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Sports

Soccer and Track Star Sasha Tharani Finishes Successful Career at Harrison

Sasha Tharani played a vital role on the Harrison soccer and track teams during her high school career.

Sasha Tharani is not the loudest athlete or the most flamboyant personality at Harrison High School, but her work ethic made her a major contributor on two varsity teams during her high school career.

Tharani's High School soccer career started when she was still a young middle schooler. As an eighth grader she was asked to play up at the high school level on Harrison's junior varsity team. Then, as a ninth grader, she started as a center midfielder on varsity.

Over the years Tharani thrived on the soccer team, eventually moving up into the striker position where she played as team captain during her senior year.

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In the second round of the section tournament this fall Tharani and the Huskies faced the Hendrick Hudson Sailors in a game that pitted two of the best teams in the section against one another. The playoff game could not be decided in regulation and went into a second round of penalty kicks where Tharani nailed the game winning goal, keeping the Huskies' season alive.

"I played varsity soccer with Sasha for three years," said Daniela Maddaloni, one of Tharani's former teammates. "She was always a very motivated and committed player and she always gave it her all in every game."

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Though her statistics on the high school team are impressive enough, Tharani also spent two years on a premier soccer team, the Patriots F. C. 92'. In 2008 she and her team won the Northeast Regional Premier League under sixteen division championship.

Tharani was also a standout on Harrison's track and field team. She made the varsity team as a seventh grader and continued to run track until the end of her junior year. In that short span Tharani was named to several all-league, all-county and all-section teams and she holds the school's records for the outdoor triple jump and the 4X400 relay.

In her junior year during the indoor season Tharani and her 4X200 team went to the National Scholastic Indoor Championships and the team also qualified for the Nike Indoor Nationals in Boston, Massachusetts.

"Sasha has always been the ideal teammate, she is a great role model for the younger kids on the team and she is a reliable athlete on the track," said Tharani's teammate Katie Albanese. "Sasha's love for the sport is contagious and it spreads and influences everyone around her."

Even without participating in track and field during her senior year, Tharani was recruited to run and jump for several colleges ranging from Division I to Division III. After deliberating for months she eventually picked the University of Rochester, a Division III school.

"I didn't commit until my senior year and I picked to go Division III because it wasn't as formal of a process," said Tharani. "For the most part I had the times and the numbers they wanted from an athlete who had never been formally weight trained."

As far as the academic and social parts of the college atmosphere, Tharani is also ready for the college level.

"I am really looking forward to going away and experiencing life as a college student," said Tharani, who said she wants to major in neuroscience.

Best of luck and continued success Sasha Tharani, Harrison Patch's athlete of the week for July 11 - 17.

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