Talt and Banks Leading Mamaroneck Girls Track

Whether it's in practice or at a meet, Mamaroneck's girls track and field team has the foundation of a winning team.

Junior Gina Talt and sophomore Anima Banks are coming off their strongest seasons, and are two of the bigger reasons why Mamaroneck High School is on the rise. Talt was the county champ in the 1,500 meter run winning in 4 minutes, 45.60 seconds.

She went on to post her best time in the event at the Section 1 state qualifier (4:43.24) finishing third. At the state meet she finished eighth in the federation (4:47.87).

Meanwhile, Banks has become one of the stronger middle-distance runners in the section. She placed second at the county championships in the 600 in 1:35.70. At the state meet Banks finished sixth in the federation running 1:37.63.

"Those two are the bedrock of our team," Mamaroneck Coach Robert Morrissey said. "We start with them and build from there. We're trying to develop younger runners to run with them. They see how hard Talt and Banks work and that motivates the other runners."

One of those young runners Morrissey is counting on is freshman Maura Saporito. She had a promising start to her season before an injury forced her to cut it short. 

"The emphasis is always to develop all the athletes," Morrissey said. "It's great to have Gina and Anima and now with Maura we have a nice core."

While the Tigers had plenty of individual success this past season, competing in the always-competitive Class A has been a challenge, as perennial powers Mount Vernon, New Rochelle and Ursuline routinely battle for the top spot. The Tigers finished ninth in the county and 15th in Class A this past season.

The challenge for Mamaroneck has been to find the depth throughout the track that some of these other traditional track powers have.

"We've been trying to build a sprint team to compete with some of those other schools, but it's been hard; we've had more success in the distance and mid-distance events," Morrissey said. "We're just trying to work with what we have. When we're going up against a school that's a lot larger than us we just need to try and use what we have to beat them."

The goal for Morrissey and his coaching staff is to build a state championship-caliber 3,200 meter relay team.

"We have a lot of talented eighth and ninth graders," Morrissey said. "If they work hard we could put together a real competitive relay team next year."