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Published: Feb 12, 2008 11:31 AM
Modified: Feb 12, 2008 12:27 PM

Cozzarelli adds two more titles to resume
Apex senior takes indoor 1,600, 3,200 meter indoor championships.
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Click here for complete results from the NCHSAA 4-A Indoor Track and Field Championships.

CHAPEL HILL — After her first win Saturday at the NCHSAA 4-A Indoor Track and Field Championships, Andie Cozzarelli crossed the finish line and let out a single, satisfied handclap before jogging to the sideline to catch her breath.

But she wasn’t done yet.

Cozzarelli followed up her win in the 1,600-meter race with a first-place finish in the 3,200 meters.

“It feels good,” she said with a grin. “Two state championships in one day is pretty nice.” Cozzarelli was seeded fourth going into the 1,600, behind reigning champion Kimberly Spano, a North Mecklenburg junior.

Spano was disqualified, however, for a uniform violation — and Cozzarelli wasn’t happy about it.

“I was actually really mad that they disqualified Kimberly Spano,” she said. “It’s just so unfair that they had to disqualify her.”

Despite Spano’s absence, Cozzarelli’s presence was very much felt, and she came back from behind, chopping more than 15 seconds off her seed time, to take the title in 5:10.21.

“It felt really good,” she said. “I was really proud about that.”

The reigning champion for the two-mile run, Cozzarelli also said she was glad to end her senior year holding onto that title, which she won in 11:23.53.

She held onto the lead of that race from the start and used a late push to beat Southern Pines Pinecrest’s Lauren Bishop by nearly five seconds.

Cozzarelli, who just signed with N.C. State, also had the fastest seed time in the 1,000 meters — though it is “not really [her] race” — but she bowed out of it to catch her breath before the 3,200.

“After running the [4x800 relay], I was like, you know, I don’t even know how I’m going to do in it,” she said. “But I know I can win the two-mile and I know I can win the mile, so I just went for those two.”

The Cary girls’ 4x800 relay team also nabbed first-place medals for themselves, coming off the second-best seed team and winning in 9:51.50.

“It felt really good to be up on that podium,” said freshman Sheridan Jordan, who was joined by Kristen Azarelo, Jenna Christensen and Christine Dragonette on the 4x800 team.

The girls laughed and joked up on the podium after their win, holding up the No. 1 sign for pictures. Jordan ran the anchor in both the 4x800 and the 4x400, in which the Imps placed fourth.

“It was really nerve-wracking,” she said. “Right at the end [of the 4x400], I was dying. But I was giving it all I could. I really wanted to beat that girl, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be.”

Cary just missed the medal stand in the 4x400, finishing .21 seconds behind third-place West Charlotte.

Cary grabbed another title through Michael Graham, who won the high jump by two inches after clearing 6 feet, 4 inches.

Green Hope also took its share of medals. The boys’ team had three top three finishes and finished the meet tied for third place with Southeast Raleigh. New Bern and East Forsyth were the co-champions. Southeast Raleigh was the girls’ champion.

Green Hope’s Doug Black took second in the 3,200, finishing in 9:42.79, and Zak Roshdy took the same rank in the 1,600 in 4:27.49. Junior Scott Hefner placed third in the 1,000.

Green Hope senior Karen Kazaglis took third in the girls’ pole vault, clearing 10-6 and matching the score of the two girls who placed in front of her.

Athens Drive’s Nancy McLeod took third in the shot put.

Contact the sports editor at 460-2606 or tcnsports@nando.com.
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