Port Chester's T&F big picture looking a lot better with solid performances in Penn and Rye Relays
May 1, 2024 at 11:28 p.m.
It all depends on how you look at it—whether you see the big picture when it comes to Port Chester Track & Field or the blurred image from a quick take on a negative that could well be a positive based on the team's latest performances on local and national stages.
On first impression, the reaction could be disappointment over how the Port Chester relay teams fared in the prestigious Penn Relays last Thursday and Friday (Apr. 25 and 26).
Until you realize that just to qualify to get there, the teams had to meet rigorous standards to compete against the nation's best teams at Franklin Field in West Philadelphia—the country's oldest college stadium—in America's oldest and largest T&F competition staged annually since 1895 by the University of Pennsylvania in an historic rite of spring that draws more than 100,000 spectators.
Three fast relay teams
When you look at it that way, the local kids did all right even though they didn't medal or come close to doing so.
Because in just getting there to run, they became the first Port Chester T&F teams to compete in that meet since 2013.
And run well they did with the girls’ 4x100-meter relay setting a personal record of 53:74 on Thursday running with a quartet consisting of Juliana Castillo, Elizabeth (Elle) Cruz, Mia Pagnotta and Casey Schultz.
The girls’ 4x400-meter relay also recorded good times with Pagnotta, Elle Cruz and her big sister Alexandra (Alee) and anchor leg Alexa Aguiriano each running the metric equivalent of a quarter mile in the combined time of 4:34.85. While the Rams didn't set any personal records, the boys’ 4x100-meter relay raced to a 47:69 finish on Friday running with a foursome that included John Delcid, Anderson Duran, Ramaul Morgan Jr. and Jaycee Rodriguez.
On to the Rye Relays
What made those times even more impressive was the way many of those same runners rebounded to come back and run so well last Saturday (4/27) in the locally prestigious Rye Relays.
Indeed, the vast improvement shown by Port Chester's T&F team of late is a tribute to the innovative ways introduced by new Ram coach Greg Domestico, Lady Rams head coach Danny Alvarado and their veteran sidekick, Nick Mancuso.
Domestico, a former Rams three-sport athlete (football, wrestling, T&F) who has coached all those sports in Port Chester and has returned after coaching elsewhere over the past decade, has already introduced many innovations designed to jolt the Port Chester student-athletes out of their comfort zone, from starting and stick passing techniques to entering them in meets where they have never or rarely competed before like the Penn and Rye Relays.
And the results indicate he—and they—are on the right track.
Top Ram performances
In the Rye Relays, junior football running back Marc Dorsainvil finished first in the 200 meters in the very fast time of 23:65, a personal record. That time shows Domestico made the right move in holding Dorsainvil back from making the Penn Relays sprint team because he was nursing a mild leg injury that could only stiffen up during the two-hour bus ride to Philly and quite possibly cost him the season.
Duran, who did make the Penn Relays team, came back to finish third in the 200 meters in 24:07 in the Rye Relays while Delcid, another Penn Relays runner, finished seventh in the 400 meters there. Both teamed up with their other Penn Relays running mates Morgan and Rodriguez to finish second in the 4x100-meter relay.
Delcid, a former Rams football senior co-captain and outstanding running and defensive back, pulled an Iron Man, also ran the leadoff leg on the 4x400-meter relay team that finished second in the Rye Relays racing on a foursome that included Nicholas Wolff, Jeremy Salazar and Eduardo Sanchez. Wolff had enough spring left in his legs to win the long jump with a leap of 18:4.
The Rams showed their improvement in the middle distance events by finishing second in the 4x800-meter relay with a team comprised of Santiago Marquez, Alejandro Salinas, Arturo Orozco and Christopher Zamora each running the metric equivalent of a half mile. The sprint medley relay showed the team's versatility by finishing second in the combined time of 3:57.83 with Delcid leading off on the 400-meter leg, Duran and Sanchez each running 200 meters and Marquez anchoring with a grueling 800-meter run. The distance medley came in third while hitting the finish line in a time of 13:10.78 with a team of Salinas running 1,200 meters (the metric equivalent of three quarters of a mile), Joseantonio Velasquez (400 meters), Orozco (800) and Zamora (1600).
The local leading ladies
The Lady Ram Penn Relays stalwarts did themselves proud in their Rye Relays runs starting with the 4x100-meter relay that finished second in 53:86 with a team that included Castillo, Schultz, Elle Cruz and Pagnotta.
In the individual events, Pagnotta finished fourth in the 400 meters in 1:04.25 while Alee Cruz and Aguiriano came in 10th and 11th in the same event in the times of 1:11.42 and 1:11.53. Castillo took fourth in the long jump with a leap of 14:9.75 while Maria Garcia and Kimberly Maldonado came in sixth and seventh by throwing the shot put 22:1 and 22 flat respectively.
In the middle distance events Aguiriano, Kemberly Flores, Alee Cruz and Andrea Barajas hit their stride in the 4x400-meter relay by finishing fourth in the time of 4:46 while the 4x800-meter relay team took third in 13:01 running with a quartet consisting of Chenoa Marquez, Mayerlin Torres, Katherin Espinoza and Camila Ramos. The sprint relay clocked 4:57.78 running with Pagnotta (400 meters), Schultz and Elle Cruz (both 200 meters) and Aguiriano (800).
The next running step
All those participants added up to quite a Port Chester T&F performance in the Rye Relays multi-school competition staged in honor of the late Jim Yedowitz who coached Rye T&F for more than 40 years and died of pancreatic cancer in 2019.
Participating schools included Eastchester, Woodlands, Kellenberg, Byram Hills, Edgemont, Rye and Port Chester.
The Rams and Lady Rams will get a chance to do it all over again Saturday (5/4) at 10 a.m. in the Somers Relays.
Depending on how you look at the T&F big picture locally, things are improving for the Port Chester T&F team—and looking better every day.
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