Port Chester T&F gets off & running & throwing with meet Wednesday vs White Plains & Panas
March 28, 2024 at 12:54 a.m.
A week before the Port Chester Rams Track & Field team’s first home meet Wednesday (4/3) against White Plains and Lakeland/Panas, the local mentors were discussing their potential starters in the various events with the names under discussion drawn from the 41 potential student-athletes out for the team.
What became readily apparent was the fact that those potential starters included some of the school's best athletes in other sports.
They included the nucleus of a possible football starting backfield in quarterback Nathan Provencher, running backs John Delcid and Mark Dorsainvil and key blocker Alejandro Velasquez. All-Section soccer player Ramaul Morgan Jr. was another immediate standout as was Santiago Marquez, the school's best swimmer ever, and Lady Rams undefeated league tennis team doubles players Casey Schultz, Juliana Castillo and Lucia Giordano.
The versatility counts
All, of course, would assume different roles in T&F.
And the coaches involved in making the decisions have the expertise that comes from more than 200 years of combined experience while also providing more than a few new wrinkles.
New Rams head coach Greg Domestico, a former Ram grid, wrestling and T&F great who has coached those sports here in the past, has returned after more than a decade away, bringing with him new running drills from his T&F stints at Greenwich High School and Sacred Heart, those techniques livening up practice for sprinters like Nick Wolff, Allegra Burke, distance runners such as Alexa Aguiriano and Jonathan Abraham, and middle distance aces including the Cruz sisters, Alexandra (Alee) and Elizabeth (Elle).
The veteran mentors
Domestico has 28 years of coaching experience under his belt as does his Rams sidekick, assistant coach Nick Mancuso, while Lady Rams head coach Danny Alvarado has 14 years mentoring teams with volunteer distance running coach Hank Birdsall, the leader of the pack with 50 years. Other veteran T&F mentors include assistant coaches Kathy Franceschini and Meliza Salmon and modified coach Cindy Reyes Martinez, who still holds the Lady Rams one-mile school record of five minutes flat.
Sprinter Allegra Burke warms up during track practice to prepare herself for a successful senior season.By Lennon Anderson
They have a lot of talent to choose from in a variety of events starting with their captains. Delcid, for example, runs the hurdles as well as legs on the sprint and middle distance relays while Abraham is a solid miler and two miler and comes back on the 800-meter relay. Alejandro Salinas specializes in the half-mile and mile and doubles on the two-mile relay. Lady Rams captain Elle Cruz specializes in the sprints and middle distance relays while her sister Alee, the longtime distance running captain, runs the individual events and comes back on the relays. And Maria Garcia is the team's shot put and discus specialist.
The talented lineup
There is a lot of ability up and down the lineup.
When it comes to pure speed, the Rams burners include Dorsainvil, Anderson Duran, Johaan Espinal, Ramaul Morgan, Cristian Montenegro, Adrian Osorio, Jaycee Rodriguez, Eduardo Sanchez and José Antonio Velasquez. Some combination thereof will make up the sprint relays as well as the individual sprint entries.
Marquez is the team's leading mile and two miler and also runs strong legs on the mile and two-mile relay. Christopher Zamora also specializes in those events.
Provencher shows strength in the field events such as the shotput and discus as does Miguel Valdovinos while Wolff is a top hurdler and long jumper. Morgan also high jumps and long jumps while Dorsainvil triple jumps as well as long jumps. And Delcid can fly over the hurdles.
The Lady Rams also offer a lot to choose from in distances ranging from the sprints to distance, the shotput to discus.
The leading ladies
The top sprinters include Burke, Castillo, Kimberly Flores, Elizabeth Franco, Aida Hernandez, Juliana Martinez, Mia Pagnotta, Sofia Rangel, Alison Recinos, Castillo and Schultz with some combination thereof running on the sprint relays. The leading middle distance runners include Andrea Barajas, Katheryn Espinoza, Chenoa Marquez, Kayley Martinez, Rangel and Mayerlin Torres. The long jumpers with more bounce to the ounce include Barajas, Burke, Flores, Franco, Pagnotta and Schultz. And the shot putters and discus throwers with the heave-ho ability include Evelyn Aguilar and Kimberly Maldonado with Rams football coach Chris Halstead working with the throwers to bring out the best in them.
And so it goes up and down a lineup that is sadly missing senior Mayerlin Gonzalez who will miss her last spring season due to surgery on her injured foot.
Tough league competition
All those names add up to proof that Port Chester has the talent to compete in one of the toughest leagues in ultra-competitive Section 1 while going up against a field that includes Fox Lane, Horace Greeley, Lakeland/Panas, Ossining and White Plains.
After that first dual meet tune up against White Plains and Lakeland/Panas, the T&F team will get a major test in the Pirate Relays next Saturday (4/6) at 9 a.m. in Pearl River followed by another dual meet next Tuesday (4/9) against Greeley and Lakeland/Panas at 4:30 p.m.
By then the Port Chester coaches and their team will have a better idea who their fastest and strongest performers are. Because you can't run with your mouth or jump or throw with your looks because your arms and legs have to do the talking for you. And the results don't lie.
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