By Christopher Hunt
GREENSBORO, N.C. – Some of New York’s top teams were stuck in airports or at home while their events went off at the New Balance Outdoor Nationals because of severe storms that rocked the New York City area yesterday.
Warwick Valley boys were forced to sit in the stands and watch Long Beach Poly (Calif.) set the national record in the 4x800 Friday night because sophomore Aaron Peterson never made it out of Newark Airport. Though Paddy Gradinali made it to Greensboro, his flight was delayed six hours. He didn’t arrive at Greensboro’s Piedmont Triad International Airport until 1 a.m. Saturday morning.
“It’s disappointing,” Warwick boys coach Mike Potter said. “We had an alternate (Kevin Grosso) but he’s our 400 leg in the DMR. It didn’t make sense for us to kill ourselves in that race and take a chance in the DMR. It was a fun race to watch.”
North Shore, which had a shot at the national record in the 4xMile, was stuck in LaGuardia Airport yesterday but not because of the weather. A maintenance issue delayed their 2:45 p.m. flight for three hours before officials at U.S. Airways cancelled the flight. Meaghan Ventarola, who was meant to run on Monroe-Woodbury’s 4xMile this morning also missed the race. But MW finished fourth.
At the same time Bronxville was sitting on a plane for three hours waiting to take off. Bronxville made it to Greensboro and to the track at North Carolina A&T about two hours before race time and went on to win the girls 4x800 national championship in 8:49.85.
Levy said that US Air was simply negligent in failing to secure another flight. Brianna Nerud and Elizabeth Sheerin flew to Greensboro on separate flights. Levy arrived in Greensboro with Samantha Nadel and Emily Osman around 10 a.m. this morning. They will race in the distance medley relay tonight at 6:45 p.m.
By Christopher Hunt
GREENSBORO, N.C. – Some of New York’s top teams were stuck in airports or at home while their events went off at the New Balance Outdoor Nationals because of severe storms that rocked the New York City area yesterday.
Warwick Valley boys were forced to sit in the stands and watch Long Beach Poly (Calif.) set the national record in the 4x800 Friday night because sophomore Aaron Peterson never made it out of Newark Airport. Though Paddy Gradinali made it to Greensboro, his flight was delayed six hours. He didn’t arrive at Greensboro’s Piedmont Triad International Airport until 1 a.m. Saturday morning.
