Sports

Track Team Enjoys Breakthrough Winter Season, Looks Ahead to Spring

The Harrison winter track team finished ranked first in New York State's Class B Division this year.

After a record-setting winter season the Harrison track and field team is looking for a repeat performance this spring, a tall order considering the achievements piled up over the last few months.

As a team, Harrison boys track finished the year as league, section and county champions, along with a number one final state ranking in class B. Individually Harrison finished the year with 13 league champions who broke 11 school records.

Zaid Al-Doori, who recently to run at SUNY Binghamton, represented Harrison at the state level by placing fourth in the 300 meter dash, becoming only the second male to medal at the indoor state meet in school history.

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The boys 4x200 relay team of Al-Doori, Rob Merritt, Jacob Seidman, Gary Castelli, Ben Konigsberg and Joe Papa finished with the county's sixth best all-time performance, while as an individual Al-Doori placed in the top 10 all-time in the 200 and 300 meter dashes.

The indoor season was a breakthrough year for a team that will remain mostly intact for the spring season.

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"It was just a really good season for all of us," said Merritt, a senior who also ran the 55-meter hurdles, 55-meter dash and the high jump this winter. "There were no big injuries that kept us from running."

Merritt added that he hopes the relay team that missed qualifying for states by only a fraction of a second can make an improvement this spring.

The winter team had nine athletes place in the top three of the Section I Class B Championship and seven runners earned all-county nominations. Senior Christopher Repecki also signed a letter of intent to run at Davidson College next year.

"Overall, we did everything our schedule asked of us," said Head Coach Dominic Zanot.

With most of the winter athletes now preparing for the spring, it should be another successful season for Harrison track and field.

"We've got a really good team, we work hard, it's the same as indoor season," said Merritt. "Hopefully we have a really good season to end my senior year."


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