Marquez emerging as Rams’ top x-country runner as team learns important lessons while on the run
October 2, 2024 at 10:38 p.m.
Port Chester's best swimmer ever is on his way to becoming one of the Rams’ best runners ever as well.
That means he will soon have a choice to make.
That’s because junior Venezuelan import Santiago Marquez has the athletic genes to make him a runaway success in either sport as well as a strong college athletic scholarship possibility.
But to win that scholarship, he must almost certainly concentrate on one sport.
Right now, that sport seems to be Track & Field as the focus of his attention.
And it shows.
On the run again
Marquez made the All-League cross-country team last year and looks like a sure thing to make All-League again based on his performances in the past week or so.
Marquez won his first ever major x-country race when he finished first in the Rye Town Championship Invitational last Wednesday (9/25) at Crawford Park, beating out the best runners from Rye, Rye Neck, Keio and host Blind Brook over the 2.3-mile course, a regular training ground for local harriers.
In so doing, he beat out Rye ace Clayton Stark while Rye's Lily Oberbannscheidt won the female division.
Rye wound up winning the local team championship in both the male and female categories.
"What makes that special for us is that all three of our x-country coaches are Rye alums," according to Garnets head coach Blair Moynahan, who coaches alongside Bryan Johnson and Jackalynn (Jackie McGowan). "Having the three of us working together to keep the strong running tradition at Rye going has made this a great season for the coaches as well as the athletes."
Races to build on
Ex-Lady Rams middle distance running great Cindy Reyes Martinez, who still holds the Port Chester female mile record at 5 minutes flat, is trying to do the same thing for Port Chester as the school's head x-country coach.
And Marquez, who won a first place medal in the Rye Town Invitational, is one of her best runners.
Marquez, a triathlon athlete whose family includes long-distance bicycle riders, ocean swimmers and marathon running professionals in his native Venezuela, has already set records as the best swimmer in Port Chester High School history. But he may have a better chance at a college scholarship as a runner because he has emerged as the Rams’ best middle-distance contender.
He followed up his Rye Town win with an impressive eighth place trophy-winning finish in the prestigious Fred Gressler Memorial Invitational last Saturday (9/28) in White Plains, a 3.1-mile race that brought together more than 100 runners from 15 different schools.
Right and wrong turns
While Marquez was the only Port Chester runner who finished in the top 10, Martinez was pleased with how well the team ran over the revamped course with its notorious "Wall," the local equivalent of Heartbreak Hill in the Boston Marathon.
Ram runners who distinguished themselves in "The Gressler" included two juniors in newcomers Ethan Cabrera and Chris Evans while Lady Ram standouts included Alexa Aguiriano, the first Port Chester female finisher in 26:27. She was followed across the finish line by Katheryn Espinoza, Mayerlin Torres and Camila Ramos. Strong freshman contributors included Andy Jimenez, the top Ram finisher, followed by Jencarlos Contreras, Saeed Sarraj and Sebastian Oliveros.
But the experience gained from participating in a meet like "The Gressler" was just as encouraging as the strong finishes.
The Rams’ Evans, for example, initially received a trophy for finishing in the top 10 ahead of Marquez. But because he had taken a wrong turn on the revised course, he realized he had actually run a shorter distance. So he told officials what had happened and returned his trophy, only to be told to keep it because of his honesty, although he was moved back in the order of finish.
Learning on the run
Evans wasn't the only runner who took a wrong turn over the revised course. The winner of the female division race took an errant turn that added distance to her run before reversing herself, getting back on track and still managing to win. The winners of the male division of the race, which was run in two separate varsity divisions, both finished in the identical time of 17:09.5, which underlines the importance of going all out from the get-go, because races, even in x-country long distance runs, can be decided by a fraction of a second.
Port Chester's head coach Martinez, also a language teacher in the Port Chester School District, saw the Rye Town Invitational and "The Gressler" as important learning steps forward for her up-and-coming harriers. And she sees their next meet, the Bobcat Invitational, Saturday (10/5) at Byram Hills at 9 a.m. as another learning experience in their long-distance running development. She predicts Marquez will be right up there with the leaders. And hopefully no runners will take any wrong turns.
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