Bronxville League Meet

by Dayton Flannery

On May 11th the Bronxville Boys’ Varsity Track team raced in the league championship meet. Competing against schools including Children’s Village, Blind Brook, and Valhalla, the Bronxville team ran fast and was crowned league champions at the end of the day.

Bronxville began the meet winning the 3200m relay. With Valhalla as their biggest competition it was important to start the meet off with some points. The 4x800 team featured freshmen Jack Dennen, Julian Bardin, James Harrison, and senior, sub-two minute 800 runner Christian Yoo. Our three fresh men worked hard to give Yoo the baton in a nice position, but it didn’t matter because Yoo simply toyed with Valhalla’s anchor leg. After the boys placed in the 110m hurdles, second, fourth, and fifth, the spectators had the pleasure of watching Bronxville’s very own human machine, Nat Recine, run the 100m dash. Recine placed first in a time of 11.3 with teammates Liam Berney and Luke Nichols taking second and fifth.

All of these points were much appreciated considering the boys were missing their star hurdler, Jonathon Sturr. Unfortunately Sturr couldn’t make the meet due to illness. “I thought at three o’clock that we had lost the meet,” says head coach Ed Stickles of Sturr’s absence. Everyone on the team knew it would be a tough meet to win because they had only beaten Valhalla by three points in the regular season. Sturr scores points for Bronxville in both the pole vault and all hurdle events.

Despite their loss of athletes, the boys track team persevered. In the 400m run, freshman Jack Aherne took 2nd in a time of 55.0. Only to follow him was eighth grader Luke Marrone, taking fourth place in a personal best of 58.0. The 1600m followed the 400m and Bronxville placed first, second, and sixth. Within that race were three personal bests from seventh grader John Flannery (5:10), eighth grader John Vetromile (5:11), and freshman James Harrison (5:13). Moments after the 1600, we all had the pleasure of watching Recine and Liam Berney place first and second followed by Xavier Lessane who ran a personal best of 25.8. To finish the meet, Bronxville won the last 5 track events. Overall they won 9 out of the 11 track events at the league meet, meaning at least 9 all-league athletes.

In between track events athletes also participated in field events. In the shot put, Kieran Borcich placed second throwing 44’4”. Right behind him was his fellow sophomore Henry Palermo who threw 39’7.5”. Also placing in the top six (scoring in all events goes six deep) were juniors Luke Nichols and Hart Mechlin. Mechlin and Palermo also came back and placed third and fifth in the discus. Palermo threw a personal best of 97’11”. In our jumps at the league meet, we found Robert Mahlman placing second and Luke Marrone in fifth. Bronxville also placed third, fourth, and fifth in the high jump; they were lead by Tyler Grantham who jumped a personal best of 5’2”. Also among the field events was a very exciting pole vault. Bronxville had five athletes in the pole vault and four of them had personal bests. Jack Dennen came in second, clearing 9’. Right behind him was junior Karl Benziger clearing 8’6”. Freshmen Niki Balac (7’6”) and Thomas Hudson (7’) placed 4th and 6th.

Out of 17 events over the course of the entire meet, the boys’ track team won more than half. It’s fair to conclude that they deserved the win. Even with missing athletes, the boys managed to pull off a 228-208 victory over Valhalla. Children’s Village came in third with 38 points and Blind Brook had 35. On Wednesday, May 20, the boys’ track and field team will try their luck against a bigger field in the Class C Sectional meet held in Bronxville.