacrosse Tier 2 playoffs, Xaverian H.S., Bay Ridge, won the city championship over Cardinal Spellman H.S., the Bronx.