On Saturday, January 10, the boys track team competed at the annual Hispanic Games at the Armory Track in Washington Heights against schools from all throughout the east coast. Although they did not have many top place finishers, junior Abdoulaye Diallo placed in the top fifteen in the 800 meter dash and several of the boys set personal records.
In the 200 meter dash, junior Aidan Moran placed 173rd out of 246 runners with a time of 25.78 seconds. Junior Evan Noblesala finished shortly thereafter in 176th place with a time of 25.86 seconds. Senior captain Stanley Harcharan ran with a time of 26.39 seconds, enough to come in the top 200 in 197th place.
In the 400 meter dash, sophomore Justice Williams placed 93rd out of 257 runners by setting a personal record of 55.10. Junior Dysron Marshall placed 162nd with a time of 57.03.
Junior Abdoulaye Diallo placed 13th out of 202 runners in the 800 meter dash, completing the race in exactly two minutes. Sophomore Muhamed Bicic who set a personal record of 2:04, placed 30th. Junior Matthew Sullivan placed 151st, setting a personal record of 2:17, and junior Benjamin Chang also set a personal record by finishing one second later, placing 156th.
“The individual 800 was awfully crowded and many of the athletes were violating racing policies during the race. It was a very tense atmosphere. It was a horrible performance because [I was] being too passive during the race. I should’ve been just as aggressive as my other competitors and should’ve avoided being boxed in at all costs,” said Abdoulaye who, despite placing highly, was disappointed with his performance.
In the 4 X 400 meter relay, a team comprised of Stanley, Dysron, Benjamin, and junior Evan Noblesala placed 43rd out of 50 teams. They finished with a time of 3:50. In the 4 X 800 meter relay, a team of Abdoulaye, Muhamed, Justice, and senior Yash Sharma finished with a time of 8:33, placing 20th out of 31 teams. Abdoulaye set a personal record of 1:58 in his leg of the race.
At the end of the day, although many set personal records, the team felt as though they had not stood up to the competition as well as they could have.
“A majority of us did not run our best and I think we need to improve on trying our hardest at these invitational meets,” Dysron said.
Matthew, who thought the team had done well in terms of their own standards, added, “As a whole we did pretty nicely, but when we go against competition from up and down the entire east coast, we are not the best.” He finished by saying that, regardless of the outcome, the team did their best.
