SOUTH ORANGE – The Our Lady of Sorrows track and field team gave competitive efforts at the 37th Annual Holy Trinity Track & Field Meet recently.
It was typical Holy Trinity weather – warm and sunny, cold and raining, and very, very windy, all in the same day! At one point hail was pelting the 400 meter competitors and the third-graders broke into a chorus of “Jingle Bells”, thinking that Christmas could not be far away.
The small OLS team scored right from the beginning with third-grader Emma Torres’ third-place, followed by fifth-grader Jared Edwards’ first and seventh-grader Nick Torres’ first in the opening 1,600-meter runs. The onslaught continued in the 800 with another convincing win by Jared Edwards and a close 1-2 finish by Nick Torres (2:45.32) and Ajamo Carraby-Jones (2:45.62). Nyla Edwards (3:15.29) showed tremendous improvement in the Seventh Grade race, placing second.
Of special notice, first-grader Brendan McKeown found himself in the Boys Third Grade 800, somehow, and scored a fourth place!
Victoria Saint-Preux shook off the rust with a fifth-place in the Eighth Grade 100 while Jordan Ince followed with a close second in the Seventh Grade 100 (15.22). The 400 saw some new players with wins by Alyma Karbownik (1:20.99) in the Third Grade event and Oliver Karbownik (1:12.70) in the Sixth Grade race. Max Ince went out a little too fast but held on for fourth among the Fourth Grade boys. In the Fifth grade race, Nicholas Scantlebury (1.11.70) won with his third Personal Record in a row, pushed by Harold Fullilove (1:19.08) in fourth. Sydney Fullilove placed third in the Eighth Grade 400. Dukens Dossus (1:10.76) made his debut in the Seventh Grade Boys 400 and placed fourth with Ajamo placing fifth. Ty Cross (1:07.92) ran to a fourth-place finish at the Eighth Grade level.
OLS is a well-balanced team. The third-grade shot put twins, Parker Hamilton (27 feet-3 inches) and Ryan Gardner (20-1) scored first and third in the 4-pound shot. Parker has won all shot put events this season, setting a class record each time. He then made a major improvement in the TurboJav for his first win (50-8) in that event. Then Ryan won the Softball Throw (93-0) with Parker third. Amelia Benjamin took a third in the Girls Fourth Grade Shot while Gwen Oakley sneaked in for fifth. Taona Maphosa took a third in the Boys Fifth Grade event after Aryan Sabnekar (18-3 1/2) slipped into the Fourth Grade Boys scoring with a fifth. Sheu Maphosa (30-7 1/2) took the Boys Sixth contest and Teresa Pollard (21-5 1/4) was a strong second at the Seventh Grade level. Sydney (28-3 1/2) won for the second time in a row while seventh-grader Dukens Dossus added several feet to his previous best, placing second.
There was great success in the Long Jump as Alyma (10-10) set a new personal best to win the Fourth grade event. Nick Torres’ personal best was good for fifth at the Seventh Grade level. Charlotte Marian (11-4 1/4) and Nyla Edwards combined to take fourth and fifth in the Seventh Grade Long Jump. The TurboJav is an especially strong event for OLS, which opened with third and fourth for Amelia and Emma in the Girls Fourth Grade while Max scored another fifth in the Boys event. Taona (70-6) scored again with a third for the Fifth Grade Boys. Sheu (87-0) also won again in the Sixth Grade Boys event while Jared added a sixth place. The Seventh Grade pair of Charlotte and Nyla struck again, placing third and fifth and Ty Cross (88-4) took a close second in the Boys Eighth Grade.
The Softball Throw is limited to the Fourth Grade and younger and is only held at this meet but it gave OLS’ young guys a place to shine. Amelia and Max nailed first places for the Fourth Grade Boys and Girls contests. Aryan and Emma added a second and a third, respectively. Gwen scored with a sixth-place score. Ella Scantlebury scored a fifth place for the Third Grade Girls. For the Second Grade and Under, Aiden Benjamin was third for the boys and Isabel Sabnekar was second for the girls.
Add in the relays and OLS with 14 wins placed fourth in the Girls’ standing among 20 schools and the boys placed first. Their combined total put them in second, matching last year’s place.
This ended the championship part of the season, the most unusual ever for OLS, with a first-ever win at Union Catholic, a shutout from the team prizes at OLS for the first time in seven years and a second at Holy Trinity, sandwiching a rainout at Assumption at which OLS would have been the favorite!
About the Author
