As its name suggests, track & field during the winter months is ideally done indoors, rather than out in the elements that New Jersey faces this time of the year.
But when you’re Kearny and you don’t have the luxury of an indoor track facility, only the meets are inside. Regardless of conditions, the Kardinals have spent most of the season practicing on the Kearny Stadium track, even if it meant shoveling snow to make it usable for practice.
“We are outdoors all the time. So when it snowed, we shoveled the track,” veteran head coach Al Perez said. “We may spend a day shoveling the track, but then the next day and the following days, we have the use of it again.
“We’ve been inside one day this season so far. The rest of the season, we’ve been outside. And I think it makes a big difference because we were prepared.”
Those cold afternoons paid off in a big way for Kearny’s girls team this past Monday, when it took home the title at the Robert Arena Memorial HCIAL Relay Championships at the Jersey City Armory.
What made this championship, the Kardinals’ second in three years, especially unique is that it was accomplished without taking first in any individual event. Kearny however took second in all six relay events, a testament to the depth on this season’s Kardinals roster.
“I really like the relay championship because in order to win it, you really do need a full team effort to do so,” said Perez. “The goal was to win the meet and score as many points as possible. So we weren’t necessarily looking to win events, more so we’re trying to get the top point total.”
Kearny took second place in all six track relay events, a feat that Perez credits to some of his athletes, most notably, senior captains Keala Cicchino and Adrianna Soriano as well as junior Melissa Mota as those who filled in events outside of their typical strengths to make it happen.
Mota, Madison Rodriguez, Anastasia Guy and Rachel Kelly ran the 4×200 Meter Relay and the quartet of Guy, Mota, Soriano and Kelly ran the 4×400 Meter Relay. Also taking second was the 4×800 Meter Relay team of Soriano, Lexi Duarte, Niamh Devlin and Cicchino, as well as the 1,600 Sprint Medley team of Kelly, Rodriguez, Mota and Soriano.
In the Distance Medley, Cicchino, Yeudiel Gallardo Ruiz, Devlin and Soriano placed second as did the 4×51.5 Meter Shuttle Hurdle team of Cicchino, Gallardo Ruiz, Duarte and Rodriguez.
Mota and Kelly combined to place fourth in the High Jump Relay and Gabriela Cimirro and Leticia Jimenez were fourth in the Shot Put Relay.
On the boys side, Kearny had a head turning second place finish.
The Kardinals took home gold in the 1,600 Sprint Medley Relay as the team of Miguel Betancourt, Benjamin Garcia, Bruno Matias and Braidan Logue ran a 3:47.11. Kearny claimed first in the Distance Medley as the quartet of Alan Cohetero, Miguel Betancourt, Cristiano Esteves and Logue ran a 11:09.72.
Five days later at the Super Essex Conference Indoor Championships in Staten Island, Bloomfield won its first ever indoor championship in school history when it edged Livingston and Seton Hall Prep for the SEC American Division title.
Leading the way was Jeremy Tejada, who took gold in the 55 Meter Hurdles with a school record setting time of 7.55 seconds, and also placed second in the 400 Meter Dash. Jo’elle Urdanivia placed first in the Shot Put with a 49-7.50, an event which saw Bengal teammates Jalen Gray take second and Shane Fernandez third.
On the girls side Nutley’s Meya Ranges took first in the 3,200 Meter Run with ease, running an 11:58.25, besting the nearest runner by 19 seconds. Ranges also took fourth in the 1,600 Meter Run.
Also taking gold locally was Bloomfield junior Alana Dennis, who finished first in the 55 Meter Hurdles with a 8.49 and senior Emily Brodowski took first in the Pole Vault at 9-6.
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Jason Bernstein | Observer Sports Writer
Jason Bernstein joined The Observer as its sports writer in March 2022, following the retirement of Jim Hague. He has a wealth of sports-writing experience, including for NJ Advance Media (nj.com, The Jersey Journal, The Star-Ledger.)