Garden City Girls at Nike Indoor

GC Girls Track At NIKE HS All Americans

Brooke Senken running the third leg of the 4x800

Coach Erica Fregosi took a contingent of Garden City's best runners down to Landover Maryland for the NIKE Indoor National Championships this past weekend and as usual the girls came through with some fabulous results. The competitors came from across the country after qualifying for the meet, all vying for the prestige of finishing in the top six and a chance to gain High School All American status. Right from the start of the meet our girls were a hit with the competition and fans, even drawing praise from the announcers - for their uniforms. Wearing bold polka dot shorts you couldn't miss our girls and they carried themselves very well throughout the meet.

First up for GC was eight grader Molly Josephs in the 1 mile race walk on Saturday morning. Most would think that competing at the national level would be a daunting assignment for even the most seasoned high school athlete. Well, Molly showed us that she is not your typical middle schooler and turned in a terrific time of 8:00.02 minutes and finished in fifth place - earning All American status.

Maddie Adams in the Championship mile

Then it was two of the Trojan's relay teams - the sprint medley relay and the distance medley relay, on Saturday evening. The sprint medley consists of a 400, two 200's and an 800 meter leg and was run by Lauren Williams, Katie Reilly, Tara Mahon and Liz Slattery in that order. The girls faced some really outstanding competition and finished with a terrific time of 4:24.60, considering the flat track in Landover is a fairly slow one.

Then it was the distance medley's turn on the track. The relay consists of four legs at distances of 1200, 400, 800 and 1600 meters and was run by Maddie Adams, Taryn Schmelzinger, Brooke Senken and Emily Menges. This group has consistently run at the front of the pack this indoor season and did not disappoint their fans that made the trip down. They took second place with an excellent time of 12:09.66 - earning All American status!

On Sunday the Garden City girls came back for three more events - two individual performances and another relay. First up was Maddie Adams running in the top section of the one mile run. Maddie ran a tough race against some unbelievably talented runners and finished tenth with a time of 5:14.21.

All Americans for 4x800 - Brooke, Maddie, Emily and Michelle

Then it was Emily Menges running in the top heat of the 800 meter race. And in a close finish Emily was only 2 seconds off the lead with a time of 2:13.28 and a fourth place finish - earning All American status for a second time at the meet.

Then it was the final event for Ms. Fregosi's girls at the Nationals, the 4 x 800 meter relay team with Emily Menges, Michelle Rotondo, Brooke Senken and Maddie Adams. Running in the championship heat, the girls ran a solid 9:22.71 and finished in fourth place - earning All American status for the foursome, a second time for Brooke and Maddie and an amazing third All American ranking for Emily!

What a way to cap off an amazing indoor season - Conference and County Champions, State medalists, 11 school records and now, six girls earning All American status. Congratulations to the team and coaches Fregosi, Skrivanek and Lucas.

Molly Josephs (l) on the medal stand.

All Americans for DMR - Maddie, Brooke, Emily and Taryn.