Marine Corps Holiday Classic 12/27/07 By Coach Stadtlander
After a meet like Thursday, it is not easy to decide where to begin to tell the story of all that took place. Therefore, I guess that the best idea is to go right to the start of the day and walk everyone through my experience from a Coaches perspective. My day started at 4:00AM when the first of two alarms that I had set went off. I was so anxious with anticipation of what was to come, I barely slept the night before. The first of the many worries that I had to overcome, was put to rest when everyone showed up on time for the 5:30AM departure. With a meet limit of two events per athlete and the fact that it was a relay meet, we had a very narrow margin of error if anyone was missing. I still had a couple of spots to fill and had decided to wait until the bus ride down to get creative. As I had hoped, things quickly fell into place. My first thanks goes out to freshman Sam Spiro. I initially left Sam off of any relay, but was quickly able to use him to fill those empty spots. My second thanks goes out to shot putters Bryan Schermerhorn and Andrew Boldish. Bryan ran the anchor leg on a sophomore 4x200 and Andrew sort of volunteered (with a little push) to run on a freshman 4x200 if we needed him. Next I should thank “sophomore”, Will Schanz for his role and the “multi” talented Adam Shamlian. All of these guys were great sports when asked to help with some of the “creativity” it took to make our entries work. It makes life much easier when you have a team that is willing to put the good of the team before themselves. All of this and we are only a few miles south of Albany!
As we cross the George Washington Bridge, I get everyone's attention by telling them to prepare to disembark, as we are almost at the 168th St. Armory. Weary eyes quickly light up as to scope of the size of the city looms beneath us. Soon we are in the Armory and the calmness that was the trip down gives way to the chaos that is the Marine Corps. Holiday Classic. The veteran athletes quickly settle in for what they know will be a great day of competition. A few go down and jog some laps on the track that has been dubbed the “fastest in the world”. Others just stare with awe and anticipation. This isn’t Hudson Valley’s track.
The long jumpers are the first to spring to life. Everyone is scrambling to get their spikes and uniforms situated. Kyle Sedgwick and I are furiously filling out entry cards and competitor stickers as countless athletes bombard me with questions. Thankfully, some of the experienced guys, inform them of some of the answers to their questions and others tell them not to bother me while I am getting us entered into our events. With the cards completed, the long jumpers checked in and the spike crisis behind us, we are ready to start the day. The familiar voice of the announcer comes over the loud speaker, “this is the first call for the freshman boys 4x800 relay.” The competition has begun.
The two teams of freshman 4x800 runners are in various states of preparation. Some are in the bathroom, some are getting their spikes checked, some are warming up and others are still stuck in the “staring in awe” state that I mentioned above. Regardless, there is a sense of urgency in the air and things are getting crazy. After a few tense moments, all eight runners find each other and head down to check in. All of the lead up is over and it is now time to race.
The first heat goes off and we are out cleanly (no false starts, dropped batons or falls). 7th grader Caleb Mellon leads off our first team and the pace is really fast. The first 200 meter lap goes by in 31 seconds. I turned to my new special assistant Chris VanZetta and express my concern about how the next 3 laps were going to play out. However, the pace settled in and Caleb ran a 2:22.9 split, shattering the 7th grade record previously held by Mike Kippins since 2001. Not a bad start to the day. The baton was now in the hand of another track rookie David Marthy. David ran a competitive leg, keeping us in the hunt before handing off to 2nd year runner Kyle Foster. Foster unleashed a strong leg (2:20.1), picking off several teams before giving way to eighth grader Mike Libruk. Libruk proceeded to run down numerous teams, posting a personal best time of 2:15.7, just missing the 8th grade record of 2:14.0 held since 1997 by Justin Perry. In addition, sub 2:40 times were posted by Andrew Olsen (2:24.8) and Jesus Vazquez (2:38.2). The first race of the day was officially in the books, and we had captured one leaderboard by grade record, 3rd place and the accompanying medals and shirts, and the first 3 team points of the day. Not a bad start!
The next notable race was the shuttle hurdle relay. This is a unique event where four participants run the 55 meter high hurdles in a shuttle style format (one team member goes and when they get to the finish line at the opposite end, another team member does the same in the opposite direction until all four runners have gone), with the goal being to have the fastest total team time. We had several questions that would be answered before this race was over. First, we had a rookie walk on senior in Blaise Agnew, whose hurdling style could only be described as “a bit unorthodox”. Next, we had freshman Bryan Gallagher, who has been excelling at the 36” freshman hurdle height, but was less proven at the 39” varsity height. Lastly, we had 2 junior veterans who had been struggling with their form in the first few league meets. The best way I can put it is that I held my breath for what turned out to be a very pleasant 36.19 seconds. Blaise stayed on his feet, Alex Noble and Mike Caponera regained their previous “3 stepping” form and the unproven freshman Bryan Gallagher, ran the fastest split of the day! It was becoming apparent, that we were indeed off to a good start!
The next event was the much anticipated sophomore 4x800 relay. We had been looking forward to the opportunity to showcase our talented young group of 800 runners since early this fall when I decided that we would go to this meet. The race lived up to our expectations right from the get go. Ryan Egan led us off in a competitive 2:18.1. Next, it was Matt Conti who ran a strategic 2:16.3 handing off to 3200 meter specialist Jack McCarthy. Jack answered the call with a 2:18.1 of his own and our fate was in the hand and legs of Chris Herman. Chris battled us into the top 3 with 2nd place in his sights. Standing in his way was our old nemesis Shenenedehowa and their breakout Cross Country standout Dan Harris. Harris made his move with 100 meters to go but Herman (2:12.2) responded and put him away in the last 50 meters, for a 2nd place finish and 4 more team points. Although our times were not quite what we had hoped for, we got the butterflies out and are ready to move on to bigger performances down the road. Sub 2:30 performances were also recorded by Chris Sonn (2:27.5) and Dylan Hedderman (2:23.3).
The varsity 4x200 featured all 12 runners turning in season best performances and a team time improvement from 1:43.7, to the new team of Alvin Porter (24.3), Greg Skiba (25.5), Frank Tan (24.3) and Julian Norton (24.7) running 1:38.90. Also turning in sub :26 second times were Kyle Sedgwick (25.7) and Stefan Dabkowski (25.0).
Next it was the freshman’s turn again. The 4x200 relay team of Franklin Abban (27.5), Ruben Feinman (25.8), Sterling Green (30.4 in lane 3!) and Bryan Letourneau (24.0) blazed their way to a team time of 1:47.98 finishing 6th overall. 
In the process, we learned that our talented young team needs to learn a few of the intricacies of track with regard to running the shortest distance possible and handing off on the move. However, we also learned that we have several quick freshmen that should be big assets to the team as we strive toward our third Suburban Council Freshman Championship in another month. This all goes without mentioning that Bryan Letourneau’s anchor leg time of 24.0, broke another leaderboard by grade record and put him on top of our overall team leaderboard. This time however, it was current Sophomore Matt Conti who fell victim, having only had the honor of holding the title for about 11 months. Sorry Matt. In addition, sub :28 second splits were recorded by Josh Wygel (26.7), Sam Spiro (27.3) and Ian Weykamp (27.9).
The sophomore 4x200 featured 3 teams of up and coming sprinters of which 5 are new to the sport this season straight from the championship JV football team. Our “A” team of Jaquell Chandler (24.6), DJ Roberts (26.5), Matt Dustin (24.6) and Al Stopera (24.2) crossed the finish line with a time of 1:40.05, good for 5th place and another point for the team. In addition, :27 second splits or better were posted by Brendan Dolan (26.7), Ed Schupp (26.5), Anthony Pascarella (26.4), Adam Shamlian (25.6), Gian Volpe-McDermott (26.6) and the above mentioned shot putter Brian Schermerhorn ran 27.0.
The feature race of the day was the Championship Distance Medley Relay which consists of a 1200, 400, 800 and 1600. This was a race that we had to qualify for in order to be accepted. Headed in, we had high expectations for ourselves and we were not disappointed. Senior Chris Manico ran the leadoff 1200 leg in a personal best time of 3:16.1 leading the race for the first 800 meters. Next, it was transfer student athlete Abube Abara’s turn at the 400 meter leg, which he ran in a team leading 52.5. We started gaining ground when senior Devon Sedgwick blasted out an 800 meter time of 2:00.9. Last, it was RJ Sniffen’s turn to close it out with the 1600. Passing numerous teams, RJ brought the team up to 4th place with a very strong 4:26.0 for a team time of 10:35.28 and 3 more team points.
In the unseeded DMR, John Canfield ran a strong 54.4 second 400 leg and Jeff Corelli ran a personal best 4:50.9 for 1600 meters. I apologize to Will Schanz, Adam Shamlian, Steve Arango and Matt Blizinski for not getting their splits due to a mishap with a stop watch.
Our big victory of the day came in the freshman 4x400 relay.
Franklin Abban once again lead us off with a time of 61.8, Caleb Mellon followed that with a 61.2 and Mike Libruk ran 3rd with a 58.9. Anchoring the team to victory was Brian “The Beast” Letourneau, with a blistering 55.7, for a team total time of 3:58.16 and 6 more points for the team. 65 second or better times were also run by Kyle Foster (65.5), David Marthy (65.0), Ruben Feinman (62.3), Brian Gallagher (61.4), Ian Weykamp (65.6), Sterling Green (63.4), Andrew Olsen (63.0) and Josh Wygel (64.6).
The sophomore 4x400 relay was another highly anticipated race with high expectations. The same four runners had run together the previous spring as freshman when they won the suburban council freshman championship meet. On this day, the team of Chris Herman (56.8), Al Stopera (55.5), Matt Dustin (55.0) and Matt Conti (53.5) were good enough for 2nd place with a team time of 3:40.92.
I anticipate many more meetings between this team and Newburgh. Other sophomores who turned in :62 second or better times were DJ Roberts (62.0), Anthony Pascarella (60.6), Chris Sonn (62.1), Jaquell Chandler (55.4), Ryan Egan (61.7), Dylan Hedderman (62.2), Jack McCarthy (60.7), Brendan Dolan (56.2) and Eddie Schupp (60.6).
In the varsity boy’s 4x800 relay, we returned four runners who had run either a 1200 or 1600 meter leg of a DMR earlier in the day. Chris Manico led us off in 2:08.2 followed by Craig Weiss 2:09.9, Jeff Corelli 2:11.8 and RJ Sniffen had the best team 800 time of the day with a 2:00.2.
In the varsity 4x400, we got a glimpse at the potential that our team has as the season progresses. John Canfield led us off with an impressive 54.2, which was faster than his earlier split time, which is not easy to do. Next was Kevin Conti who ran 53.3 followed by Devon Sedgwick in 52.4 and anchored by Abube Abara in 51.6, almost a second faster than his DMR split and just .6 off the 11th grade record held by Shaun Kippins since 2003. The team total time was 3:31.57 which was good for 6th place, just missing another team point by .1 seconds. We later learned that had we scored one more point, we would have won the meet! However, as I told the freshman and sophomores on the bus ride home, we didn’t expect to be in the hunt for the team title, so now we have a better story to tell. We will gladly take the 2nd place team trophy to show off at our end of season banquet. In our second varsity 4x400, pole vaulters Kyle Sedgwick (60.2) and Stefan Dabkowski (60.6) started and ended the last race of the day with distance runner convert Steve Arango (60.9) and freshman Sam Spiro (63.5) running season best times.
In the field events, Julian Norton (19’ 4 ½”) and Frank Tan (18’ 11 ½”) and Prince Abban (18’ 8”) had our best jumps of the day with Julian and Prince setting a new season best. In the triple jump, Mike Ofosu continued to jump well posting a best jump of 41’ 1 ½” and Prince Abban had a breakout leap of 41’ 1 ½” which was over a 2 foot improvement! 
In the shot put, Andrew Boldish had his best throw of the season at 37’3” while our group of freshman throwers Nick Boice (15’ ½”), Andrew Brochu (28’ 5 ¼”), Nick Jones (21’ 3 ¾”), and Zach Eustace 20’ 9 ½”) show future promise.
All and all, this was a very good team debut meet at a terrific facility. We learned that we have a large group of talented individuals with a lot of potential. In speaking with the other coaches and several parents that have been with our program for quite some time, we were all impressed with how well we did while not even being close to top form. We now have our first big race experience of the season behind us and can start building toward the future. The month of January is always crazy with multiple meets each weekend in addition to mid-term exams. Our team success depends upon everyone staying focused on school work, practices, meets and communication. I will be posting updated entries for Cornell, Dartmouth and Yale in the days and weeks to come. I will work hard to keep everyone involved and informed as to which meets you are attending and what events you are doing. I need everyone to stay on top of checking the website and the bulletin board at school for constant updates and changes. Our next team practice is on Monday from 9:00-11:00. I hope to see everyone there.
-Coach Stadtlander