On Feb. 5, the Glen Cove High School track team sent 6 athletes to compete in the Nassau County Class B Championships at SUNY Farmingdale. Senior Dan Cavallo continued his remarkable season with his 7th first place finish this year. His race plan was simple enough. Start out in first place, stay in first and finish first. Dan finished with a time of 4:34.6 with the closest runner between 5 and 15 meters behind him during the entire race. Dan remains undefeated not only in Class B but in all of Nassau County. He will be running on Feb. 12 for a chance to run in the State Championships in Syracuse.

Junior Didi Yep doubled, running the 55m dash and the 300m run. In the 55m dash she made it to the finals running a 7.4 in the semis and then in the finals she ran a 7.5 to take fourth place and a medal. This season Didi has placed third or fourth in the 55m dash in seven meets. She has a third place finish in her last 5 meets. After the 55m finals, Did ran the 300m for the first time in two weeks and placed third overall with a time of 43.6. She will be running in the 55m and 300m on Feb. 12 for a chance to run in the State Championships. Didi and Dan earned All-County honors for the top three finishes.

Tammy Goldstein ran the 55m high hurdles in a time of 10.0. Matt Verity ran the 300m run in a personal best time of 39.6 and finished tenth overall. Theneshia Dixon ran a 7.6 in the 55m dash and just missed qualifying for the finals. Dean Yep ran a 7.3 in the 55m semis. The team is coached by Brian Dunn and Joe Vignolini.

The Big Red's march to the playoffs continued with two big wins last week. They started out on Wednesday traveling to Westbury with hopes of repeating the outcome of their prior matchup with their long-time rival. It proved to be a real thriller with Westbury jumping off to an 8-0 lead. Joe Carrotta came into the game and scored a quick 5 points to bring the Big Red back into the quarter trailing 12-8. The second quarter started off as the first quarter had ended, with Glen Cove outscoring Westbury 21-11 to take a 29-23 halftime lead. After the intermission, Westbury turned up their defensive pressure to move back into the game, trailing only by one point at the end of the third. The final quarter proved to be a real shoot-out with the lead changing hands eight times. With 9 seconds on the clock, Westbury hit a three-point shot to take a 54-53 lead. Glen Cove came down court and Adelki Paulino got fouled with 7.7 seconds remaining to shoot a one-and-one. Adelki made both to put Glen Cove ahead, 55-54. Westbury rushed the ball down court and scored with 1.1 seconds left to take a 56-55 lead. Big Red did not quit. After a called timeout by the Big Red to diagram a truly last second play, Dustin Grosso took the ball underneath Westbury's basket and hit Joe Carrotta on a full length pass, which Joe caught and shot toward the basket. The ball went in, the horn went off and Big Red lanced Westbury's Green Dragons once again for a 57-56 victory.

Last Friday, an energized Glen Cove team was hosting their last home game against a much improved New Hyde Park team. Big Red jumped off to a 21-0 lead at the seven-minute mark, with Todd Johnson's 11 points and Michael Puckett's 8 points, the Big Red took the lead, 24-11. Michael Puckett and Joe Carrotta found the net during the second quarter and the score became 41-17. Great defensive efforts were rendered by Andre Devone, Kevin Hansen, Stelio Suarez and Ricky Johnson. Game honors go to Todd Johnson and his 24 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists along with Puckett's 13 points, 13 rebounds and 4 blocks, and Joe Carrotta's 13 points. The team is coached by Jon Dolecki and Glenn Cocoman.

Girls Basketball Wins Again

On Feb. 2, the varsity girls basketball team went on the road to meet and defeat Great Neck South, 51-42. Vanessa Saavedra scored 24 points and Corinne Turner scored 15 points. Tanika Whittaker played an outstanding game on defense completely shutting down South's leading scorer holding her to zero points. Glen Cove took a slim two-point lead into the fourth quarter. Jamie Basile and Tyyonna Zachary's tenacious defense held South to 4 field goals in the quarter. Saavedra scored 12 of her 24 points in the quarter and Turner hit key foul shots, scoring 6 of her 15 points in the quarter. The team is coached by Kevin Nolan and Tara Nelson.