McGovern soars again
By Christopher Hunt
RANDALLS ISLAND – Before all the team pictures and speeches and before the video camera started rolling, before Farrell coach Tom Cuffe held the CHSAA championship plaque above his head and said, “I feel like I’m at Wimbledon,” he sat down the plan out his strategy at the meet.
“We wanted to have firepower in the relays,” Cuffe said. “We wanted to score in every relay.”
Because that would make the difference in the meet, he knew it and he planned for it. So when Farrell scored two teams – second and third-place respectively – in the 4x800 relay they began to put the meet out of reach. Then they scored another point with a sixth-place finish in the 4x100 followed by a come-from-behind win in the 4x400 that gave Farrell the CHSAA championship Saturday at Ichan Stadium on Randalls Island with 48 points. Fordham Prep, the indoor champs, finished second with 36.5 points and Holy Trinity third with 25.
“The 4x800 was huge,” Cuffe said. “When I was planning this meet, I knew we had the depth to score two teams. Then I tried to match them up just right. Then train together so they just worked off each other.”
For most of the meet, Fordham Prep trailed close behind Farrell and they couldn’t shake loose until the relays. Cuffe had enough to worry about early on since Farrell’s graduation was also Saturday, which meant his top thrower, senior Vincenzo Chiariello, would have to come to the meet on his own, after the ceremony. Chiariello, coming off tendonitis injury to his right wrist, his throwing hand, only had two days of practice entering the competition but managed to win the discus in 191 feet, 5 inches and finish second in the shot put in 54-5 1/2.
“I wasn’t really worried,” Chiariello said even though Cuffe admitted having his own concerns. “I knew I was going to get here. It was actually beneficial. It gave me something different. I had the best of both worlds. I got to graduate today and now this.”
Junior James Farley won the 800 in a personal-best 1:55.36 then produced a 48.7 anchor leg on the winning 4x400 that finished in 3:20.33 with Corey Orazem, Peter Falcon, Anthony Evangelista. Farley though, knew the 4x800 served as the knockout blow.
“Without them we wouldn’t have won,” he said. “After that we knew we had it.”
Farley outkicked Iona Prep’s Sean Halpin in the stretch to win the 800. They traded the lead down on the second lap until 250 when it became a race to the final curve. Once Farley won that battle he took the race.
“I felt like I had so much more to give,” Farley said. “I felt like I just had such a big kick. Coming down the straight, I knew I had him.”
Mount St. Michael senior Brian McGovern enjoyed similar feelings in the pole vault after breaking the meet record,
clearing 16 feet. He topped a mark of 15-9 1/4 set by Kyle Duggan of Farrell last year. But it was the way, that McGovern demolished the height that excited him.
“I felt like God going over that height,” he said.
Then McGovern attempted a state record at 16-6 and nearly cleared the bar on his second attempt. But his elbow brushed the bar and forced him to wait at least another week before he can try it again. The state record is 16-5 set by Casey DiCesare of Irvington in 2006.
“I think fatigue played a part, I’m not going to lie,” McGovern said. “I just felt so confident on the runway today. I felt so powerful. I know I have a couple more meet where I can try it. That’s been my goal all season is the break the state record.”
McGovern will unquestionably enter the state championship in Buffalo June 13-14. But runners like Michael Schieck of Chaminade, who won his first open 1,600 in 4:17.03, will be more of a darkhorse because of his inexperience in the event. But Schieck resembled a seasoned veteran when he accelerated past Kellenberg’s Michael Elnick in the closing stages.
“I felt awful the entire race,” Schieck said. “I was just about to give up when I decided to go. If I didn’t take the lead right then I wouldn’t have at all. … Before the race, I said that I would go at 250 no matter how I felt. Then when I got to 150 I thought, ‘Wow, am I really running this pace?’”
Schieck’s teammate Chris Tonn didn’t have the same feeling in the 3,200 but still managed the same explosive finish when he reeled in Kellenberg’s Tom Elnick and out-kicked him in the final 200 to win in a personal best 9:36.69.
“With 600 to go, I was slowing down and I looked up and realized I needed to go,” Tonn said. “I gave him a little too much room.”
Dominque Bob of Cardinal Hayes won also turned in a personal best in the long jump, winning in 23-1. Nickolei Mahlung of Bishop Loughlin was awarded the meet’s most valuable performer on the track for winning the 100 in 11.12 and the 200 in 22.35. Wayne Seaton of Fordham Prep won the 110 hurdles in 15.08 and the 400 hurdles in 56.52. Iona Prep also won the 4x800 in 7:57.24.
Reach Christopher Hunt at chunt@armorytrack.com.