After a five-year drought, Deer Park High School’s varsity girls track team is back on top, capturing the league championship on their Senior Day. Not since 2019 has Deer Park’s program had such a dominating season in almost all events.
The league dual meet season opened up against the defending league and county champions West Babylon, who were in the midst of an eight-year winning streak. In an instant classic, the Falcons were able to pull out an impressive victory that came down to the last events. Deer Park kept that momentum going and never looked back, finishing their undefeated regular season with a convincing win over Smithtown West. The team’s next stop is the county championship on May 23, where they will be one of the favorites.
Guided by head coach Jim Petti and assistant coach Burke Tomaselli, the Falcons were led by six team captains: Kaliyah Hull (distance), Alex Geosits (400-meter dash and hurdles), Veronica Laguerre (high jump/triple jump), Denise Brown (throws), Dru Tulloch (hurdles and sprints) and Andrea Cayea (pentathlon).
Freshman Chelsea Cornelia was Deer Park’s leading scorer with 65 points, remaining undefeated in the 800-, 1,500- and 3,000-meter races. Cornelia also set school records in the 3k and 800-meter. Sophomore Kayla Beaumont went undefeated in the triple jump and is ranked No. 1 in Suffolk County and top 15 in the state. Geosits remained undefeated in the 400-meter dash and hurdles, and is also ranked No. 1 in Suffolk County. Sophomore Vanessa Cayea was a major factor, scoring points every meet in the high jump and triple jump, and also contributing in the pole vault and long jump. Freshman Ama Asare was second only to her teammate Cornelia for the freshman county lead in the 800-meter. Tulloch led the team in the 100-meter dash and hurdles and the 200-meter dash.
Coach Jim Petti and assistant Coach Burke Tomaselli said:
“This is a special group of girls,” Petti said. “We knew a lot was riding on that first meet against West Babylon, considering how strong they were coming off the indoor season. The girls showed true grit in that meet, and from that point on, we knew we were not losing. We couldn’t have done it without these younger girls coming up and pushing our juniors and seniors to be their best. We decided to spread the girls out and train in different events. We knew we had to make each event a hard out against us. Alex in the 400 dash and 400 hurdles was our biggest move. For a girl that used to run the 1,500 and 800 at such a high level, we were pleasantly surprised that she’d be such a force in the 400. Having Chelsea lock down the distance events, and knowing that Kayla can out jump any girl, Veronica and Vanessa can out jump any team in the high jump, and Denise can out throw any opponent, we knew we had all the tools to win. We broke North Babylon’s nine-year winning streak en route to our league title in 2019, so repeating that by breaking West Babylon’s streak was special. We coined ourselves the ‘Dream Killers.’ You don’t see this much talent on one team very often. We worked hard to bring this program up, but without these girls, none of us would be here.”
Date Added: 5/13/2024