Now the track season is really getting under way. Below are the results that were either emailed in or called in yesterday. Also, be sure to check out the spring previews that are being published this Sunday. Then two weeks after that the long wait for the winter all-star sections come out. Be sure to mark your calendars. OK, here’s the first major round of results from the spring season:

It feels like I was just down at the armory wrapping up the indoor season. Now the shortest sport season of the school year is getting under way. Even though the spring is starting, don’t forget to check out the previews coming out April 5. After that, be sure to catch the winter all-star edition that will be printed on April 19.

I really enjoyed reading all the comments on the Division I – Division II debate. I actually think it’s a good idea to have a D-II, allowing athletes from smaller schools a chance to compete at the state meet. However, there are a few problems I have with it. If you have 600 or more students a school is in D-I, less a school is in D-II. So, you have a team like Rye who is in Class B, but D-I because of four students. But then other B schools – Putnam Valley, Pleasantville or Pelham to name a few are in D-II.

I know someone said this already, but I don’t know why the standards for D-I got harder, while the D-II standards got easier. I have no problem with making it easier for the D-II athletes, but why make it harder for D-I? My last point on it is this: Under the current system, a D-II qualifier doesn’t take a spot away from a D-I athlete. However, D-I can only send a max of two athletes, the same with D-II as long they hit the standard and then finish in the top two. But in the winter  a section can send a max of three athletes per event – and it would be the top three athletes in an event.  All three athletes could be from what’s considered a D-I school. Look at the 55 hurdles – Claudio Delli Carpini, Chris Rones and Ryan Lacossade all qualified in the winter all from a D-I school. In the spring, one of them wouldn’t have qualified. In that case then D-I does lose a spot. Again, I think it’s a good idea to have two divisions, but in that respect D-I does get hurt.

You can click below to also view yesterday’s track meets.

The all-star and preview deadlines inch closer, but let’s not forget about the spring season. Amazingly the first meets are right around the corner – next week I believe.

I’m trying to think now – Wednesday night? I believe that was the day of the spring track coaches meeting. There were some rule changes discussed, some fairly minor things in terms of the pole vault and shot put, but that doesn’t mean the meeting was devoid of anything you may care about.

Thanks to everyone who voted on the last poll. I do think it would be a pretty cool idea if there was a team state title. But, now that the indoor season is officially over, let’s take a look back. Who do you think had the best indoor season?

I think there are a bunch of candidates that are up for that award. The way Wayne Seaton ended the season at nationals with those three relay teams. Especially winning and setting a national record in the shuttle hurdle relay. And to place third in the pentathlon. Then of course there’s Claudio Delli Carpini. A 23 foot long jumper, 6-2 high jumper and ran a 7.42 in the 55 hurdles. Chris Carrington taking fourth in the mile at nationals in 4:14. And even though he didn’t win, that 4:16 time at the state meet was also pretty impressive. Chidi Ezemma has proven to be the best runner on Ramapo. He keyed the 1,600 relay team to a state title and all-American berth. Finally, Sean Halpin was the best middle-distance runner in the section. He set two county records in the 800 and 1,000. He was also the key to Iona Prep’s 3,200 relay and SMR getting all-American status with his times of 1:53 in the 800 legs.

Then on the girls we have Breanda Crump who set the record in the 600 and was the best runner on the best team in Westchester. I couldn’t pick one Bronxville runner, and you really can’t. I put up the relay teams for Bronxville. When you run three different relays in three straight days with basically the same crew, they deserve to get some reognition. Then there’s Shelby Greany. Records in the 3,000 and the two mile. A 10:24 and second place finish in teh country in the two mile – it’s tough not to be impressed with that. Then you have what she did at states – a federation title in the 3,000 and second in the 1,500. Nicole Cummings was an 18-foot long jumper and one of the top hurdlers in the state. Only a junior, she’s going to make some noise this spring. She said she expects to jump 19 feet in the spring and I believe her. Jen Clayton won another state title and can now jump 19-5 almost at will. She has become a much more consistent long jumper.

Those are the people I put up, but as always, feel free to add anyone else. Thanks for reading, voting and commenting all season. Keep an eye out for the previews and all-star sections. I was at the outdoor coaches meeting last night, so I’ll post some stuff from that. Now it’s time to get back to my tournament picks. I’m crossing my fingers Western Kentucky doesn’t let me down tonight.

The following is the list of girls chosen by the coaches to make the all-county team for the Northern Counties. I’ll be back with the boys selections in a little bit.

55 Meters

1^st Team Victoria Alexander Beacon

2^nd Team Simone Porter Ketcham

3^rd Team Nate’ya Lassic Poughkeepsie

55 Meter Hurdles

1^st Team Brittany Montana Carmel

2^nd Team Daniella Bernasconi John Jay (EF)

3^rd Team Jenica Ross Pawling

300 Meters

1^st Team Hayley McMahon Arlintgon

2^nd Team Alex Bernasconi John Jay (EF)

3^rd Team Ashley Maurer Carmel

Read more of this entry »

Be sure to log on here and vote for this week’s gameface. The lone track representative is Jen Clayton of Suffern, so be sure you vote.

OK, here are the girls all-county selections as chosen by the Westchester coaches. Congratulations to all those that made the team. I’m still working on my all-stars, but like I said, I’ll keep you informed on what’s going on with them.

Tanaya Yarde Mt. Vernon 55 meters, 4×200m relay, 4×400m relay

Ihiechi Ohia-Enyia Saunders 55 meters, 300 meters

Kori Trataros White Plains 55 meters

Aeisha McDavid Ursuline 55 meter hurdles, 4×200m relay

Tameekia Cooper New Rochelle 55 meter hurdles, 4×200m relay

Brittany Brown Pelham 55 meter hurdles, High Jump

Nicole Cummings Peekskill 55 meter hurdles, Peekskill

Brie Roller Lakeland/Panas 300, 600 meters, 4×400m, 4×800m relay

Read more of this entry »

The following is the list of athletes that made the boys’ all-county team for Westchester as selected by the coaches. The Journal News all-star section will be coming out soon. Once I get a date on it, then I will let you know. I do know that the track previews will be running on April 5.

55M

Miles Peterson, Pleasantville

Nat Recine, Bronxville

Kem Obguagu, Lincoln/Gorton

Jonathan Gaston, Lincoln/Gorton

Read more of this entry »

As I wrote last night at NSIC Carrington, Bronxville and Fordham Prep were all very impressive. Make sure you read the article from yesterday’s final day at the armory.

There’s also a little write-up about Shelby Greany’s day at Nike. I’m sure most of you are aware of her 10:24 two mile time, but it also has some quotes from Greany about the race and her season.

After what happened at the state meet, Chris Carrington rebounded today to take 4th in the mile in 4:14. I can’t even imagine what it took for him to step back up on the line or go to practice last week, but to go through what he went through last week and to come back and break 4:15 in the mile you can’t say enough about it.

Bronxville ran its relay team three straight days and won all-American honors three straight days. Two second place finished and a fourth – that’s quite a weekend. The DMR, 4 x mile and today’s 3,200 relay.

For the second time this weekend Fordham Prep finished second to Washington Township – both times the Rams lost a late kick. First on Friday in the SMR and then today in the 3,200 relay. Also, Iona Prep running from a slower heat broke into the top six in both events. I’d watch out for the Gaels 3,200 relay as it goes throughout the spring.

At Nike Shelby Greany set a section record in the two mile in 10:24 taking second up at Boston. She just keeps getting better, which is hard to do considering how good she is.

I have to get back to work on my article and then probably go to sleep – it’s been a busy few days. I know I didn’t race over the weekend, but my legs are killing me. Friday night while I was sleeping my right leg started to spasm, so if you saw me limping around today that’s why. Anyway, let me know what else caught your attention in the final weekend of indoor track?

Also, if you haven’t seen it yet, check out yesterday’s article in the paper about Delli Carpini, Bronxville, North Rockland and Fordham Prep.

I’ll be back later to talk about some other stuff from the weekend.

Did the new Rochelle girls’ shuttle hurdle relay of Tameekia Cooper, Amira Yeiser, Amanda Egbuta and Jessica Goldberg go from running at the armory yesterday and taking fourth in 34.52 to running in the hurdle relay today at Boston and taking sixth in 36.20? Two all-American places. That’s not bad. Oh, by the way, New Rochelle’s time at the armory would have been good enough to take second at Boston.

Apparently Sheepshead Bay did the same thing. After finishing second to Fordham Prep, the team ran one second slower than the Rams at Boston, but won the event. I’ll bring this up one more time and i don’t know if it’s just in the shuttle hurdle relays, but Chris Rones, John Henry, Deon James and Joseph Shinn ran at the armory and took sixth in 30.77. With Andres Monatalvo running in Boston, almost the same team finished fifth in 31.52. I don’t know if the track is slower up there, I hears it’s just as good as the armory, but than that means some of the competition is better down here than up there.

Today was a big day for Claudio Delli Carpini. After being the last runner to qualify for the hurdles, he ended up taking second in his heat in 8.03 seconds. The time was a section record in the 60 hurdles and the second fastest of the day. He was also in third place in the pentathlon heading into the final event. He decided to forego the 1,000 in order to rest up for the hurdle finals tomorrow.

I’ll have some more info about the mile relay and the final results of the pentathlon. I’ll also be back to talk about the Nike nationals.

As promised, I will try to give you some info from the meet up in Massachusetts. You can view Friday’s results here. Brandon Freyer of Pawling took sixth in the 5,000 meter run in 15:17.31. The way he’s been running, you think he’ll be in for a big season in the spring.

That was really the only notable occurrence from the meet yesterday. There were only two events, so it was a pretty quiet day up there.

Be sure to check out my article in today’s paper on how Fordham Prep went on to set the national recordin the shutle hurdle relay. There were a number of athletes that secured an all-American spot both in the individual events and the relays. There was the Bronxville DMR team, Claudio Delli Capini and Jen Clayton to name a few. Alright, on to day number two.

Sorry for the lack of posts. I know you wouldn’t think it, but in between seasons is probably the busiest time for us. Trying to do our previews and make up the all-star teams takes quite a bit of time. However, I get to take a break from that today as I will be down at the armory for the NSIC.

I know we will have a number of athletes competing, but there will be a lot of athletes up at Boston. I’ll try and keep you updated as to what’s happening up there as well. You can view the entry list here and the time schedule for NSIC here. Keep in mind there will be some athletes listed on the heat list for NSIC, but will be going to Boston instead. It seems as though Nike is going to slowly take over all the national championships. They began to do it in the fall and it looks as though it’s happening in the winter. It’s really unfortunate because I don’t think I would be able to go to Boston for Nationals. Luckily that’s not the case this year as NSIC is still big enough and will have a number of area athletes competing, but I don’t know for how much longer. That’s a discussion for another day, as for Friday the 13th, I’ll be spending it down at 168th street.

I don’t know how many of you have seen it, but over on armorytrack.com, they have posted some videos from the state meet. You can view them by clicking here. They look pretty good, there’s more coming, so I’ll let you know when those are up. But the boys 1,600 is one of the races that was videotaped.

I think the main story from Saturday’s meet has to be Shelby Greany. Attempting to run the 3,000 and 1,500 at the same meet is something not many people would try. But she did it and nearly came away with two state titles. She took first in the 3,000 in 9:53.99. According to Greany, that was the event that she had wanted to win all along. And it was her first federation title in an individual event during the winter season.

She told me that the 1,500 was almost like an after thought. With the 3,000 for a minute, I don’t know how many of you saw the race, but how Greany ran in that race was quite impressive. There were a group of four or five runners that were in the front for 2,800 meters. Greany was the leader for the most part, but for the first 14 laps it looked like any one of them could take the lead with a strong burst.

After you hopefully looked over some of my thoughts on the boys’ results, I’ll do the same thing for the girls. First I’ll have some of my quick points on the meet and then I’ll talk about some of the other events and my thoughts on what happened.

I thought we would have more girl state champions than boys and that’s exactly what happened. I don’t know if there were that many surprises in this meet as opposed to the boys’ meet, but it was fun nonetheless.

Below this post I listed some quick thoughts on some of the events at the state meet. I’ve expanded on some of the events below

The boys only technically had one federation champ (I’ll have my thoughts on the other one later on). But the Ramapo 800 meter relay did what they failed to do last year – win a federation title. And what’s funny is that it was the same group of guys – Mike Abelard, Ryan Whitley, Dozie Ezemma and Chidi Ezemma that won the 1,600 relay last year.

Alright now that I’m back home, ate some dinner and put my son down for at least a couple of hours, I’ll spend a few minutes to talk about the day at states. And as always, anything else that I don’t mention, please feel free to talk about.

I’m going to focus on the bys first and then move on to the girls in order to give each group the space they deserve.

Make sure you check out my two articles from the state meet in today’s paper. The boys’s article focuses on Ramapo’s 800 meter relay team and how it rose to the occassion at the state meet. For the girls, my story talks about how impressive Shelby Greany’s meet was.

I’m actually heading back to down-state right now, so when I get back home I’ll post some of my thoughts on yesterday’s meet. But if you’re home already, let me know what your thoughts of yesterday’s meet.

OK, so Section 1 had the Ramapo 800 relay team of Mike Abelard, Chidi Ezemma, Ryan Whitely and Dozie Ezemma take first in around 1:30. Justin Allen of Mount Vernon won the public high school 300 meter run.

In the 1,600 North Rockland’s Chris Carrington took first in 4:16, running probably the best race he’s ever run. But an official Dq’ed him at the end of the race because he apparently took three consecutive steps inside his lane as he was going around the second turn before he hit the cone.

Before I forget and we get to involved in the state meet, there was a state track preview in today’s paper. If you haven’t seen it yet, you can click here to view it.

It focuses on two athletes – Jackie Gamboli and how she is feeling now that she’s one of the favorites to win a state title. For the boys, it focused on Claudio Delli Carpini who will have a realistic chance to win two state titles. OK, back to Ithaca. Not much so far, although the Ramapo 800 relay qualified for the final without Nick Padilla and Kevin Malivert. Now the 3,200 is on the track.

I finally made it to Cornell. I meant to post something yesterday, but by the time I got into my hotel room I just passed out.

I’m actually right by the finish line, so I have a pretty good view of things. It’s actually pretty warm out today…maybe they should run this thing outside. I’ll try and throw up some things of note for any of you that aren’t up at the state meet so hopefully you have some idea of what’s going on.

OK the first heat of the 4×4 are lining up on the track. Looks like it’s about to begin.

Again, this is another strong area for Section 1. It’s impressive the talent that’s in the section. I don’t know any other section in the state, maybe Long Island, that has as much talent as this area. So many of these athletes go on to big-time colleges and compete at the Division-I level.

I just bring it up because I’m about to preview the girls’ field events and I’m noticing how many events the section has a good shot to win or place.

While it’s always tough to figure out what’s going to happen on the track, it’s even more difficult in the field. Sure you get three chances to get over the bar or get that distance, but if your steps are off or you can’t get that explosion on your final step it could be a tough meet. As long as an athlete can put themselves in position to win they’ll be OK, and we have more than a few that could do that.

I’m going to start with the boys and then go on to the girls field events a little later. Again, let me know what you think.

Section 1 always has some good relay teams and this year is no different.

800 relay

Last year Ramapo had the top relay team in the state and failed to qualify. This year the team is going to Ithaca, but it’s a banged up group. First Mike Abelard was hurt, now it’s Kevin Malivert. The team ran 1:30 without Abelard at the armory and qualified for states with a 1:33 without malivert at Wes Point. This is probably the team’s strongest event. Nick Padilla, Chidi Ezemma and Ryan Whitley are all more than capabale of running well.

I know the top time in the state is 1:29, but I don’t know if that’s going to be the winning time. I think if any team breaks 1:30 it’ll win. But on this track, I don’t know if anybody will break that mark. And who knows Malivert and Abelard could be back to full strength by then although I doubt it. But even if Malivert doesn’t run, Whitley is still a really good runner. And as long as Abelard’s hamstring holds up this team could get right around that 1:30 mark.

Now that you had some time to read and comment on what I thought was going to happen on the boys’ side, now I’ll spend a few minutes to try and take a look ahead to the girls’ running events. After that I’ll move on to the field events.

Again, let me know what you think will happen any surprises? Thoughts?

If you missed any of the coverage of championship action last week you can view it here. You can check out all the action through our videos and photos.

Also, be sure to click here to vote on the Gameface of the week.

With the state meet only a few days away I figure now’s a good time to start previewing the meet. I’m going to break it up between boys and girls and then running events and field events. So, this one will be the boy’s running events, then I will do girl’s running and so on.

I’ll try and let you know what I think will happen – where some of the athletes will finish and if we might have any state champions in the event. As always, let me know what you think will happen on Saturday, any surprises, upsets, what event are you looking forward to the most?

Below I posted some info on the state meet. The boy’s meet starts at 9 a.m. and that’s followed by the girl’s beginning at 2 p.m. I’ll be back later today with some more stuff.

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4 X 400M Relay Semi-Final

4 X 200M Relay Semi-Final

3000 Meter Run (unseeded) Final

55M Dash Trials

3000 Meter Run (seeded) Final

55 Meter Dash Semi-Final

1000 Meter Run Final

55 Meter Dash Final

600 Meter Run Final

1500 Meter Race Walk Final

55 Meter Hurdles Trials

300 Meter Dash Semi-Final

1500 Meter Run Final

55 Meter Hurdles Semi-Final

Intersectional Medley Relay Final

(1000, 200, 600, 1600)

55 Meter Hurdles Final

300 Meter Dash Final

4 X 800M Relay Final

4 X 400M Relay Final

4 X 200M Relay Final

Field Events

Long Jump (Both Runways), Followed by Triple Jump (both runways)

Pole Vault

Shot Put

High Jump

Boys Order of Events

4 X 400M Relay Semi-Final

4 X 200M Relay Semi-Final

3200 Meter Run (unseeded) Final

55M Dash Trials

3200 Meter Run (seeded) Final

55 Meter Dash Semi-Final

1000 Meter Run Final

55 Meter Dash Final

600 Meter Run Final

55 Meter Hurdles Trials

300 Meter Dash Semi-Final

1600 Meter Run Final

55 Meter Hurdles Semi-Final

Intersectional Medley Relay Final

(1000, 200, 600, 1600)

55 Meter Hurdles Final

300 Meter Dash Final

4 X 800M Relay Final

4 X 400M Relay Final

4 X 200M Relay Final

Field Events

Long Jump (Both Runways), Followed by Triple Jump (both runways)

Pole Vault

Shot Put

High Jump