In honor of Martin Luther King Day, on January 20 the PSAL held their annual MLK games at the Armory Track marking this as the last PSAL meet until the Queens Championship on February 17. With this on their mind, the boys lined up at their starting marks ready to leave a strong impression with their competitors in hopes of qualifying for the Championship.
Freshman Adam Sosnicki held his spot at first in the frosh triple jump with a performance of 31’ 4” competing against four other boys from HS for Construction. In the varsity race junior Junwoo Shin placed 17 out of 24 competitors with a performance of 33’ 7” was followed by senior Brian Van in 19 place with a performance of 31’ 5”.
Regarding his performance Shin said, “Despite being my personal record I feel that I am not doing my best I could be doing. I’ve had plenty of time to strengthen myself but i’ve had no time to actually practice with the recent snow and all.” Shin also placed 35th in the long jump with a performance of 16’ and Sosnicki finished 3rd in the Frosh event with a height of 15’ 11”.
After breaking 5 minutes in the 1600 meter run, freshman Muhamed Bicic and senior Christian Castro continue with their stride to greatness. Castro finished with a time of 4:51 followed by Bicic with a time of 4:56.
Being that the MLK games is a meet focused around the high school relay teams, the Townsend boys placed in several events. In the 4×400 Relay the Townsend team placed 29th with a time of 4:05 with a mixed team of juniors and sophomores; juniors Stanley Harcharan and Akash Pollai and sophomores Aidan Moran and Benjamin Chang. In the 4×200 meter run, juniors Akash Pillai and Shaun Kapse along with sophomores Fahim Nousad and Benjamin Chang placed 76th with a time of 1:48. Finally, in the 4×800 meter run, two Townsend Teams placed. The first consisted of sophomores Abdoulaye Diallo and Noah Silversmith, freshman Muhamed Bicic and senior and captain Kyle Su finishing in 7th with a time of 8:43. Next, Townsend placed 13th thanks to senior Christian Castro and Brian Van, junior Yash Sharma and sophomore Matthew Sullivan with a time of 9:22.
Sophomore Aidan Moran said, “Obviously I have supreme confidence in my team, I know that they do their absolute best in every meet.”
With one meet left until Queens Champs the boys track team is hard at work in preparation for the very important meet that is now less than a month away. Practices include intense workouts with less rest periods in order for the boys to prepare them themselves for the fast pace they will be seeing at Champs.
Sharma says, “It’s a tough competition, but I believe that with the proper training, we’ll do fantastic ar Queens Champs and take home the gold.”
With schools such as Francis Lewis and Midwood as their competitors, the boys track team has plenty of work of ahead of them. The next boys track meet will be held on Friday January 24 at the Armory Track.
