East Islip High School’s boys and girls track and field teams headed into The Armory in New York City on Jan. 11 to compete in the Millrose Games Trials, to try and earn a trip to the famous Millrose Games on Feb. 11.

The boys 4x400-meter relay team of sophomores Jack Kalinowski, Joe Norrby and Ryan Parker and junior Matt Mcintee set a new school record with a blistering time of 3:33.81, besting the prior record from 2005. Their fourth-place finish out of all of Long Island teams earned them the right to compete in the Millrose Games.

The girls 4x800-meter relay team of freshmen Grace Micali and Danielle Simonetti and seniors Hailey DeHaas and Olivia Simonetti also set a new school record with a time of 9:50.25, earning third place in a race with teams from Long Island, New York City and New Jersey. Unfortunately, they came up just short of qualifying for the games.

East Islip’s girls teams quickly bounced back and competed in the 4x400-meter relay, where freshmen Grace Micali, Danielle Simonetti and Danika Tidridge, and senior Olivia Simonetti ran a blazing 4:11.39. The girls’ third-place performance earned them a trip to compete in the Millrose Games.

“This is the first time in East Islip history that we had a relay team qualify for the Millrose Games,” coach John Reynolds said. “It’s outstanding that both the boys and girls qualified for the prestigious event.”