NEW YORK — When New Rochelle’s Olivia Solomon got the baton in the girls 4×400 suburban relay at Sunday’s 118th running of the Millrose Games, there were two runners ahead of her. When she handed the baton off to teammate Alivia Smith after running 400 meters faster than anyone in the race had (or would), Smith was in first place.
Anyone who knew Smith, knew it was highly unlikely she was going to give up the lead.
She didn’t. In fact, she expanded it.
She, Solomon, Alivia Smith and Sophia Ochoa ran a two-second season-best 3:56.58 as New Rochelle captured the six-team race,.
Willmington, New Jersey was second (3:58.49).
Nyack (Taitu Forrest, Leila Harrison, Hailie Vasquez and Jayda Johnson) clocked a season-best 3:59.86 for third.
Both area teams are expected to compete later this season at nationals.
“I’m extremely happy how they performed and competed,” New Rochelle coach George Greene said. “What pleased me the most about today’s race is they didn’t allow their fears get the best of them. They executed the race plan just the way I’d envisioned it going. Running a two-second personal best gives me the confidence and indication that we are peaking at the right time of the season. With our Section 1 championship meet and state qualifier approaching, I’m very excited to see how much lower we can run.”
Alexis Smith noted the raced marked a huge difference from her squad’s performance at last year’s Millrose Games. She called Sunday’s performance “redemption.”
Her team had handoff problems in 2025 and finished well back in 4:07.16.
“It was amazing how we won. … (This year) we all just wanted to run our best and our fastest time and we met that goal,” she said. “I think it was our teamwork overall and how we relied on each other.”
New Rochelle’s win, in Sunday’s historic Olympian-filled youth, high school, college, professional/Olympian and masters meet, was the only gold-medal performance among Section 1-area athletes Sunday.
Ursuline senior Jane Hickey, who has emerged as one of the country’s top female scholastic runners in less than two full years of track, ran the 600 in a personal-best 1:28.26 but was just edged by New Jersey’s Natalie Dumas, who ran 1:28.1.
The finishes leave the two runners No. 1 and 2 in the country this season among girls scholastic runners and a rematch at nationals seems a definite possibility.
Asked about her preference between winning and possibly not winning but being pushed, Hickey said she’d take the latter.
“I think I’d rather be a in a fast race like this. I have so much respect for all these girls,” the North Carolina commit said, noting the field’s “energy.”
She said her goal is to break 1:28 at the state championships.
The Suffern boys 4×400 suburban team suffered a similar fate as Hickey.
Billy Weber, Jake Tarrant, Jamarih Cantave and Will Lynch ran a season-best 3:21.49 but Lynch, who had a fine 48/76 split, was passed at the finish by Crue Brown, who gave his Manalapan, New Jersey squad the win in 3:21.38.
New Rochelle (Anthony Athanasa, Myles Johnson, Jace Stephenson and Isaac Evans) was fifth in 3:31.27.
New Rochelle-based Monroe University finished second in the college women’s 4×400 relay, crossing in 3:49.07. St. John’s won in 3:44.56.
Other Sunday finishes
Both the women’s and men’s Wanamaker mile races that concluded the meet brought the Armory-packed crowd to its feet.
The women’s race went to American Nikki Hiltz in a personal-best and 2025-26 women’s world-leading time of 4:19.64. She held off Australian Jessica Hull (4:20.11). That was significant in part, since at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Hull won silver in the women’s 1,500-meter race and Hiltz was seventh.
While it was clear the women’s all-time indoor mile mark of 4:13.31 was not going to be challenged, the race produced new national records for both Poland and Sweden.
The men’s mile was a major surprise. American Yared Nuguse, the Paris Olympics men’s bronze medalist at 1,500 meters, had won it three straight years and had set a since-broken world record at Millrose in 2025 of 3:46.63. The past two years, fellow American Olympian Hobbs Kessler had finished Wanamaker as runner-up to Nuguse.
But this time Australian Cam Myers broke the tape in a world season-leading 3:47.57. Nuguse (3:48.31) was second and Kessler (3:48.68) was third.
The boys and girls miles were both a bit of a disappointment for local athletes.
Chula Vista, California’s Jaelyn Williams, a Stanford commit, clocked 4:38.69 for the girls win. Scarsdale sophomore Adriana Pettinelli ran 4:57.57 for 13th.
The boys mile went to Iowa’s Caleb Ten Pas in 4:09.8. North Rockland’s Claudel Chery finished 11th in 4:16.22 and Hen Hud’s Victor Delgado was 13th in 4:17.88.
The boys 300-meter run went to Bloomington, New Jersey’s Caleb Winders in 1:17.88.
Pearl River’s JD Lloyd McKenna was fifth (1:20.93) and The Masters School’s Henry Frasca ran 1:21.01 for sixth.
St. Aquinas College’s Gianna Mauri clocked 7:36.74 for fifth in the women’s 1,500-meter racewalk, which Maria Michta-Coffey won in 7:16.69.
The Masters School (Mason Rosenblatt, David Morris, Khair Parris and Henry Frasca) ran 3:31.49 for fourth in the boys private school 4×400 relay. New Jersey’s Union Catholic won in 3:23.5.
Iona Prep (David Martinez, Kieran Degen, Andrew Jean-Baptiste and Michael Rynne) ran 8:08.51 for eighth place in the CHSAA boys 4×800.
Iona University (Wesner Archelus, Alex Hannon, Joshua Aceto and Jaylen Mozone ran 3:20.06 for third in the men’s collegiate 4×400, which was won by the New Jersey Institute of Technology (3:15.98).
John Jay-East Fishkill’s Nathaniel Johnson ran 35.34 for ninth in the boys 300. Tate Taylor of San Antonio, Texas won in 33.2.
Ursuline (Clementine Sweeney, Jane Hickey, Kyleigh O’Keefe and Sofia Henao) ran 10:08.15 for 11th in the girls invitational 4×800 relay. Union Catholc blazed to the win in 8:40.07.
Two members of the Westchester-based professional track club Empire Elite participated in the Games.
Will Cuthbertson had the unfortunate luck to be in a field that included one of track’s biggest, young superstars. Cuthbertson ran 1:20.55 for sixth in the men’s 600, but the focus was clearly well ahead on 17-year-old Texan Cooper Lutkenhaus, who’s already a pro and who won in 1:14.15.
Cuthbertson’s teammate, Ben Allen, didn’t finish the men’s two-mile after leading halfway through, but there was a good reason for that. Allen was employed as the race’s rabbit, setting a good pace for the rest of the field before dropping out, as scheduled.
Paris Olympics 1,500-meter champ Cole Hocker of the U.S. won in 8:07.31 with a strong kick.
Eric Favors glad to be home at The Armory, even without best day
Former North Rockland and University of South Carolina thrower Eric Favors, who is Ireland’s national record-holder in the shot put, threw 64-5.25, a couple of feet off his personal best, to fail to make the final in the men’s shot.
With a world season-leading throw of 71-5.25, Jamaica’s Rajindra Campbell, the 2024 Olympic bronze medalist, got the win. Three-time Olympic silver medalist Joe Kovacs of the U.S. was second at 69-7.
Favors, who lives and trains in Pennsylvania, noted his focus hasn’t been on the indoor season but has mostly been on this summer’s European championships. But he wasn’t going to pass up a chance to throw for the second time as a pro at Millrose and to throw at The Armory, where he regularly competed for North Rockland.
“As soon as I got the call that they invited me to the meet, had to come. It’s a blessing. I mean I started my track career here. …. It’s special,” Favors said, adding of his throw, “I’m happy enough with it (and I’m) glad to be back home on home turf and glad to rub elbows with some of the top shot putters in the world and I’ll continue to do that and I’ll continue to climb.”
Weight throws
Weight throw competitions took place Friday.
Former Iona Prep thrower Chris Milillo, who now competes for Wagner College, finished fifth our of 10 in the men’s elite weight throw at 63-9.75
The University of Albany’s Qualiar Newton, a graduate of Section 9 FDR, was seventh at 60-4.
Hastings senior Danae Morgan threw 50-10.5 for sixth out of 13 in the girls weight throw.
Somers senior Charles Sullivan threw 66-1 for 13th in the boys weight throw.
Nancy Haggerty covers sports for The Journal News/lohud.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: New Rochelle relay golden at Millrose Games; Ursuline’s Hickey second
Reporting by Nancy Haggerty, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
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