Lady Spartans defeat OP, crosses milestone

It's been 15 years since Williamsville North's girls track and field program beat powerhouse Orchard Park, but last week the Lady Spartans got it done, winning 81-63, on Tuesday, April 24.

It was a hard-fought battle in the beginning of the meet, but when results from field events came pouring in halfway through, the Lady Spartans knew they had finally crossed a milestone for their program.

"Beating a team like Orchard Park speaks volumes for our program and says a lot about the level of talent we have on this team," said North coach Julian Blake.

North gave up just four points in the field. Junior Emily Curry led the attack by winning the long jump, triple jump, high jump and discus. The Lady Spartans went one-two-three in the pole vault (senior Ashley Redino and sophomores Sarah Kahn and Amanda Sheriff), discus (Curry, junior Lidia Yemchuk and sophomore Maureen O'Brien), and long jump (Curry and freshmen Meghan Winkle and Raven Baxter).

Other big finishes came from junior Sarah Mikulski and Redino in the 100-meter hurdles, sophomore Amy Loud in the 100 and 200 dash, junior Meredith Kirby in the 400 dash, and Redino in the 400 hurdles. Another huge contribution came from junior Kim Schueler and sophomore Lauren Triantafillou. Schueler and Triantafillou had the responsibilities of slowing down OP's explosive distance team and they did. Schueler grabbed second place in the 1500 and 800 run and Triantafillou was third in the 800.

The Lady Spartans were also successful this past Saturday at the Ken-Ton Invitational at Crosby Field. Despite the unfriendly weather conditions, North managed to finish fifth overall and fourth in the combined scoring (boys and girls team). Loud finished eighth in the 200 dash. Senior Kim Dohn and Kirby finished third and fourth, respectively, in the 400 dash. Schueler finished ninth in the 1500 run with a personal best of 5:26.91 FAT. Freshman Natalie Worley finished seventh in the freshman 1500 run. Loud took a ninth place in the 100 hurdles while her teammate Mikulski grabbed second in a close finish with West Seneca East and Williamsville South. Redino placed second in the 400 hurdles.

In the relay events, the Lady Spartans finished sixth in the 4x800, fourth in the 4x100 and first in the 4x400. North also put their freshmen sprint medley team back on the track to improve on their already impressive school record. Led by freshmen Jessica Little, Baxter, Shelbey Gray and Molly Mitchell, the team broke their own previous school record by five seconds, running a 4:50.97 FAT. Curry placed fourth in the high jump and eighth in the triple jump while Redino also took a fourth in the pole vault. Little placed 12th in the long jump, as did Yemchuk in the shot put.

"The ladies are having a great start to this season," said Blake. "Under the advice of the coaching staff, the Lady Spartans are getting more and more confident in their ability to compete. We are also getting a lot of support from coaches Brian Swatland and Dan Hartman of the boys team. They, along with the boys, have given the girls much advice throughout their training."

North returns to the track on Saturday, May 5 at Lockport for the JV Invitational at Max D. Lederer Field.