Winter Track Meets

Yo. Ok so if you haven't figured it out, winter track started in December and we've had a few meets already. On Friday, December 17th, the boys (and girls I guess) travelled up to old Tom's River for one of the Olympic Conference relay meets. Classic. The DMR relay which consisted of Zach Stackarelli, someone, Tony Chen, and Steve Omari (I think) ran 11:19 for 4th place. Later, the 4x800m team of a bunch of sprinters and Ton1Chen ran a blazin' 8:36 to win, nbd. Also, that day (and probably many other days to come), the mid-d guys won the 4x400 in 3:33. That's faster than El G did it. In the girls high jump relay, Chelsea Campbell and Christina Stanley jumped 5'.25 and 4'8", respectively. On the boys side, siblings Andrew and Jared Athias won with an incredible combined height of 11'8".

The following Monday, the 20th, everyone again voyaged up to The Bubble. The Great Gatsby started us off with a solid 4:47 for 3rd place, while Rickster came home just over 5:00, but hey, who's cares if we round down, besides Russell? Anyway, in the 55m, Anthony Rihn came to play, racing a solid 7.81 for 2nd in his heat. Also with notable performances were Dean Sosa and Bob Zografos, who's father, coincidentally, is helping me apply to college.

In the girls 1k, Danielle Impagliazzo finished with a 3:48, claiming that the pain of such a race was comparable to being in an airplane stimulator, and I would tend to agree. On the boys side, Bradford Krell finished 2nd in 2:48. Moments later, a grinning Andrew Berger came in in 2:53. The K was memorable to say the least.

In the 500m, my boy Joe Pellegrino was, I thought, flying on the track, for a solid 1:13, a pace faster than my current goal for 400m. Andrew Athias PR'd in the high jump as well, hopping 6'6". 5 more inches and he'll be able to jump over Mr. Owens.

Finally, in the last track event of the day, the always energetic 4x800m team of Josh Elkan, Mike Wang, Jared Deshevsky, and Ben Dillon decided to try their luck. With splits of 2:12, 2:13, 2:24, and 2:24, and some obviously very complicated math involved that added around 7 seconds, the relay took 7th with a 9:20.

It should be noted that, before break, those who hadn't raced participated in a time trial. In the frigid winds of Cherry Hill, Ben The Bear Helfand came home in front with a 5:02ish. Other nice performances were posted by Frank The Valedictorian Zhang, Chris Arnold, and Russell Beatty.

Today, January 4th, most of the team hiked down Kresson Rd. for another South Jersey Classic, the Haddonfield outdoor indoor meet. In the 800, Ben Helfand blew away all comers with a 2:12. Ben Dillon posted a solid 5:09, with Jared Deshevsky not far behind in 5:14. Frank Zhang also ran 5:05.

All in all, a good start to a wonderful season, let us now focus our efforts on the 4x400. Keep on runnin'...