Monday, June 20, 2016: Huntington relay breaks state record from 1966

   A week ago, Beacon senior Rayvon Grey finally erased Bob Beamon's state high school record in the long jump en route to a victory in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships.

   On Sunday, Huntington High took down what had briefly become New York's newest "old" record while competing in the New Balance Nationals at North Carolina A&T. The quartet of Lawrence Leake, Kyree Johnson, Shane McGuire and Infinite Tucker won the boys 1,600-meter relay in 3:10.93.

   The existing record had been 3:12.7 -- at that time a national record -- in the mile relay by a White Plains squad in 1966. Converted to meters, the time would have been 3:11.6.

   As usual, it was a big day for Tucker. He won the 400 hurdles comfortably in :50.70, a personal best.

   By the way, Grey was back at it again the long jump, winning in 24-3½ in Greensboro, N.C.

   Other Sunday results included wins in the distance medley relay by North Rockland in 11:29.39 (helped by eighth-grader Katelyn Tuohy's 4:45.78 anchor) for the all-time No. 2 New York performance and Shenendehowa junior Jill Shippee with a throw of 181-1 in the girls hammer.

    • I'm a bit more scatter-brained than usual lately, so I believe I missed these New York victories while compiling results for yesterday's blog: Shenendehowa in the girls 3,200 relay (8:50.58), Brockport's A.J. Gruttadauro in the boys mile racewalk (6:45.17) and Sachem East's Lauren Harris in the girls mile racewalk in a dominating 6:52.23.

   Following up: Yesterday's blog carried the news of Yorktown boys lacrosse coach Dave Marr being hit with a one-year suspension for his behavior in the Husker's 9-6 loss to Jamesville-DeWitt in the NYSPHSAA Class B championship game last weekend.

   I believe LaxLessons.com may have broken the story on teh portion of its site located behind a pay wall, and that story is now available for general consumption.

   Among the additional details from that story is speculation that associate head coach Sean Carney will be appointed the 2017 head coach. Marr led Yorktown to state championships in his first year as head coach in 2003 and in 2014.

   Boys basketball: Three New York athletes survived the cutdown last week when USA Basketball trimmed its men's under-18 roster from 26 to 18.

   Mohamed Bamba, Hamidou Diallo and Kevin Huerter will head back to training camp next month. The finalists were selected by a committee chaired by Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim.

   Huerter was the consensus state player of the year last season as a Shenendehowa senior and will head to Maryland in the fall. Bamba (New York City) and Diallo (Corona) are residents who play for out-of-state prep schools.

   USA Basketball will trim the roster to 12 players next month for the FIBA Americas U18 Championship in

Valdivia, Chile, beginning July 18. The three-time defending champions will be coached by Texas' Shaka Smart, with assistants Kevin Ollie (UConn) and Mark Turgeon (Maryland).

   Breaking away? Louisiana's parochial high schools are considering forming their own organization apart from the Louisiana High School Athletic Association after principals in that organization voted recently to extend the public-private split in championships to include basketball, baseball and softball.

   About 57 percent of 306 LHSAA principals voted to extend the split, which will result in a total of 48 state championships in boys basketball, girls basketball, baseball and softball beginning next school year. Each of those sports will now have crown seven public and five private championship teams each year. A split in football in 2013 has resulted in nine state champions per year.

   Leaders of 43 parochial schools has already been contemplating leaving the LHSAA before the vote. The state's bishops, while not agreeing to leave the LHSAA, said they are exploring other options. An email sent to Archdiocese of New Orleans schools earlier this year suggested a new association that would consist of a minimum of 60 member schools -- open to private and public schools.

   Later this week: Barring some breaking news, I plan on being away from my desk for a couple of days -- which coincides with how long it's going to take to give the garage a decent cleaning. In the meantime, I'm saving up some coaching changes and interesting features.