The North Rockland girls' team came away with both the Boys and Girls' titles at the Section 1 Class A Sectional Championship last Saturday,. The boys won by 6 points over Arlington, while the girls won by 35 points over New Rochelle. While the title came from a strong balance across all events, one athlete stood out.
Alex Harris, a junior from North Rockland, put in an incredible triple, to aid her team to the win. Her day started out with a 2:51.23 in the 1000m, winning the event. The mark now stands as NY #2 and US #7, with the next finisher nearly 10 seconds behind.
Despite the strong effort early on, Harris came back to win a hotly contested 1500m. North Rockland went 1-2 in the event (more on that below) to overcome a strong duo from Mamaroneck. Harris' mark is US #2 in the event, and NY #1.
Harris then capped her day off with a win in the 4x400, where Harris split 58.73. The team would go on to run 4:00.32, good for NY #11. Not a bad way to win 30 points for the team.
Speaking of that 1500m finish, the runner up was Harris' teammate, Katelyn Tuohy. Tuohy, now an 8th grader, came up just short of the State Record in the event, held for 8th graders. The mark currently stands at 4:36.7h by Shola Lynch, set in 1983. Tuohy ran 4:36.78 to take second in the race. Outdoors, hand-times are typically adjusted by .14 seconds by the NFHS, although the record keepers of the HS National Records (and therefore State Records) don't add a hand-time to 400m and over. Either way, it was a close call.
