East Meadow races to division crown

East Meadow’s Michael Grady added to his trophy case with an outstanding performance at the Nassau Class AAA track and field championships held May 27 at Uniondale.

Grady captured county titles in the 1600 and 800 meter runs and anchored the Jets’ winning 4-x-800 relay that also included fellow seniors Chris Delgado and Alberto Fernandez as well as sophomore Tim Euler. East Meadow, which captured the Division 1B championship, finished sixth in the 16-school Class AAA field and also had junior Nick O’Malley win the county high jump title.

“Grady’s had an incredible career,” Jets coach Jim McGlynn said. “He’s a special runner who’s going to be missed for sure. Both races he won, he let off the gas towards the end.”

Grady’s personal best in the 1600 is 4-minutes, 18-seconds, and he’s finished the 800 in 1:53. His next stop is the state championships this Friday and Saturday at SUNY-Albany. “The 800 is his bread-and-butter event,” McGlynn said of the Adelphi University-bound standout who won the 800, 1600 and 3200 in the division meet.

O’Malley gained momentum for the county meet by taking the division high jump crown at 6-feet, 2-inches. Clearing 6-0 was good enough to earn him the AAA championship. “He’s jumped over a foot higher than last year,” McGlynn said. “The rest of the county might have been surprised he won it, but we weren’t.”

The Jets also picked up fourth in the county in the 4x-100 relay, with senior Jake Healy, juniors Tim Gibson and Alex Wong, and sophomore John Correa. The foursome took third in the division meet. 

Gibson was the Division 1B champ in the 100 meter dash, finishing in 10.9 seconds, and took fourth in the 200. “A tough start in the 100 in the county meet hurt him, but Gibson’s been strong all year,” said McGlynn, who added Wong was division champ in the long jump and runner-up in the triple jump.

Delgado (800), Correa (400) and Mike Hartcorn (110 hurdles) finished third in their respective events in the division meet, while Peter Vo (400 hurdles), Tim Hueler (1600), Kyle Ring (3200), Omar Syed (high jump), Dan Amari (pole vault) and Dave Cedillo (400) all took fourth. 

The Jets were also second in the 4-x-800 (Hueler, Delgado, Fernandez, Nick Stankes) and the 4-x-400 (Vo, Cedillo, William Teneriello, and Joseph Masseria).

“It was a great year all around,” McGlynn said.