11 Photos
Asha Pensa-Johnson broke a school record in the shot put at the state championships this past weekend. JACOB LAX
Asha Pensa-Johnson broke a school record in the shot put at the state championships this past weekend. JACOB LAX
Asha Pensa-Johnson broke a school record in the shot put at the state championships this past weekend. JACOB LAX
Hampton Bays senior Emma Halsey and her competitors get set to run in a soggy 100-meter hurdles at the New York State Track and Field Championships at Cicero-North Syracuse High School. ZAIDA TALEV
Hampton Bays senior Emma Halsey in the 100-meter hurdles at the New York State Track and Field Championships at Cicero-North Syracuse High School. ZAIDA TALEV
Hampton Bays senior Charlie Garcia ran in the preliminary race of the 100-meter dash and that was it due to hamstring injuries. ZAIDA TALEV
Daniel Ortiz hands off to Erick Ibanez in the 4x400-meter relay. ZAIDA TALEV
Matthew Papajohn hands off to Daniel Ortiz in the 4x400-meter relay. ZAIDA TALEV
Matthew Papajohn hands off to Daniel Ortiz in the 4x400-meter relay. ZAIDA TALEV
Hampton Bays senior Matthew Papajohn in the 400-meter dash. ZAIDA TALEV
Hampton Bays senior Matthew Papajohn in the 400-meter dash. ZAIDA TALEV
There was rain, a lot of it, some thunder and even some lightning, and for June, it was freezing, Asha Pensa-Johnson said of the first day of the New York State Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Cicero-North Syracuse High School on Friday. But the Hampton Bays junior thrower said she thought back to what her grandfather, Charlie Pensa, always told her about the elements.
“My grandpa always tells me to tell myself, ‘I like to throw in the rain, it’s not so bad,’ trying to convince myself that it’d all be fine,” she said. “But then I ended up throwing at night, so I had to tell myself, ‘I love throwing in the dark.’ I really do think that piece of advice helped me push through.”
Pensa-Johnson, like all of the other athletes at states this past weekend, had to navigate through a pair of long weather delays due to storms that came through Central New York. Although the sun had gone down, and the lights at the track were on, athletes were still throwing the discus well into the night.
But as the dust settled on a long day, Pensa-Johnson tied with Marlboro senior Juliana Juras in the Division II disc with identical throws of 135 feet 11 inches, which reset Pensa-Johnson’s own school record. Sharing the state title with Juras pushed both easily into the Federation discus, where all girls from both Division I and II, public and private, competed the following day on Saturday. Pensa-Johnson wound up placing third with a 124-foot throw, finishing just behind Juras and good friend Jillian Scully, a senior from Miller Place who won the Federation title with a throw of 154 feet 4 inches.
To top all of that off, Pensa-Johnson also competed in the shot put upstate in which she finished seventh in Division II with a throw of 36 feet 5 ½ inches, which broke a school record according to Hampton Bays girls track head coach Kevin O’Toole.
This all happened around Pensa-Johnson’s 17th birthday, which was Saturday.
“This was my third year going to states in the discus, and previously in other years I have not done good,” she said. “The pressure is always on and it’s always on my birthday, and I think that puts even more stress on me. So this year I think I did well, and it felt good to do well at states and not mess up like in previous years.”
Pensa-Johnson added that she had previously not really competed in the shot put until this season. In fact, she had only done it three times prior getting to states.
“It was crazy to me that I even qualified,” she said. “So I didn’t feel a lot of pressure for it. I didn’t have that previous experience because I had been there to throw the discus and that was main focus. But getting to the finals for shot and breaking the school record was huge for me.”
With one year left of high school, Pensa-Johnson said she’s going to be focusing a lot on track as she wants to continue it in college. Preferably at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Pensa-Johnson was joined at states by senior teammate Emma Halsey who competed in the 100-meter hurdles which took place right after the first weather delay. She finished in 16.04 seconds which placed her 10th in Division II. Halsey is continuing her track and field career at the University of Rhode Island.
Tough Meet for Baymen Boys
Hampton Bays senior Charlie Garcia was looking to earn state titles in the 100- and 200-meter dashes, or, at the very least, All-State and All-Federation honors. But halfway through his first race on Friday, the 100, Garcia suffered a hamstring injury. He finished the race in 11.17 seconds but did not qualify for the finals due to the injury and he never ran another race after that, scratching from the 200 altogether.
That had a trickle down effect to the boys 4x400-meter relay team. With Garcia out, the Baymen did what they could but it wasn’t the same without their key sprinters. Seniors Cesar Ramos and Matthew Papajohn, freshman Erick Ibanez and sophomore Daniel Ortiz, who was the one filling in for Garcia, finished the 4x4 in 3:48.87, which placed them 16th in Division II.
Papajohn also competed individually in the 400-meter dash in which he finished in 51.28 seconds and placed ninth in Division II. He’ll be continuing his track and field career at Sacred Heart University.
