Now that I’m back and settled in at my apartment after a long day on Saturday going back and forth to the Penn Relays, let’s talk about what happened and what might happen in the next few weeks.

I know it’s still some time away, but I think this could be interesting. The league meets have been or will be getting under way within the next week or so and I feel like they are a decent indicator of where a team stands. That being said, I will start handicapping the favorites heading into counties.

I’ll focus on the Rockland boys today and then we’ll go from there over the next few weeks, with a break for Loucks, which is only next week.

Heading into this weekend, I believed that Ramapo was the best team in the county and probably the section. Now, as I’m sure most of you have heard, Mike Abelard, one of the team’s best runners, hurt his hamstring in the 400 relay on Friday. It might be a minor injury and he could be back in a week, but we don’t know.

This is a big blow to the Gryphons, he was one of the best runners on the team, and now the team, instead of finishing 1-2-3 in the sprints, they might only finish 1-2.

Are they still the best team in Rockland? Can a North Rockland or a Clarkstown South or even a Suffern throw its names into contention?

Personally, I think Ramapo is still the best team, even if Abelard doesn’t run again this season. They still have too many quality athletes and they will still win most of the sprinting events and all the relays, except the 3,200.

This is my problem with picking any team besides Ramapo, the distance events. There are too many quality runners that run the 800, 1,600, 3,200, or 3,200 relay for one team to sweep those events. Ramapo’s strength is its domination in one area. Then it’ll probably win the shot put, and no team will win enough points in the distance or field events to catch them.

If we look at the field events, again we see that the quality is spread throughout the county. You have McGill, Fowler, Carroll, and a few others who will win or place in their events. I think the injury to Abelard has moved Ramapo closer to the pack, but they are still the team to beat. N. Rockland has so many athletes that they will be right with Ramapo, but can they place in enough events? C. South will win its share of events, especially McGill, but Cranston and Sheppard among others will score points, but will it be enough?

What do you think? We’ll revisit Rockland as the meet gets closer and talk about Westchester later this week, but I thought with leagues coming up it would be an interesting topic to discuss.

The Fordham Prep 3,200 meter relay of Harley Griffiths, Michael Jennings, Carlos Petrovich, and Zach Keefer qualified for the Championship of America in 7:54.97. Apparently this kid Jennings is a 4:24 miler, so he could be someone to definitely look out for.I’m interested to see McGovern pole vaulting tomorrow. He only jumped once in the outdoor season and he cleared 15-6 at the New York Relays.What meet does everyone like better Loucks or Penn? Or something else? 

Well I just got back from the first day of Penn Relays, and what an exciting day it was.

     I have to say the atmosphere at Franklin Field was different from any meet I’ve been since I’ve been on the track and field beat. Attendance was over 23,000 today, and the crowd was into every event.

     Congrats to the Mount Vernon girls 4×100 relay team of Shamika Mindingall, Sasha-Gay Richards, Michelle McCrae, and Kenina Bonnerfor taking its heat.  The Knights narrowly missed qualifying for the championship race but they will compete in the large school final later today. Dan Marra will be keeping an eye on that race and all the action later today before he heads down to Philadelphia on Saturday.

     The Urusuline 4×800 relay also missed qualifying for the championship race by a whisker. Just .08 seconds kept the Koalas from running in that race later today. Still, an impressive time of 9:14.61 for Rosie Crean, Katie Sullivan, Jackie McCarthy and Meghan Brown.

     Jen Clayton placed third in the long jump, her best jump a 5.91-meter leap. Clayton was definitely nervous competing in front of so many people but her long-jumping is clearly getting more consistent. Clayton’s fellow Mounty Shelby Greany ran a strong race in the 3,000, finishing 5th. Greany is really off to a good start in the outdoor season and I have a feeling we may see her post some spectacular times later on. She told me after the race she’s especially looking forward to the steeplechase later this season….WATCH OUT!

OK, I’m probably going to make another post tomorrow, but after driving back and forth to Philly today I am TIRED so I’m going to catch some zzzzzzs

It isn’t really Celtic green and they aren’t really lucky, but their uniforms are some shade of green. And that’s all you saw flying around the track at the Red Raider Relays. We all know how good Ramapo is, but watching them for the first time in the outdoor season yesterday, it was scary. Any event, from the 100 up to the 400, they have an excellent chance of winning, or at least placing.

With Ryan Whitley in the hurdles, and then they have Abelard, Malivert, Padilla, the two Ezemmas, and Shaq Belizaire to spread out among the 100, 200, 400, the 4×1, 4×2, and 4×4. This, in my opinion, is the best team in the section. They have the most talent, but the team’s only downside is that they might not have enough athletes to compete among some of the other teams. That being said, they are still the best.

Other notes:

Elizabeth Mott continues to impress as she won the 400 hurdles and anchored the 1,600 relay team that won.

Aki Bajulaiye continues to look very strong in the spring season, winning another event, this time it was the 800. He was able to use a late push and then hold off Pat Porteus of Somers. These two could be battling it out the rest of the season in the event.

All the credit in the world to Britney Clarke of North Rockland and Mike Carroll of Nanuet for winning the pentathlon, an event I would never dream of competing in. The running stuff I could do, but the jumping that’s a little different. I have a hard enough time jumping into bed (my wife and I have it on lifts so we can cram more junk underneath). Then the shot put. I know I must look pretty physically fit to most of you, but picking up a weighted ball and throwing it, that surprisingly is not one of my stronger attributes.

Kristin Reese looked real strong in the 800. That whole race, even though she didn’t take the lead until the final 100 meters, she looked like she was in complete control.

I just wanted to mention this because I’m sorry I missed it, Nelson Hall clearing 6-8 in the high jump, congratulations. I know he’s been working hard and he deserves it. That’s a great jump, and I think he could continue to get better.

Alright, that’s all for now. I will see you all in the City of Brotherly Love. I’m thinking about wearing my Antonio Pierce jersey or maybe Eli Manning? I could go out and get a T.O. jersey for the trip. Any suggestions?

So I was out at North Rockland HS for the first day of Red Raider Relays today, and what a nice day it was. Great day of competition too.   The girls 1,600 was a tremendous race, as Suffern’s Shelby Greany showed a lot of heart with a big kick in the last 200 meters.  Greany outkicked Sarah McCurdy from Bay Shore to win the race and break the meet record in the process. McCurdy was clearly NOT happy. Greany (who is just about the nicest girl in the world) offered a friendly handshake after the race and McCurdy refused.

     Scarsdale had a impressive first day as well. Julian Sheinbaum and Jacob Wexler took first and second place in the boys 1,600 respectively, and Nelson Hall took first place in the high jump, clearing a personal best 6 feet, 8 inches.

      For the second year in a row Carmel’s Kristin Reese took the girls 3,200 title, and Suffern was 1-2 in the boys 5,000 with Evan Flach and Mike Pereira respectively.

     Tomorrow all the sprint finals will be held, as well as most of the relays, more field events, and the completion of the boys and girls penthathons. It should be another tremendous day of competition. Dan Marra will be out at North Rockland tomorrow, so be sure to check out the blog tomorrow night for Dan’s take on all tomorrow’s action. Talk to you all soon!

-Eric

After my rough start to open the season at New Rochelle, I came prepared to the Fulton invitational yesterday. I spent a good 30 minutes before I went to Harrison just putting sunblock on. I went over and over making sure I got every last inch, and it worked!

The meet was pretty good. It honored Coach Fulton of Harrison for his 18 years of service, and it had some pretty good performances. I am constantly being impressed to the start of the season that New Rochelle is having. They have three athletes in particular who look impressive, and are constantly getting better, Chris Rones, Aki Bajulaiye and Deon James. Only Aki’s a junior, the other two are sophomores. This team could be pretty good next year.

And Harrison, especially the girls really impressed me. Clare McManus looks to be a triple threat in the 200, long jump and the 4×4. They also had this runner, Nina Sarmienta, who ran the 800 and for the first 4-500 meters was stride for stride with Tori Flannery of Bronxville. She eventually hit a wall, but with little training in the event and to do that well is pretty impressive. Apparently Sarmienta had been running modified and then they moved her up.

This Saturday is Nanuet and then next week is the Red Raider Relays. The track season should be getting into full swing. Just an fyi, track notebooks  are coming out this Wednesday, keep an eye out.

Like Dan, I too was at my first meet of the spring season yesterday.  I headed out over the Tappan Zee bridge to Pearl River to take in the Pirate Relays on a surprisingly beautiful day. It was interesting talking to some of the athletes who ran deep into the indoor season at states and nationals. Many of them had just come back to practice and it seems that after reaching their peaks at the end of the winter season, they all shut it down for a week or two and then start the process of building towards the big meets again. I was impressed with the Bronxville girls distance runners. These girls just never seem to have a down race. Jim Mitchell is certainly a heck of a coach.  One of the things I’m really looking forward to this spring is seeing which athletes who didn’t run in the winter (usually because they play a different sport) will give their teams a boost by returning to the track in the spring.  Anyway, I’ll be in Rockland for the Nanuet Relays this weekend, and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone out there.

-Eric

How’s it going everybody? I just got back from my first track meet of the spring season where I was covering the New Rochelle invitational. Surprisingly the weather men were wrong…the rain stayed away, who could believe that. Thankfully I put on no sunblock, and I got burnt, pretty bad I must say. If any of you see a bright red light floating around lower Westchester, don’t panic, it’s just me hanging outside my apartment.

Anyway, the meet was fun. New Rochelle has a beautiful set up. The track and the artificial turf look amazing. I heard some complaints about the track being only 350 meters, but I think once you found out what the zones are you were okay.

Elizabeth Mott looked pretty good. I was a little surprised she ran at this meet, but she looked good. She finished second in the 100 hurdles and won the 400 hurdles. She looked a little rusty and her steps were off, but still had pretty good times, which is scary. Sasha Richards seems poised to have a big season.

I was really impressed with Aki Bajulaiye from New Rochelle. He ran three events and ran them all really well. For the first meet I thought he would slow down each event, but I think he got stronger. Pat Porteus and Todd Apgar of Somers look poised to have big springs. Both look to be in great shape. Once Turro comes back, Somers could have a big year. Those are some of the main things I noticed at the meet. As for now I’m off. Keep running….