Let’s be real: no one really wants to read an article about track. And if you do, well then you are a rare form of the human species. However, we actually have some interesting (yes, interesting, we promise) news about last week’s meet. There was a consequential “run in” during a handoff of the girls 4 x 200 (no pun intended).
The meets take place at a location called the Amory, which is in Washington Heights, a great excuse to say you can’t make it due to “its inconvenient location”. However, this specific one was at a location in Staten Island called Ocean Breeze. There are a variety of events, ranging from 3200 meters (2 miles), to 55 meter dash, to long jump, to shot put, to 600 meters, to relays, to more.
The girls 4 x 200 team is a force to be reckoned with. Last week during this relay (200 meters is around one lap around the track, but ¾ of a lap around our Fieldston track), Paloma Hostin (Ⅳ) started the team off to an amazing start. She was placed in lane 5, which is the last lane and right near the entrance/exiting point of the track. The team was Hostin, Sophie Basner (Ⅳ), Juliette Reed (Ⅲ), and anchor Sky Johnson (Ⅵ). Hostin started the team off strong, but as she was crossing lanes, she tried to hand the baton to Basner. The track protocol for handing a baton is yelling ‘go’, slowly jogging, and then passing it from either top or bottom in the opposite hand that you are currently holding. It’s very confusing, and very easy to mess up. So, as Hostin yelled ‘GO’, and Basner slowly jogged, a girl trying to get off the track ran into Hostin on her way. Hostin subtly tripped over her, and successfully powered through this mishap by continuing her handoff. However, to her surprise, another girl was in her lane; so as the baton reached Basner’s hand, the girl ran into her. Basner went right through her and took off with aggression. This caused a collision costing them valuable and precious seconds. By the way: I am Basner. And let me tell you, it was completely and utterly embarrassing.
I was confused: I am always scared I’m going to mess up the handoffs, especially in a room where at least 100 people are watching me. I thought it was my fault at first, and was actually mortified. I then tried to catch up as best as I could, now behind due to what should have been a disqualification on two of the teams. I did eventually catch up, but then as I handed the baton to Reed, Reed began running like there was no tomorrow. She got the team from what was last to third, prompting Fieldston students to cheer like crazy. There was a lot of distance between her and the girls that she managed to run in front of, so as she passed the baton to Johnson, everyone knew it was over. Johnson kept the team in third, but there was a big distance between her and the two girls in front. Johnson cleared this distance by sprinting her all, despite the setbacks earlier.
The girls 4 x 200 got third place, even though this frustrating incident occurred. Hopefully we’ll get revenge at Ivy Prep Meet Development #5, on January 26th.
However, as for others who placed in the top five:
Congratulations to Skyy Johnson (VI) who got first place (per usual) in the girls 55 meter, and Juliette Reed who got third. This was out of 36 other girls.
Another congrats to Hostin (IV) getting 4th in the girls 300 meter dash. This was just one of her many other events that she killed.
Yet another victory to Ben Lindenbaum (V) who not only got 5th in the boys 300 meter dash, but then also came fourth in the 600 meter.
Owen Larson (III) came in second place for the 1600 meter, as Miles Segal (V) followed as fourth. They both got sub 5 (4:43 and 4:53 miles, though not their PR times).
Finally the boys relay teams (4 x 200 and 4 x 400) both got second!! This is especially amazing since all members of the relay ran events previous to this specific event.
And a special shout out to Issac Green (IV) who at one of the meets during FINALS WEEK forgot his uniform, left the bus, went home, got his uniform, took the train back to the meet and still did a great job!!
There were many other stats, so an overall congratulations to all other Fieldston athletes, especially for showing up!
