WHITE PLAINS – The much repeated phrase goes, “Practice makes perfect.”
Maybe.
Sloan Wasserman and four relay runners from Hackley School might disagree.
Wasserman, the John Jay-Cross River senior, who’ll run for Boston College next year, won the Loucks Games girls 2,000-meter steeplechase Saturday for the second straight year.
Her 6:41.07 finish is the national girls high school No. 1 time for 2026, the third fastest time run at the historic meet, held annually at White Plains High School, and the third fastest time ever logged at the distance by a Section 1 girl — this, despite the fact the race was run in a cold rain.
Clearly, Wasserman practices for and competes in the event a lot.
Well, apply the breaks to that thought.
Saturday’s steeple was the first Wasserman had run since nationals last June.
The Hackley relay?
Senior Ashley Hollingsworth, freshman Will Patrick, junior Emma Curran and sophomore Alfie Adams ran 3:39.42 to win the mixed 4×400 relay.
Their smooth performance looked every inch that of a veteran team, yet they’d never previously run the relay.
So, maybe on occasion talent can trump practice and experience.
Wasserman and Tri-Valley’s Anna Furman were running a close 1-2 until Wasserman began to pull away with a couple of laps to go, then put the race away in the last lap. She won in a personal-best 6:41.07. Furman was second at 6:51.99.
Wasserman described herself as “not super pleased,” noting she was looking for a better time.
But she also indicated the day’s rainy weather had made her goal unreachable.
“When the rain started to be pretty bad and it was super cold, I knew to just go for the win,” Wasserman said.
Wasserman likes steeple because it “mixes things up,” since, with barriers to clear and the water jump, it’s not just all running.
“I think it’s really fun and it’s a great way of testing yourself,” she said.
She hopes to compete in both steeplechase and the 3,000-meter run at next month’s state championships, choosing her passion for running over attending John Jay’s prom, which conflicts with multiple state championships.
“Obviously, I’m going to skip something that’s not as important to me to do something I’ve worked at every day of my life since eighth grade,” she explained.
Hackley now eying nationals
Hackley was leading but the race was close before Adams got the baton and ran like a gazelle for an easy win in Hackley’s heat.
He and his teammates then had to sit back to see if their time held up for the win.
Medgar Evars won the final of three heats but its time was more than a second and a half behind Hackley’s.
Each Hackley runner won the Loucks golden statuette.
Seventeen schools ran in the race. Two other local teams earned top-five medals.
Ramapo (Imyiarha Saint-Germain, Kenhejah Hayden, Dana Beckford and Joshua Joseph) ran 3:41.75 for third.
Hen Hud (Victor Delgado, Kenneth Mora, Oona McManus and Sophia Savatgy) clocked 3:43.67 for fifth. Savatgy also just missed out on a medal in the girls 100 dash, finishing sixth.
“Once we got the baton in our hands, there was no stress after that,” Patrick said in explaining his team’s win.
The mixed’s popularity is increasing but it’s not run at all meets.
Suffern relay tops in 4×400; John Jay-East Fishkill No. 1 in javelin
By the time the Suffern boys 4×400 relay team hit the track late Saturday, most of the those at the meet were long gone.
It was rainy. It was cold — the kind of cold that is hard to shake even hours after escape into dry clothes and indoor warmth.
But if Immanuel Catul, William Weber, Paul Velez and Kenny Aguilar were uncomfortable, they didn’t show it.
The foursome ran a collective 3:17.84. That is No. 1 for the season in New York and No. 5 all-time in Section 1. It’s also the fastest time run by a Rockland County team in 17 years.
Also taking taking first were John Jay-East Fishkill seniors Morgan Doughty and Ryan Shapiro in javelin.
The even, which curiously — and from athletes’ perspective, frustratingly — is not included in the state championships, despite it being an Olympic sport, drew 43 boys and 22 girls.
Doughty threw 117-8 for the girls win with North Salem’s Freja Smith third at 101-9.
Shapiro won the boys title with a personal-best 168-2 throw. Irvington’s Brody Schimmel took silver at a personal-best 164-4.
After Shapiro, who hopes to walk on to the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill team next year, unleashed what proved to be his winning throw, teammates jumped and yelled before mobbing him.
Shapiro, a former outfielder in baseball, didn’t think, upon release, his throw would be anything special.
“I’ll be honest, I thought it was a pretty bad throw,” he said with a laugh. “But it turned out pretty good. Coach was celebrating. Teammates were celebrating. And when they said the number over the speakers, it was pretty exciting.”
Iona Prep’s Francesko Gjuraj might have gone higher if not for the weather, but won the boys rain-shortened pole vault at 14-0.
Second place … times a lot
Schimmel was hardly the only local athlete to suffer the agony and ecstasy of finishing second, although, given the meet’s prestige and size, there should be a lot more ecstasy than agony in fishing second.
North Rockland Claudel Chery ran a personal-best and New York season No. 3 4:12.23 mile but was edged at the finish by Massachusetts’ Brody Richardson (4:12.07). Horace Greeley’s Ryan Sykes, the Loucks Games’ boys 3,200 winner, was fifth in 4:14.62.
The three-heat, 49-runner girls mile was a similar story. Scarsdale’s Adriana Pettinelli clocked 4:48.44 but was beaten to the finish by Stella Blanchard, of New Jersey’s Wilberforce School, who ran 4:48.11. Tappan Zee’s Bridge Dunn just missed a medal with a sixth-place, 4:56.65 run.
With nine heats and 64 athletes running, Nyack’s Jayda Johnson sprinted to a second-place, 56.14 finish in the girls 400.
In a field of 20, Eastchester’s Phoebe Gauld scored a personal-best 3,159 points for second place in the girls pentathlon. She won the pentathlon’s high jump at 5-2.25.
Nyack’s Abdulrasaq Durosinmi, Tanner Jones, Zaid Ayyoub and Peyton Muldoon ran 43.57 for second in the boys 4×100 relay, which Danbury (Connecticut) won. Ramapo’s Otto Morales, Kenhejah Hayden, Da’vonte Brown and Joshua Joseph medaled in fourth in 43.66.
Sleepy Hollow’s Gilbert Onwe finished second in the rain-shortened boys triple jump. No finals were held, so results were based on athletes’ first jumps. Onwe jumped 44-6.5, two inches less than winner Jessie Singleton Jr. of Bloomfield (Connecticut). Ramapo’s Da’Vonte Brown grabbed the last medal spot, jumping 43-8.25 for fifth.
John Jay-East Fishkill’s Kyle Kershaw cleared 6-2 for second in the boys high jump.
Other top-five medalists
Boys pentathlon: North Rockland’s Nile France, third place (personal best 3,231 points)
Girls 400 hurdles: New Rochelle’s Alexis Smith, third place (1:02.79)
Girls pole vault: Edgemont’s Sophia Kumar, third place (personal-best 11-6)
Boys 400-meter hurdles: Bronxville’s John Sekula, fifth place (personal-best time of 55.18 broke current UConn star Wyatt Gravier’s school record)
Boys 3,000 steeplechase: Arlington’s Zavier Durandisse, third place (personal-best 9:40.61)
Boys 400: Mamaroneck’s Mark Lebowitz, fifth place (48.35)
Boys 100: Stepinac’s Ian Thomas, third place (10.94)
Boys 100: Poughkeepsie’s Nahzy Avent, fourth place (11.06).
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Sloan Wasserman wins steeplechase at Loucks in U.S. No. 1 time