On January 20, the Girls’ Track and Field team from Livingston High School (LHS) traveled to Ocean Breeze Athletic complex in Staten Island for the Essex County Relays Championships.
First on the track was the Shuttle Hurdle Relay. Led by sophomore Nesta Oji, followed by junior Allie Nankivell, Sophia Wang, and cocaptain Darcy Bialick, the team finished in first with a national qualifying time of 33.82.
Next was the distance medley. Senior co-captain Taylor Dannis ran the 1200M, who handed off to freshman Erika Tiuca for the 400M leg, followed by junior Sarah Nidhan. Anchoring the relay with the 1600M leg was senior co-captain Sophia Paparsenos. The race was tight and everyone ran a personal best. The team finished in third place with a time of 13.41.96.
They placed in all eight varsity events. The sprint medley of Nankivell (200M), Stephanie Tiuca (200M), Kiera D’Souza (400M) and Dannis (800M), who finished in fifth with a time of 4:36.19, scored some valuable points for the team. The girls 4x200M was next on the track led by Nesta Oji, Erika Tiuca, Stephanie Tiuca, and Nankivell finished in third with a 1:48.23, adding more valuable points to the team’s total.
In the shot put, Jessica Oji threw a season best throw of 41’2.25” and her sister, Nesta Oji, threw 33’1.25” for the Lancers second first place finish of the day. The high jump relay of Wang and Bialick set a school relay record of 9’10” collectively and earned the team second place points.
The 4x800M team of Phoebe Liu, Nidhan, Paparsenos and Dannis ran a season best of 10:24.60 for third place. Dannis, who was doing a triple, running the 1200M in the distance medley, 800M in the sprint medley and the 800M in the 4x800M relay, ran well in all of her races.
The top spots of the meet were to be decided in the final event on the track, 4x400M relay. Livingston put Nesta Oji, Liu, E. Tiuca, and Bialick on the line. The relay finished in a close race for second place with a season best time of 4:08.23. Nesta Oji led off and scored in all four of her events; shuttle hurdles, 4x200M, shot put and 4x400M to secure a win for Livingston.
Each team member scored and contributed to the team’s win. They will next compete at the Metropolitan Open at the NYC Armory on Wednesday, January 24, in anticipation for their next championship meet on Sunday, January 28 at the Essex County Championship, also at Ocean Breeze, Staten Island.
