Sleepy Hollow's Milhaven Excelling in Track

Sleepy Hollow senior Alex Milhaven has participated in numerous sports during her high-school career.

Milhaven, a co-captain on the girls spring track team, is in her second year on the track team.

Besides spring track, she has also played – at various times throughout her high school career- lacrosse, volleyball and basketball.

Those experiences have helped Milhaven, who competes in the 4 by 100 relay, 100 hurdles and high jump in spring track, become a leader on the team.

"Each sport has a different level of teamwork involved in it so it's the reason I have the leadership skills I do have because of all the different types of teamwork I have had to work with," Milhaven said. "Whether it's six players on a volleyball court to five players that are all involved on a basketball court, how many players are involved on a lacrosse field to the individual aspect of track, it just all comes together to make me the leader I am on the track team this year."

Milhaven shares the captainship with sophomore Katherine Doyle.

"We are split into two groups, the short distance and the long distance," Milhaven said. "She's more involved in the long distance. We have the same role, just with different distances. She's really motivational, even towards the sprinters. She's always there to tell everybody that we are going to do fine."

Milhaven said that she enjoys the fact that the younger girls would look up to her whether she was captain or not because of the fact that she is a senior. She likes that as a co-captain she has an impact on how the team comes together as a whole.

One important role she has when she isn't participating in an event is when she sits on the sidelines and cheers the other girls and encourages them when they don't do so well.

"When someone has a bad race or when they do the hurdle and falls, it's important to be there to calm them down, to tell them that they're fine because we all mess up," Milhaven said.

Milhaven said in one sense that she enjoys the high jump the best just because it's the event that she excels at the most but the 4x100 also appeals to her because it's more of a team effort. Joining Milhaven in that team effort is freshmen Gabrielle Maldonado, Madison Ortiz and sophomore Gillian Berger.

"Track is an individual sport and because of that it's nice to be in an event that requires a team effort," Milhaven said. "It's really uplifting because if one of us has a bad day in a race, we have three other people right there to support us."

Milhaven said that the goal for the members on the team is to either qualify for all-league or all-league honorable mention at the league meet in Irvington (May 3).

"Some of us might qualify for the county meets and beyond too," Milhaven said.

What's next for Milhaven after graduation is going to college at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va. While she enjoys track, volleyball, the sport where she was a three-time all-league honorable mention front-row player, is the sport she would most likely play in college, at the club level.

"I like volleyball the most," Milhaven said. "I have been playing that sport since I was in second grade. I excel at it and plan on probably playing that in college."