Port Chester's T&F team off and running at The Armory with stellar performances from sprints to middle distance
December 19, 2024 at 1:48 a.m.
Port Chester's Track & Field team got off and running on Friday and Sunday, Dec. 6 and 8, in their first championship meets of the winter season at The Armory in New York City. They came away with medals in three relay events ranging from the sprints to middle distances and numerous stellar performances in both meets.
The relay medal winners alone don't tell the complete story because various Ram and Lady Ram runners were also quick off the mark with noteworthy feats as they took part in the Northshore Open and Kickoff Meet respectively.
Medal winners first
Marc Adens Dorsainvil, Anderson Duran, Eduardo Sanchez and Cristian Montenegro finished a medal-winning fourth in the sprint relay in the Kickoff Meet. And the Lady Rams medaled twice with Elizabeth (Ellie) Cruz, Casey Schultz, Juliana Castillo and Kimberly Flores racing to a third place finish in the 4x200-meter relay with a time of 1:59.77 while the 4x800-meter relay strode their way to a fifth place finish in 12:06. The latter involved a quartet revolving around Abigail Pesantez, Camila Ramos, Chenoa Marquez and Alexa Aguiriano, each running the metric equivalent of a half mile.
But that represents only a glimpse of how well the approximately 40 Lady Rams and 25 Rams performed in a three-ring circus of relay carnival events going on simultaneously at The Armory with runners, jumpers and throwers competing at the same time on and off the track.
It adds up to quite a show and several local runners had their star turns.
Duran and Dorsainvil standouts
In the Northshore, Duran ran Port Chester's fastest time in the 55-meter dash at 7:09 with Montenegro, Nicholas Wolff and Eduardo Sanchez right on his heels. Dorsainvil raced the grueling almost all out 300 meters in 38:59, finishing ninth overall.
In the Kickoff Meet, Dorsainvil was the individual standout, the fastest Port Chester runner of them all, because he finished a medal-winning third overall against all comers in the individual 55-meter race.
The 55 meters represents the T&F meet in a hurry up-and-wait microcosm. Because the event is over in almost a long blink once the starter's gun goes off with the difference between the winners and losers a fraction of a second.
But the time between the qualifying heats and the finals can stretch into hours, meaning it is a long day's journey into night as events drag on, from the quarter to half mile, mile to two-mile run and the field events encompassing the long jump, high jump, pole vault, hurdles and more.
The close finishes
Indicative of how close the finishes can be, less than a second separated multiple Rams in the 55 meters because right behind Duran, Montenegro, Wolff and Sanchez came a veritable parade of their teammates with Chris Castro, Eduardo Coyt, Alex Cruz, Brandan Rodriguez, Alex Sigua and John Pauletti all finishing in under eight seconds.
And the beat went on for the Lady Rams in the 55 meters with Ellie Cruz the fastest in 8:08 with Schultz, Castillo, Dynasti Oneil and Kimberly Flores right on her heels followed in close order by Daniela Lopez, Fatima Coyt, Rachel Thomas, Jasmine Pantoja, Kayla Morel, Faith Adamson, Sophia Camacho and more.
There were lots of fast times including those turned in by middle distance runners Alexander Cruz, Sebastian Olivera, Cristian Guevera and Christopher Zamora, 1,000-meter runner Joel Peralta and long throws from shot putters Pauletti, Aidyn Richmond and Fatima Coyt with other noteworthy performances turned in by Katheryn Espinosa, Bryan Rivera, Jandell Sacramento and Jencarlos Contreras.
Coaches Chris Halstead, Rich Laconi and Cindy Reyes Martinez think their team put on quite a show. And the show goes on in various venues near and far as the winter season begins to hit its stride.
The latest T&F hits
In Port Chester's latest meets, the underclassmen gave impressive performances in the Freshman/Sophomore Meet at Rockland Community College (RCC) last Tuesday (Dec. 10). Dynasti Oneil, Rachel Thomas, Jasmine Pantoja and Eria Barzallo ran the fastest times for the Lady Rams while Jencarlos Contreras was The Man for the Rams, excelling in the sprints with times of 7:89 in the 55 meters and 45:31 in the 300 meters. But the RCC meet also showed the T&F team needs more sprinters from the 9th and 10th grades to carry on the traditional Port Chester strength in the sprint events.
That strength was apparent in the way the upperclassmen ran in the Jan Mitchell Invitational last Saturday (12/14) at The Armory in NYC with only a limited number of Ram and Lady Ram runners making the cut. The Rams’ fastest runners—Marc Adens-Dorsainvil, Anderson Duran, Nicholas Wolff and Eduardo Sanchez—raced to strong finishes in the 4x200-Meter Relay as well as the 300 Meters and Martinez, the Lady Rams’ coach who has worked with the girls since they were in Middle School, took special pride in the way Casey Schultz, Juliana Castillo, Kimberly Flores and Elizabeth (Ellie) Cruz have developed into varsity medal contenders in the 4x200 Meters. While they didn't medal in the Mitchell Invitational, they did run well as did middle distance runners Alexa Aguiriano, Abigail Pesantez, Katheryn Espinoza, Karla Sigua and Chenoa Marquez in the 600- and 1,000-meter runs. And with Rams sophomore middle distance ace Christopher Zamora out due to illness, other sophs stepped up with noteworthy runs turned in by Alejandro Hernandez, Alexander Cruz and Cristian Guevera.
The T&F team keeps working hard to get better, the times keep getting faster, and the meets continue even though there will be a competitive intermission during the winter season holiday break. But the coaches will use that time for practices designed to build more power and speed into their team's T&F performance. Because the show must go on in venues ranging from the RCC to The Armory and they want Port Chester to be a long-running hit.
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