On Saturday, April 18, 2017, Colonia’s Boys’ and Girls’ Varsity versed North Brunswick High School in a highly competitive meet of Track & Field. Both schools were cheering on the fastest runners, jumpers, throwers, and sprinters.
Track & Field is divided into track and field events. They consist of:
- Throwing
- Jumping
- Sprinting
- Distance
Track events include: 100 & 400 hurdles (10 hurdles within 100 or 400 meters), high, long, and triple jumps, and pole vaulting.
As for the field events, they were divided into sprinting and distance. The difference between sprinting and distance is that sprinting requires faster strides, whereas, for distance, you need a better pace, and shorter stride. Sprinting has been categorized into 100, 200, and 400 meters. On the other hand, distance consists of 800, 1600, and 3200 meters.
The track events were ordered in: 400 hurdles, 100, 1600, 400, 100/110 high hurdles, 800, 200, 3200, and 4 x 400. As these events are going on, the throwers are throwing. There were many events, but the competitiveness, and determination shown within each athlete is truly inspiring.
As the meet began, athletes headed off to do hurdles, while the crowd cheered on their friends and family members. Zachary Benedicks is the fastest athlete in the 100 and 400 hurdles for boys varsity.
When the hurdles completed, the boys and girls went onto running. Olayinka Illelaboye had the fastest 400 meter time: 1.04 seconds. She is recognized as the fastest sprinter for girls varsity. As for the boys, Dylan Hendricks had the fastest 400 meter time: 51.9 seconds.
However for distance, Adriana Munoz was the fastest runner in the 800 meter with a time of 2 minutes and 52 seconds. As for the 1600, Mehak Ali had a time of 6 minutes and 38 seconds.
After running, we moved onto jumping. For long jump, Cassidy Williams had the best measurement for girls varsity: 15 feet, 8 inches. On the other end of the rope, Nelson Wyatt had the highest measurement for long jump: 23 feet, 3 inches. Cassidy also had the best height for triple jump: 28 feet, 3 inches. As for the high jump, Ashley Lourenco had a height of 4 feet, 6 inches.
After all the track & field events had finished, we moved onto the most entertaining part of track & field, the relay! The girls went first, and as the first, second, and third runner went onto pass the baton to each teammate, it was up to the fastest sprinter to finish the lead! Olayinka had won the hearts of multiple teammates and friends as she finished the relay in first place!
Lastly, the boys went. After each runner went, Nelson went onto win for the team. As he got in the lead, his opponent was struggling to catch up, but finally Nelson won first place!
My good friend Emilie Fernandez, who is a stats girl for the throwing part of track & field said, “we did a lot better than our last couple of meets.” She went onto explain how the team wasn’t doing so well in their previous meets, but after today she believed they showed a lot more improvement.
I had a recent interview with the boys varsity coach, Mr. Sandor Csapo. He told me that he has been the head coach for 19 years now. He also mentioned that his team has improved over the last few meets. Some advice or tips he provides to his team is: “improve upon your last,” meaning however well his team performed last time, he suggests to do even more better than that. In this meet against North Brunswick High, Csapo said they lost by a few points. His team has had one win, but two losses. For the upcoming GMC, he is deciding to put his top three players in the events that they’re best at. As for conditioning goes, Csapo makes his runners do interval training, and distance runs. He says they’re the most primary exercises.
Although Colonia didn’t win, the hard work and determination that is put in within each player is extraordinary. As I watched this meet, I had witnessed the abundance amount of support our school gave to each player as they went onto perform their event. Sticking together as a team, and providing positivity among each player is what Colonia is all about.
