Spring Track Teams Have Strong Rosters

Horace Greeley

One of the key performers on the boys side is junior Adam Cooper, who does the discus.

“The last time he was out the last meet, on a nice day, he threw 134 and change,” Greeley coach Chuck Sehulster said. “He works real hard at throwing the discus. I seem him going 145ish.”

Another key performer that Sehulster will be relying on is senior Jon Abrams, who competes in the 100 and 200-meter relays.

“Jon is a nice, solid sprinter,” Sehulster said. “He ran winter track with me and now he is doing spring track. He lost some time because he was involved in a musical but that’s all over now. All the kids are back.”

Other key members of the team include pole vaulters, seniors Chris Pest, Chris Goldsmith and Adam Baitch.

“They have some talent,” Sehulster said. “They did very well last year when they could vault. Now this is their last year, their last hurrah and they are working hard to make the most of it. Anyone of them could break the school record (12 feet).”

One of the key members of the girls squad is sophomore Kathleen Chen, who excels in the long and triple jump and is also a sprinter.

“Kathleen did quite well last year,” Chen said. “She did reasonably good in the long and triple jump.”

Sophomore Lindsay Bouchard, who does the hurdles and is also a sprinter and senior Emma Pile, a distance-mile runner, will also be heavily relied on.

“Lindsay is reasonably fast,” Sehulster said. “It’s hard to get kids to do the hurdles and she did it in the winter a little bit and she is doing the hurdles now in the spring.”

“Emma is a distance person,” Sehulster continued. “She did cross country. She would’ve done winter track but she was sick this winter. She is now back at 100 percent. She runs the mile and also two-mile occasionally.”

Sehulster said the biggest priority for his squad is doing well in the league championships and big meets on the weekends.

“The dual meets are nice but the events later on in the season are the most important thing,” Sehulster said. “When we come back from vacation, I have two meets and my dual meet season is over for the rest of the season. Then it’s the weekend meets and leagues, that is what we push for.”

Fox Lane

On the girls side, the Foxes are led by senior Janice Johnson, a shot putter who was third in the state competition last spring and second at the states during this winter season.

“She has a lot of natural strength,” said Fox Lane coach Steve Petrillo, who coaches the Foxes along with Chris Dossena. “She does a lot of hard work in the weight room on her own outside of our daily practice. We expect big things from her. She has already committed to Albany on a scholarship for next year. That’s also something we like to highlight.”

Petrillo also expects big things from the distance crew of junior Rachel Eisman, junior Serena Malsin and sophomore Carly Schwartz.

“They can do everything from the 800 to the 3,000,” Petrillo said. “They can run individual events, they can run together as a relay team. Our distance runners are always the hardest workers we have on the track team. Those girls have over the years, they have established something that had been the missing piece of this team sometimes.”

Petrillo feels that the girls should be competitive in their league.

“Some of those individuals especially Janice and the distance runners, we expect to move into the post season, have a chance at sectionals and maybe even make a run at the states,” Petrillo said.

Leading the boys will be senior distance runner Carl Turner.

“He’s our team leader, we probably expect the most points out of him,” Petrillo said.

Senior Kenny Jones will make contributions as both a sprinter and high jumper.

Petrillo says that Jones is a team player who can contribute in a lot of different areas.

“I don’t know if there will be any individual event he will excel at but he will help the team wherever we need him,” Petrillo said.

Petrillo said he expects sophomore 110-hurdler Bryan Maidana to build on the success he had a year ago.

“The boys overall are a very deep team but don’t have a lot of front-runner quality,” Petrillo said. “We will be competitive in our depth, pick up the second, the third, the fourth-place finishes but we are missing out on some the front-runners that we had graduate last year.”