Track Review: Lakeland/Panas Girls and Boys

Lakeland/Panas had plenty of standout athletes this winter, including senior Brie Roller, who excelled in the sprints. Roller, who will be running next year at Indiana University, was second in the 600-meters in Section 1.

"She's excited about having the opportunity to run at Indiana," Lakeland/Panas girls track coach Warren Bergquist said. "She is very serious about the sport. She comes to run every day, ready to work hard. She knows what she wants and is a great team leader."

Last year Roller was a state champion but unfortunately, because of the flu, she didn't get a chance to run the entire postseason.

Another senior standout for the Rebels was Carissa Leonardi in the pole vault. Leonardi holds the Section 1 indoor record in that event with a mark of 12 feet and 7 inches. She was second in the states and Eastern championships and placed first in Section 1.

"She hasn't committed to a school yet but she has been looking at several colleges," Bergquist said. "The pole vault is probably one of the hardest things to do. She's also our best long jumper even though she seldom trains for it."

Leonardi jumps 16 feet in the long jump and is one of our fastest sprinters on the team, according to her coach. The young athlete finished in first place in the league in the 55-dash indoors.

"She can high jump," Bergquist said. "She's just a great athlete but she focuses mainly on the pole vault. Once it gets to the postseason, it's all pole vault. She's a great competitor."

Junior sprinter, co-captain Tiffany Vera, who went to states on the Section 1 inter-squad relay team and finished in sixth-place in the section in the 300-meters during the winter and sophomore middle-distance runner Valeria Calvo, were also key parts of the Rebels success this winter, Bergquist said.

The track team has more than 80 girls and the team placed fifth in Westchester County behind Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, Ursuline and Bronxville.

On the boys side, senior Dave Furman broke the program record in the 300-meter run and was All-County in the 4x400 relay.

"Dave is one of our key captains," Lakeland/Panas boys track coach Ryan Johnson said. "He's one of the best captains I have ever had in the last 10 years of coaching. It's one of the reasons why he did so well this year."

Freshman Kunal Shah proved he is one of the shining younger stars on the track. He ran a 4.45 in the mile and 2:04 in the half-mile, both are Rebel freshman records.

"He (Shah) is an extremely talented young runner," Johnson said. "He ran with, over the last three, four years, for a club team in Peekskill called the Westchester Striders. His coach over there really prepared him well for high-school running. Then he started to run with the high-school team and his times have really dropped a lot this year."

With the talent the Rebels have, Johnson said he feels the program is on the way up.

"We had several, freshmen, sophomore athletes who did really well this year and we had great leadership from our upperclassmen," Johnson said.