Wasserman, Desforges win Westchester County track titles

Sloan Wasserman pulls away from the field to win the 3,000-meter race. Jim MacLean photos

 Marc Desforges of Fox Lane was the 3,200-meter winner at the Westchester County Championships.

By JIM MACLEAN 

Right from the starting gun, John Jay’s Sloan Wasserman was flying — out to prove that she is back at full strength and ready to race.

Wasserman jumped out to the lead on the first turn for the girls’ 3,000-meter race at the Westchester County Championships on Saturday, Jan. 24, at the Armory in New York City, and she never slowed down.

Flying around the course, lapping every other competitor on the track, Wasserman crossed the finish line with a blistering time of 9:41.35, the current fastest time in New York state and the third-fastest time in the nation for high school girls in the event.

“Today was a good effort day, I was pretty happy with the time, but I definitely know I can do better,” Wasserman said of the 3,000. “I did it running by myself and having to go around people, just glad that I’m getting back my fitness, starting to feel better. I was sick at the end of cross-country season and I’m starting to feel better. It took awhile and I know I can do better against competition.”

It was a personal best time and almost a minute ahead of the second-place finisher, but John Jay coach Dey Dey agrees with Wasserman that the best is yet to come and she can run faster.

“It was a good race for her, but she’s right, I know she can do better,” Dey said of Wasserman. “I have to tell her to believe in herself. I’m happy because she hasn’t been feeling good since cross-country right after the states. She’s been sick and it takes a long time to come back, so seeing her run like that today was good.”

In addition to her victory in the 3,000, Wasserman was back on the track to anchor the John Jay 4x800-meter relay team as she kicked it up to cross the line in first place, teaming up with Maya Serai, Brody Albert and Mia Haimelin to win the county title with a time of 10:05.08.

“We have a good relay team, but we had two runners out sick and injured, so we had to put the two freshmen in and they did great,” Dey said of Serai and Albert. “They were nervous, but they’re learning and gaining confidence in themselves.”

Elyse Hermanto also had a big day for John Jay as she finished second in the high jump event after clearing the bar at 5 feet.

Haimelin finished fourth in the 1,000-meter race for John Jay, with eighth-grade teammate Lila Rotter also in the top 10 in seventh place.

Serai and Albert followed Wasserman in the 3,000 with a pair of top 10 finishes as Serai was eighth and Albert was ninth for the Wolves.

The John Jay boys team turned in four top 10 finishes overall. Noah Goldberg was fourth in the high jump, Skylar Monasch was seventh in the shot put, Rohan Patel was eighth in the 3,200-meter race, and Landon Goodman was ninth in the 600-meter race.

Desforges kicks his way to a title for Fox Lane

The highlight of the meet for Fox Lane was the boys 3,200-meter race as senior Marc Desforges turned it on and finished strong to win the title with a personal best time of 9:32.13.

Desforges stuck with the lead pack for most of the race, and then he stormed to the lead for the final two laps and never looked back, pulling away for the title.

“That was exactly the game plan, stick to them like glue and save that kick as much as possible, and I felt fantastic,” Desforges said. “First time I won a county championship and I’m still in disbelief. I just had to stick with them, follow coach’s game plan and execute. I’m feeling good and think there may be a breakthrough coming my way for sectionals.”

Fox Lane coach Chris Dossena agreed with Desforges about the game plan, but it was up to him to make it happen and he got the job done to win the title.

“He’s just very consistent, very steady, and he listens,” Dossena said of Desforges. “We talked about a game plan and that’s just there to give him a shot. He put himself in the mix and gave himself a chance. You want it to be a heck of a race and it was, a lot of fantastic runners in our section and it could have gone either way, but he did what he was supposed to do and good things happen. He’s just a pleasure to coach.”

Other top 10 finishes for Fox Lane included Jacques Desforges, Marc’s triplet brother, as Jacques finished sixth in the 1,600-meter race. The Desforges brothers helped the Fox Lane 4x800 boys relay team finish fifth overall. Jillian Kurchack was seventh in the girls high jump event, and Santo Curti was ninth in the boys weight throw event.