Trackteamcompetesinchampionshipmeet SprintingToSuccess

Zoomin Szubin: Sophomore Nathan Szubin sprints to the finish at the end of the 1600m race. Szubin is a distance runner so it was no suprise that he won this two-mile race. His teammate sophomore Jonah Berman came in fourth place not far behind him. Berman was able to achieve a personal record in this event by seven seconds. This was a large achievement for Berman as he is a year-round runner and is always looking to cut his running times down.

Shoot your shot: Freshman Liam Sher warms up for the shot put event. Sher is one of three throwers on the track and field team. and he does both shot put and discus which are the two non-running related events. Working Together: Juniors Rena Katz, Hannah May and Yaeli Greenblum strecth together. All are captains of the track and field team and run together in many of the girls events.

Boys Track: In the 4x100 relay race, sophomore Etai Evan pushes to the finish line. Although the team, consisting of sophomores Max Weitzner and Etai Evan and juniors Evan Pearlman and Ethan Safra, came in seventh place, they wished that they could have placed higher.

“My teammates were relying on me a lot… so that was both a nice experience and also a little bit nerve wracking,” Weitzner said.

The track and field boys team tends to compete in longer races such as the 800m and 1600m with exceptionally strong distance runners, such as sophomores Jonah Berman and Nathan Szubin. In the championships, the boys team placed fourth overall, earning 37 points. Szubin came in first place during the 3200m, which earned the team a significant amount of points, but not enough to place higher.

The strongest races for the boys team during the championship meet were the 3200m with runners coming in first, fourth and eighth place as well as the 4x800 relay, in which the team came in third place.

Despite the end result, there was no shortage of support from the team during the meet. They worked together during relays and cheered each other on during races. Berman especially felt the support when he reached a new personal record in the 1600m race. “The team is awesome. It’s really just that JDS is just such a fun atmosphere to be in,” Berman said. runners do not usually compete in the 4x400, but they assembled a team just for this race. While they did not win a medal, their dedication to racing the 4x400 was a culmination of their work on the team.

The team is known to be a supportive community, particularly the group that runs on all three running teams.

“I’m amazed with just from March to mid May, just in that 10 week timeframe, people are transformed in terms of their fitness and also in terms of their own motivation and their confidence in themselves,” Belinkie said.

“I felt like this is my last time running ever for track and I thought, ‘how do I want to end this?’ I want to end this by doing it as hard as I can,” Katz said.

The girls team scored 12 points, coming in ninth place overall. During this meet, the girls excelled at the 300m hurdles, with Yaeli coming in third, Katz in fourth and Karo in 11th place.

Many of the female runners are juniors, so the team is counting on the middle school athletes to step up next spring. The team is smaller than other teams, even though it is coed, but they get the most excitement yearround. All the running teams have had an exciting year, and everyone is looking forward to what the next year brings.

“Everybody dropped so much time throughout the season, and just improved so much and we all worked really hard,” Katz said.