Thursday, October 1, 2026
Competing in Nassau’s top winter track and field conference didn’t stop the East Meadow boys from adding to the trophy case. The Jets, off three straight Conference 2 championships, upped their title streak to four by taking the Conference 1 crown by a 14-point margin over Farmingdale.
“Four conference titles in a row is a nothing to sneeze at,” East Meadow coach Jim McGlynn said. “We had a strong meet. We were hoping to add the big one and win the county, but unfortunately we underachieved in some events and got unlucky in others. But, overall, we did a lot of great things and I’m proud of the team.”
The season still isn’t over for one of the Jets. Senior sprinter Tim Gibson, one of their four conference champs, avenged a heartbreaking defeat to Carey’s Gregory Matzelle in the Class A 55 meter dash by winning the state qualifier in 6.53 seconds. He’ll compete in the state meet at Cornell University on March 5. “Tim spent the whole week between the county meet and the qualifier working on his start,” McGlynn said. “He was motivated to win after what happened the previous week.”
It took almost 30 minutes for judges to review the video of the county meet finish, when they eventually separated Matzelle and Gibson by an eyelash. Matzelle got the nod, 6.5762 to 6.5790. “Usually it takes maybe five minutes to figure out a winner,” McGlynn said. “This was the longest review I’ve ever heard of. They moved on to the next event while they still looked at video.”
East Meadow did produce two county champions, with senior Matt Mascia taking the shot put with a throw topping 49 feet, and senior Nick O’Malley winning the high jump at 6 feet. However, the Jets came up painfully short in the team standings to Farmingdale, 59 to 57.5.
“There were a lot of events where if we just matched what we did all season, we would’ve scored the extra two points to win the meet,” McGlynn said. “We’re hoping to get it done in the spring and also come back next winter and give it a run.”
O’Malley, despite a shoulder injury that kept him out of the state qualifier meet, repeated as county champ in the high jump. “Nick’s goal for the spring is to get 6-5 or 6-6,” McGlynn said. “The best chance for him to do that was to shut down for a while and rest.”
Junior Tim Euler placed third in Class A in the 1600m and 1000m runs, after finishing second in the county in both events. The Jets’ 2x400 relay comprised of Gibson, Alex Wong, David Cedillo and Anthony Rodriguez broke a school record while taking third in the county in 1:36.06.
Wong, a senior, was second to Gibson in the conference 55 dash and finished first in the long jump and third in the triple jump. Cedillo, also a senior, was the Conference 1 champ in the 600 with a time of 1:27.73
Junior Michael Hartcorn was fourth in Class A in the 55 hurdles after finishing second in the conference.
