Woodlands Invitational 10/2

Harriers show great improvement

PRs a plenty

 By Myles Stryder

There was no mid-week dual meet on the schedule for the last week of September, so the team took advantage of the extra time to do some good workouts. Monday was a hill/speedwork combo and Wednesday was 1000 m. intervals on the field for the first time this season. It must have been just what the team needed, because our second trip to Woodlands proved to be much speedier than our first.

  About two years ago the decision was made to move the County meet from Croton  Point to Woodlands H.S.. Since than, our Greenburgh neighbors have been busy hosting many meets. This was the second annual Woodlands Invitational and Hamilton’s first appearance. The meet was mid-sized, about twenty teams, and it was quite the interesting mix of schools as our Harriers found themselves running against teams from Bronxville, the South Bronx and even the German International School.

  The day started cloudy and cool with a forecast for showers. Luckily though, the skies stayed overcast the rain never appeared. First race of the day sent our freshman team to the line. It’s been fun this season watching this young bunch of guys starting to develop into a unit. Chris Y. decided to

Chris Y. leading the frosh

take advantage of the opportunity to compete against guys his own age.  He was first across the line for us with a time of 11:51 on the slow 1.5 mi. woodchip covered  course.  Omar followed as our #2 with a 12:16. Dennis and Brennan came in together for our numbers 3 and 4. They were followed by Savallya and Joe who both cut minutes off their times from our previous trip to Woodlands. The boys combined to beat both Ardsley and Westlake. This Frosh squad has got some talent, and there is no reason why another one or maybe even two of them might wind up joining Chris wearing red shirts by the end of the season.

  

frosh with Captain Ryan

 Next to the line were our JV boys Christian Torres decided to join Corey for the run and both of them put up their best times ever. Christian running a 28:49 and Corey finally breaking 30:00. This was a monkey that Hamilton Baseball’s best pitcher wanted off his back, and the whole team was glad to see him finally do it.

  We only had three ladies today, so the decision was made to run them in the JV race. Being in the mix and closer to the front seemed to motivate them. Naomi was sixth overall across the line, snagging a medal in the process. The award was nice, but more  impressive was her PR performance landing her in our top 7 all time.  Megan after a late night dinner, which won’t be described here, also put up a very solid performance of 26:07. Clearly though, one of the highlights of the day was seeing senior Jenn Vargas have her best race since joining Hamilton’s team last season. Jenn ran a determined race and put up a PR of 28:34.

Lady Raiders ready to race

  Our boys’ varsity team was not at full strength. Chris Y. ran Frosh and Stephen S. was out injured. We put 6 guys on the line and they gave it their all. There is something a little different about this team this season. They just have a little more desire. Lowell led the red shirts with a 20:41, a ways from his PR, but not bad for October 1. Ryan looked good coming in just 15 seconds off his best. Rookie Brandon Machado cut minutes off his best crossing the line at 23:47. Rock solid Jeffrey Quispe was next across with a PR as well. Jonathon, with a tremendous finish, catching a Children’s Village runner in the last 100m ran a season’s best as did Luciano. By the way, that last pass helped us edge out Children’s Village in the final standings.

  All in all, it was a very successful day. This a different team from the last couple. You can see it from the way they warm up and the way they do their cool down runs.  Today was the start of October. It could be a very interesting month indeed, stay tuned.