Rams & Lady Rams race to fast T&F times at League Championships at Armory in NYC

January 24, 2024 at 11:27 p.m.

Casey Schultz (left) and Juliana Castillo have gone from playing fast-paced doubles during Port Chester’s championship tennis season to accomplishing winning times in various events during the indoor winter track season. (File Photo/Westmore News)

They were not off and running this past Sunday (1/21) at Aqueduct Race Track because the thoroughbred racing was canceled due to harsh weather conditions. But on Monday (1/22) Yonkers Race Track opened its season anyway for its trotters no matter what the winter weather did or didn’t do.

Port Chester’s Track & Field (T&F) team knows what it feels like in both those cases because their most recent League Championship Meet at the Armory in New York City Jan. 7 was canceled due to snow. But they did finally get a chance to compete there this past Sunday (1/21) and made the most of the opportunity in the league title competition against Fox Lane, Horace Greeley, Lakeland/Panas, White Plains and Ossining.

The finishing kick

In the most exciting race of the day for Port Chester in that indoor meet on one of the fastest tracks in the nation, the Lady Rams’ Liz Cruz sprinted from way back to catch the White Plains runner in front of her for a third place bronze medal in the 4x200 meters anchoring the quartet that included Juliana Castillo, Casey Schultz and Alexandra Cruz. They hit the tape in 1:59,8.

Castillo also won a bronze medal in the long jump with a leap of 13:8.75 and was one of the fastest Lady Rams in the 55-meter sprint event with Schultz recording the team's fastest time (8:03), followed closely by Liz Cruz (8:15) and Dynasti O'Neill.

The dynamic duo

Schultz and Castillo were also the fastest doubles players on Port Chester's undefeated league championship tennis team and that speed carried over into the indoor winter track season.

Other top Lady Ram performers included Venezuelan triathlon transfer Chenoa Marquez who raced to a bronze third place medal in the 1,500 meters, the metric equivalent of the mile run, in a time of 3:49.16, ran a personal best record of 3:16 in the 1,000 meters and came back to run on the 4x800-meter relay with Alexa Aguiriano, Katherine Espinoza and Camila Ramos.

Aguiriano ran the team's best time in the near all-out sprint that is the 600 meters, finishing in a time of 2:00.14 with Alexandra Cruz right on her heels in 2:03.9. And Maria Garcia tossed the shot 20:11.6.

The fastest Rams

While the Rams didn't medal, they recorded some very fast times in the 4x200-meter relay, just missing out on a bronze while sprinting through the distance in a 1:41.96 time that earned them a fourth place finish with a quartet that included Johan Espinal, Jaycee Rodriguez, Anderson Duran and John Delcid. Alejandro Salinas finished sixth in the grueling 600 meters while clocking 1:36.46, and Jonathan Abaham ran the 1,600 meters in 5:21.4.

"The kids did a good job especially since they competed in one of the toughest T&F leagues in all of Section One," head Rams coach Nick Mancuso said at the end of the day-long meet.

They get a chance to do it all over again, maybe even better, in the County Championships Saturday (1/27) at the Armory in NYC. Weather permitting, of course.