Smithtown East's Allison Byrne wins her first high school race as part of the 4X800 meter relay team at Zeitler Relays

Allison Byrne was in unfamiliar territory.

The Smithtown East freshman hadn’t run a high school race yet as she lined up for the team’s 4x800 meter relay.

“I’m usually nervous in the beginning,” Byrne said. “But then once I get on the line, I feel a lot better.”

Byrne was the second leg of the Smithtown East relay squad that won in 10 minutes, 38.34 seconds at the Suffolk League I and II session of the Zeitler Relays at Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood Saturday.

Annabelle Wille led off the relay, giving the Bulls an early lead that Byrne, Brooke Rosenberg and Sarah Wisnieski could hold onto.

To win races like this, Rosenberg said it takes a lot of preparation and commitment from each runner.

“We have done 4x800s in past seasons,” Rosenberg said. “And every time it takes a while, in season, to build your momentum up.”

For Zariel Macchia and Destiny Samuels, starting the season off strong was key. The duo helped Floyd win the distance medley relay and 1,600 sprint medley relay, both of which set school records.

“To be able to have these girls break a school record, all of us together, it means a lot,” Macchia said. “It’s really exciting, and I knew that we’ve all been working hard. They’ve been working really hard. We run together pretty much every day.”

Macchia led off the 4,000 meter relay with a 1,200 meter run, Samuels followed with a 400, Brianna Smith ran the 800 and Karen Jackson anchored with a 1,600 to finish in 13:25.04, beating the previous Floyd mark of 13:42.16, coach John Ryan said.

“When I was waiting for [Macchia] and I was going to get the baton from her, I was like ‘Let’s do this,’” Samuels said. “Because if she’s going out fast, I've got to match her.”

The sprint medley relay team consisted of Samuels starting on a 400, Allana Morgan and Samantha Seaman each running a 200 and Macchia anchoring on the 800 to finish in 4:22.59, improving on the old program mark of 4:24.82, Ryan said.

   In the 4x200 relay, every millisecond counted. Chloe Young raced down the final straightaway to give Connetquot the slight edge.

Young anchored the team of Lailani Delinois, Marissa McDougall and Taylor Mehrtens who finished in 1:52.49, securing first place by 0.13 seconds.

“I get so nervous, but it fuels me to go so much faster,” Young said. “I try to look at everybody yelling at me and I use all of that motivation to just sprint. It doesn’t matter where [the runner behind me] is. In my mind as long as I’m sprinting, I feel like I did good enough.”

Heading into the season, Sofia Toepfer wasn’t sure how the Commack 4x400 team would do considering they lost their anchor from last year. But after winning 10 seconds ahead of the field in 4:21.79, the confidence levels are high.

“We won [the county championship] last year,” Alexandra Pulcini said. “Since that’s coming up, our goal is to do it again this year.”

Pulcini, Toepfer and Madison Wilhelm all returned from last year’s county championship 4x4 team, with Toepfer anchoring. Kate Hearns joined the relay this season.

“I feel like we run really well together,” Wilhelm said. “We’ve been running together for a while. In the past, we’ve run relays with Kate — it switches up a lot. This is our first or second time running the 4x400 this season. So, I think we have a lot of room to improve, but we also already run really well together and I think that’s really important.”