Blind Brook makes 'His and Hers' T&F history in Loucks Games and impresses in Sectionals
May 22, 2024 at 10:33 p.m.
In a Blind Brook Track & Field first, the Trojans and Lady Trojans raced to an historic "His and Her" mixed mile relay second place finish in a rare event staged for the first time in Westchester during the Loucks Games, one of the premier championship meets in the Northeast.
The Lady Trojans came back to complete a daily double—racing to the second fastest time posted by any girls’ team in Westchester's Section 1 in the 4x400-meter relay in the 56th running of the prestigious Loucks Games in White Plains.
The Lady Trojans did it with a freshman and senior who doubled in both relay events, teaming up with a sophomore set of twins coming on strong to run the second and third legs in the metric equivalent of the mile relay.
Stepped up training
Blind Brook's T&F improvement revolves around head coach Santosh Krishnan's training regimen built around his need for speed.
Krishnan's track smarts derive from a knowhow that comes from his having walked the walk, talked the talk and run the run as a former high school and collegiate track star.
Put that all together and the Loucks Games became the perfect venue for the Blind Brook runners to strut their ever-improving stuff on a recent Saturday (May 11) on the area's biggest stage.
This year's edition of The Loucks attracted more than an estimated 1,000 top tier athletes from 228 schools from 10 states, Washington, D.C. and Ontario, Canada.
Premier showcase
Just qualifying for The Loucks represents quite an achievement.
And the Blind Brook team made the most of their showcase, staging an unforgettable track shoedunit, whodunit and whowonit T&F experience for the local runners and their 26-year-old mentor.
In the initial "His and Her" mixed boys and girls 4x400-meter relay, Blind Brook finished second to Massapequa with the winners hitting the tape in 3:43.81 with the local team right behind them. Blind Brook ran with a quartet that included senior Kayleigh Curran, junior Danny Keilman and freshman Sena Tarnoff running on the first three legs with senior Will Jaffee running the anchor leg. Each runner raced the metric equivalent of a quarter mile hitting the respective times of 61.5, 52.8, 62 and 52.8 seconds.
From left, Sena Tarnoff, Ella Rosenfeld, Kayleigh Curran and Oriah Rosenfeld took second place in the girls’ 4x400-meter relay for all Section 1 teams in the Loucks Games May 11.Courtesy of Santosh Krishnan
It was the first time Keilman broke 53 seconds in a quarter mile race, the first time Keilman and Jaffee both broke 53 in the same race and the first time both Lady Trojans ran that fast.
Seeing double double
The Lady Trojans came back and sped around the track in the 4x400-meter relay with a foursome that included Tarnoff, Ella Rosenfeld, Curran and Oriah Rosenfeld with the Rosenfelds just one of the young sets of twins who are running so well for Blind Brook.
Twin brothers Evan and Tom Maniscalco are 8th graders who have also been burning up the track. Evan has already hit a personal best record of 5:03.51 for the mile. He also qualified for and ran in the Middle School Nationals in that event indoors in March in New York City. Tom has clocked 58:54 in the 400 meters. He made the varsity team in that event and raced with them during the Section 1 Westchester championships last week (5/18) at Yorktown. That 4x400-meter relay team lined up with Jafee, Keilman and sophomore Noah Brecher who ran the distance in 53:5. Both Jaffee and Keilman ran in the low 53s in that meet. And Maniscalco hit 62.
Jaffee and Keilman both continue to impress as probably the team's fastest runners. Both ran on the Trojans team in the Nike Outdoor Nationals in Eugene, Oregon, last year and both ran the all out sprint that is the 200 meters in under 24 seconds to make it into the finals of this year's Section 1 championships. Tarnoff raced her way into the Section 1 finals for the Lady Trojans in both the quarter mile and 100 meters, and finished sixth in the 100, medaling in that event, quite a feat for a freshman.
All of which adds up to the fact that Blind Brook is coming on strong in T&F with the team looking to keep improving in the outdoor Section 1 New York State Championship Qualifying Meet Thursday and Friday (5/30/31) at 5 and 4 p.m. respectively in Arlington and Suffern. And the odds are good that they will because they will be competing in Class C against similar smaller schools with the same kind of student populations to draw their athletes from, the faster the better.
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