Melville Swimmers send many to state meet

The Section 11 Swimming Qualifiers for girls was held today at SCCC Brentwood campus pool. Ward Melville's Ladty Patriots won the overall "Team" aspect with 452 points, with Connetquot second with 336 points.

The 400 yd Free relay was won by Melville swimmers and they finished second in the Medley Relay and 200 yd Relay races.

Individual performances were outstanding. Corinne Vairo, in the first photograph, was second in the 200 Free event. Jessica Fabrizio was fourth in the 100 yd Breast race and is shown in the second photo.

At the end of the long meet, a group photo was taken of the swimmers who qualified for the states. A detailed listing of the meet results can be found on www.iaswim.org .

Suffolk Count Champs....Ward Melville Field Hockey

Ward Melville High Schools field hockey team avenged their only defeat in the season, defeating Smithtown East 1-0. The win gives the Patriots the Suffolk County Championship in Class A play. The lone score by Becca Arent came on an assist by Georgia Holland. Goalie Lauren Tarantino achieved her 14th shutout of the season with the win.

In a post game celebration, Samantha Jacobson and Kaila Malone celebrate with Tarantino, who had a stellar defense and saved two shots on goal for her shutout.

Melville Volleyballers defeat Bay Shore, Are in Final

I had time to visit the Ward Melville Volleyball team in their semifinal tonight. My usual effort for the North Shore Sun had the day off as the schedule thins out. This is the natural progression as semifianls and finals eliminate all but the best. Melville has not had much coverage this season due to cutbacks at it's local paper. Perhaps these will make up for some of that lack of photo coverage.

1.)Haley Blunt gets a kill from the outside.

2.)Leigh Anne Brazier also gets a kill.

3.) Alexa Stonish digs out a By Shore serve.

4.)Kristin Bendy also gets a kill.

Ward Melville Field Hocky Semifinal win

Ward Melville's field hockey team earnred a trip to the finals and a deciding game with Smithown East, the only team to blemish their record this year.

In their game againt West Babylon, they came out firing and quickley ran up a 4-0 score before coasting for the rest of the first half and giving up two goals to West Babylon. The Patriots had not given up more than a single goal in any game to date this year.

Abby Beltrani, seen in the first photo, scored twice and had one assist. In the photo, she is about to stroke her second goal of the game early in the second half.

The second photo is a post scoring celebration

Ward Melville runners excel in Cross Country Qualifer

Friday November 6 saw two Ward Melville cross country runners qualify to be Suffolk County Class AA runners in next weeks New York State Championship. They wil travel to Plattsburg NY for the event along with other individuals who also qualified.

It was a cold windy day at Sunken Meadow State Park, but the conditions were good for the runners. The Class AA encompasses the largest number of schools for Cross Country, surpassing the total number of schools in Classes A, B, C and D, combined. The latter three classes are small on Long Island, but populous in upstate New York. Today's qualifing event was to qualify a team of seven and five individuals in each class for both boys and girls.

Quinn Raseman won the Class AA race in 16:18.82, outrunning his closest rival by nearly 17 seconds. In the girls race. Caroline O'Hea was fourth in 19:21.40 and teammate Mary Kate Anselmini was fifth in 19:22.50. Both will run next week in the state race. Northport's girls and Sachem East's boys will send seven person teams to Plattsburg.

MATH CHAMPS of Washington

Sports may be my primary focus with a camera, but I recently visited my grandchildren in Spokane and was treated to a Washington State Math is Cool event. Teams of four plus a backup competed at the fourth, fifth and sixth grade level for the State Championship in mathematics. My granddaughter Erin and her teammates from Cataldo Elementary School in Spokane, fourth grade level, represented the Eastern region which encompasses Spokane. Having won their regional competition, they traveled to the state level contest in Moses Lake, Washington.

After a morning of individual tests, where each of the team members did well, the team was up against three other teams, one at a time, to answer question first and accurately. They won the first by a slim score, tied the second, and won the third by a slam dunk! After learning that only one of them won an individual award, they and all their fans were amazed when it was announced they were the number one team in the state!

So like a proud grandparent if one of mine were to win a sporting event, I think I am even prouder to have a Math Champ in the family!

Lacrosse Playoffs

In Suffolk County's Lacrosse playoffs this year, under the lights  at Stony Brook University's LaValle Stadium, Smithtown West made their first ever appearance in the Claas B final. Their coach, Sean Keenan, had been in several finals, having played for Ward Melville during its haydays.

     After disposing of two opponents including the top seed in the quarter and semi finals, the Bulls played tentatively and were not able to overcome the Sayville Golden Flashes who had been bridesmaids several times before, but never a bride.

     Smithtown's Brett Madaraszis is shown beating Sayville's middie Dan Mellynchuk for one of his two scores. He also had three assists to make him Smithtown's best score-maker for the night.

   Sayville will go on to represent Suffolk County in the Long Island playoff against Manhasset HS  the following week at Hofstra University. The winner of that game plays in the New York semifinal game two days hence.

Girls Lacrosse Champs

Covering the girls lacrosse county championship games in Suffolk County had its moments last night. In a Class A game between No 1 Northport and No 2 West Islip, the game was a seesaw affair with 11 ties as West Islip gave Northport a real scare. With 31.6 seconds remaining, Shannon Gilroy tied the game for Northport at 13, then with 13.8 seconds left she scored the game winner, her eighth goal of the game.

In the photo, the elements of the glory of winning and agony of defeat are seen as Shannon Gilroy hugs teammate Kim McGeever, while West Islip's Olivia Ziegler is crushed by the goal.

Gilroy's shot to tie the game for the 11th time came when she ripped a high shot and was falling down at the same time. It was a really great score in the mind of an attending college level coach who saw the game. Gilroy is a sophmore. Then to top it off, the team gave her the ball and cleared a path for her to score the winner, another rip from up top.

America East College Softball Playoffs

Kelly Oberto, Stony Brook's third baseman, puts the metal to the ball in an American East playoff game this afternoon. Her team won the conference this year and are hosts for the playoffs. Oberto was recently names to the America East All Conference second team. Her play at third and her hitting this year have been outstanding. 

In the second game against Boston University on Friday, SBU's pitching faltered and they are now in the loser's bracket of the "two losses and out" playoffs. They will play University of  Albany Saturday at noon to determine who will vie with Boston University later Saturday for the championship and automatic invitation to the NCAA tournament.

New York State Swimming Championships

Last week I covered the New York State High School Swimming Championships  held at the Nassau County Aquatic Center. The venue has a 10 lane pool and is one of the finest swimming facilities in the United States. For further information, go to  Aquatic Center

The pool was configured for 25 yard lanes to match the standard length used throughout high schools in New York. I was assigned to capture the efforts of Tom Luchsinger and I was not dissappointed with his results. He broke records in both of his races, first in the 200 yd freestyle and then in the 100 yd butterfly event.

Brrr! Lacrosse season starts

The spring season in sports has started at the college level, with high schools not far behind. My favorite spring sport is lacrosse, which in my mind is always associated with cold, wet weather for the first month or so. And as college schedules seem to start a little earlier each year, the weather in  the last few years appears to match as well.

This year I have already covered two women's lacrosse games at Stony Brook University. The first picture illustrates the conditions for the first half, wet, very cold and with a breeze strong enough to limit shooting away from the wind direction. I think it remarkable that these young women can run up and down the field with distain for the weather while I simultaneously froze and became soaked from the  wind driven rain and light snow.

This past Saturday at a second home game for Stony Brook, I walked to midfield to see one of the referees don not only a baseball cap but a wool cap to ward off the cold resulting from nearly 25 mph winds that were buffeting the field. Having just arrived, I had not realized how much the wind was affecting conditions on the field. It became very obvious that the referee had been smart in donning the winter cap.

I can only hope that the cold weather will soon warm up so that photographing early spring sports becomes more pleasurable, rather than an endurance test like yesterday's game was. Despite the  weather, the Stony Brook  Seawolves fashioned their first win of the season, which made up for the poor (in my opinion) field conditions. I am looking forward to a day with good sun and short sleeves, instead of my warmest and most windproof coat. Operating without gloves is also so much nicer

My view at basketball games

Whenever I photograph basketball, I generally like to be under the basket where I can get a good view of the full field of play. Friends of mine often remark how I must have the best seat in the house. During a playoff game tonight, I was reminded how the best seat in the house is often made difficult by the referee who also needs to see the entire court, in order to call fouls, out of bounds and other infractions. 

The accompanying photograph is a good illustration of what can happen when a good play is taking place and I think I have a clear shot of the play. The ref slides in front of me and blocks my view of the play. In the game tonight it happened infrequently, but in some games it happens a lot. Usually it occurrs briefly and my view opens back up. At the half time break tonight, I walked over and showed the ref my "best" shot, the one you see here and he responded with, " Oh you got my good side again." The official tonight, Larry Datz, is an old friend.  We go back over 20 years, he officiating football, soccer , basketball and lacrosse, while I covered many high school sports in Suffolk's North Shore.

Over the years I have had to deal with an infrequent official who appears to purposely get in the way and most of them who couldn't be more accommodating, like Larry was this evening. When we talked at the half, he remembered that one of my fellow photographers often talks to him during the game, saying, "Larry, you're in the way again, can't you move." It is an easy situation to deal with, when one realizes that many good plays will occur and percentages are you will be clear to capture most of them. It really is a privilege to be able to be so close to play and record numerous frozen images of good play and expressions on the athletes faces.

Girls Basketball playoffs

Suffolk County's high school basketball playoffs are underway this week with a group of the larger school's girls teams playing this evening. I attended the Smithtown East at Ward Melville game briefly this evening prior to my being called away for a fire alarm. Trying to look at the game differently than during the season, I ended up wth several shots of the player's hair flying all over. Some tie their hair in a bun, others a pony tail and some not at all. When action is frozen, we have the opportunity to see the result. 

Tonight the players were charged up on both teams, because one of them would end their season with a loss, while the winner would get to play top ranked North Babylon next Monday night, at North Babylon's home court. Neither team wanted to lose, and I'm sure that despite the odds, they both wanted the chance to knock off the best team in the county.

College indoor track

Last week I travelled with the Stony Brook University men's and women's track team to the Giegangack Invitational meet at Yale in New Haven Connecticut. The 80 year old indoor track at Yale remains a magnificent structure, more like a giant green house than an indoor track facility. In addition to appearing in pristine condition, the track is banked to afford faster running times for the athletes. The meet itself was well organized, running exactly on time over more than 6 hours. The Seawolves ran a number of personal bests in the various events, with Lucy Van Dalen of New Zealand running the mile in 4:40.26, one of the best 10 times in the nation this year. She also broke the school record, her third in three weeks in different long events.

In addition to the wonderful facility and the ease of producing photos with the good natural light, I also had an opportunity to photograph the  start of the  mens 60 m dash seen in the second photo with this entry. Slowing the camera's shutter speed and tracking the athletes with the camera results in this effect.                 

County Track Qualifier

Culminating a season of indoor winter track, the best of Suffolk's runners and field event athletes converged on SCC-Brentwood's indoor track to try and qualify for the State meet March 7 at Cornell University. Pole vaulting will occur Thursday night at SWR HS. Middle Country's Miles Lewis (left)won the 55meter dash final. In the longer events two runners from Ward Melville, Caroline O'Hea in the 3200m event and Mary Kate Anselmini in the 1000m event were winners. All three normal run in large school events, but winter track lumps all schools in one category. Bobby Andrews, a senior runner from SWR HS was the meet standout, winning both the 3200m and 1600m races easily. On the ladies side, Janet Mellnor of Mt Sinai won the 300m dash and was second in the 55m dash. Qualifiers include first and second place winners plus a third if the time or distance was better than the state preset qualifying time. For further results, see just in time racing