Sosinsky helps Highlands veterans win sprint relay by Paul Schwartz of The Record

ORADELL – It could have been an intimidating spot for a sophomore to step into. Northern Highlands has developed a culture of winning on the track over the last half-decade, especially in the sprints. And Anatalia Sosinsky felt a little pressure before the 4-x-200 relay Friday at the Jack Yockers Bergen County Relays.

“I know how good the other girls are and I didn’t want to mess things up,’’ said Sosinsky, who led off the event before turning the baton over to senior veterans Morgan Florio, Robine Arami and Olivia Florio. “But they were all so encouraging to me before the race and every day in practice that I felt a lot better.’’

Sosinsky and her teammates ripped off a solid 1:45.2 win, the fastest race of the North Jersey season, and the third fastest race the Highlanders have ever run to highlight the first day of the two-day meet.

Despite the Highlands win, Ridgewood opened a 68-46 lead in the A division. Northern Valley/Demarest (B), Hasbrouck Heights (C), Park Ridge (D) and IHA (E) are first day leaders.

“When we started as freshmen and sophomores, Catherine (Pagano) and the older girls took us under their wing and taught us what we needed to do to become better,’’ said Olivia Florio, who anchored the race and will run at Bucknell next year. “Now the seniors have to take the lead roles both on and off the track. We kept telling her that no matter what happened she wasn’t going to let us down, as long she did her best.’’

Sosinsky did just that, leading off with an excellent start and getting the baton to Morgan Florio in what the Providence-bound senior called a really good pass. The rest was easy and Highlands won the A division by nearly three seconds and finished nearly two seconds faster than D division winner Park Ridge, the second fastest team of the day at 1:47.1.

“Talia looked great,’’ said Arami, who will run at Northeastern next year. “I’ve watched in practice and I just knew she would do whatever she needed to do to help us win.’’

“I felt a lot of pressure on myself to do well because we have such a great team and we want to keep it going.”

In fact the first two events on the track forced Highlands coach Tom Viscardi to use four new varsity athletes including an entirely new group of 400 hurdlers.

“Graduating kids like Ana Ordonez (from the 4-x-200) and Amanda Pook and Hilary McElwain (from the 400 hurdles), all of whom are running in college, is hard to replace but we knew all the new girls had great ability and wanted to get better.’’

So freshman Grace Smiechowski and soph Elizabeth Healy, running personal bests, combined with frosh Kyla Krawczyk to get second in the 3-x-400 hurdles.
“These kids just get used to winning and want to keep winning,’’ said Viscardi. “We’ve won four straight sectionals and we want to keep it going.