WHAT'S NEW with the outdoor track & field teams? FIVE NEW PROGRAM RECORDS!

The boys and girls outdoor track & field teams kicked their season and established five program records last weekend at the Red Raider Relays, hosted by North Rockland High School in the newly reopened Cordisco Stadium!

Senior Robert LaBarbera kicked the weekend off with a huge personal best in the 10-meter dash, eclipsing a 45-year-old district program record in :10.81 to win his preliminary heat. He followed that start up with a silver medal in the 100-meter dash final on Saturday, before establishing a second personal best and Minisink Valley program record in the 400-meter dash, with his winning mark of :48.10 establishing a new New York #1 ranking in the process!

And to close the meet in grand style, Robert, Angel Mendez, Chloe Beck and Ferrah Hill earned a commanding mixed 4x400 meter relay victory, shattering the state record in 3:35.11, with a team of Stetson Terpak, Jon Mausling, Salma Samdaoui and Emma Berkshire taking sixth place (3:47.68).

Senior Kessler Hirsch won in the javelin with a new program record of 116'04" and matched Robert LaBarbera's second-place finish in the 100-meter dash final, before anchoring 4x100 meter relay teammates Chloe Beck Ferrah Hill and Salma Samdaoui and 4x200 meter relay teammates Jerlivia Frederick, Julia Berkshire and Catori Thomas to a pair of victories. Also earning gold medals were the distance medley relay teammates Elijah Zittel, William Monahan, Caleb Decker and Luciano Palacios (12:25.32).

Seniors Delila Kronimus (10'6") finished third in the pole vault and Salma Samdaoui (1:11.69) also earned a bronze medal in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles, as first-year Dominique Celestin (1:15.03) raced to a new Minisink Valley class record in 10th place. Angel Mendez (:50.01) and Tarius Theodore (:51.25) joined Robert LaBarbera on the 400-meter dash podium, crossing the line in fourth and sixth place, respectively.

Several relay teams and individuals earned medals and established Minisink Valley class records. First-year teammates Catori Thomas, Sophia McKeon, Julia Berkshire and Caitlyn Moran established a new district class record (4:12.46) in winning the F/S 4x400 meter relay, with Thomas, McKeon and CaitlynMoran earlier teaming with Danica Martinez to win and break the district's class record (:52.70) in the F/S 4x100 meter relay.

And --- Eighth-grade phenom Abigail Caputo anchored teammates Kathryn Jones, Catharine Sullivan and Elizabeth Honsaker to a fifth place finish in the 4x800 meter relay, having snagged a sixth-place finish in the invitational section of the 1,500 meter run (4:53.92) and opened her weekend with a 10:57.78 finish in the 3,000 meters; the latter two marks rank #1 in New York state for middle school athletes! AMAZING!

The teams will next field 4x100 and 4x400 meter relay teams in the prestigious Penn Relays Carnival, hosted by Franklin Field on the grounds of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.