Clockwise from top left, John Jay’s Andy Condon and Fox Lane’s Marc Desforges compete in the 3,200-meter race won by Condon at the Westchester County Championships indoor track meet. Sloan Wasserman rounds the turn in the 3,000-meter race. Emma Barniv of John Jay leads the pack on her way to third-place finish in the 3,000-meter race. Evan Bender of Fox Lane was fourth in the 3,200-meter race. Mia Haimelin of John Jay was fourth in the 1,500-meter race. Jim MacLean Photos
By JIM MACLEAN
John Jay senior Andy Condon had already earned a title earlier in the meet, pulling ahead of the field to win the boys’ 3,200-meter race at the Westchester County Championships, and he was trying for another neck-and-neck for the lead in the 1,600-meter race.
Condon finished strong and held on for first-place to claim two county championship titles in the same meet Jan. 25 at the Armory track in Manhattan. He crossed the line at 4:21.09, about two seconds ahead of Andy Krasner of New Rochelle, to finish off a good night with two titles.
“In the mile I was trying to make a move earlier, but Andy was gutting it out, I really had to work for that one,” explained Condon after his victory. “The 2-mile we tried to work together to run something fast, went out a little slower than we hoped, but we closed strong and I was happy with that. I’m happy with my performance, I wanted to win something in counties other than steeplechase, and I finally got that. Now, I have three weeks to get some good training in and hope the state qualifier goes my way.”
In his first race of the night, Condon pulled ahead of the pack in the 3,200-meter race to take first with a time of 9:23.09, more than seven seconds ahead of second-place finisher Victor Delgado of Hen Hud. Fox Lane had a trio of runners in the race finish in the top ten, led by Evan Bender in fourth-place with a time of 10:01.32. Marc Desforges was sixth with his brother Jacques Desforges close behind in eighth place.
While it was an impressive night for Condon, he knows he will have to step it up for the big races ahead with the Section 1 championship and state qualifier meets to try and earn a trip to the state championships.
“Andy had a good day, two good races for him,” said John Jay coach Dey Dey. “Counties is another race to prepare for state qualifiers, and I know he can do even better.”
One of the highlights of the meet was the girls’ 3,000-meter race featuring two of the top female distance runners in New York State as John Jay’s Sloan Wasserman and Caitlin Thomas of Hastings pulled away from the field. Thomas jumped out to the lead at the start while Wasserman was stuck in the pack. She made her way up behind Thomas and the two raced ahead, but Thomas held her off and crossed the line in first with a personal best time of 9:53.39 and Wasserman in second at 9:58.
“The strategy was in the beginning I thought they wouldn’t go out hard and she should sit and wait, but they took it out fast,” coach Dey said of Wasserman’s race. “She did a good job, she ran under 10 minutes and that was a good time and she knows she can do even better. Our main goal is to have three more good races with sectionals, qualifiers and states.”
Wasserman would come back to finish the meet strong as she anchored the John Jay 4x800-meter relay to a first-place finish to claim the County Championship title. Ainsley Graham, Emma Barniv, Mia Haimelin and Wasserman teamed up to take the crown with a time of 9:59.56.
It was a good night for the John Jay girls’ team with a number of top-
10 finishes. Barniv finished third in the 3,000-meter race behind Thomas and Wasserman. In the 1,000-meter race, Haimelin was fourth with teammate Graham right behind in fifth place.
Dylan Scott of John Jay finished seventh in the boys’ 1,000-meter race with a time of 2:43.43, and he was 17th in the 1,600.
For the Fox Lane boys’ team, in addition to the three top-10 finishers in the 3,200, the Foxes earned a third-place finish in the 4x800-meter relay race with Bender and the Desforges teaming up with Jasper Sizer to finish at 8:46.45. Sizer was 14th in the 1,600-meter race.
John Jay teamed up to finish 12th in the boys’ 4x200-meter relay race, and Nikolai Elias was 19th in the boys’ 300-meter race. Santo Cutri of Fox Lane was 20th in the hammer throw. Fox Lane’s Evan Siemers was 24th and teammate Tyler Nakajima-Graham was 25th in the 3,200, and Antonio Gramuglia of Fox Lane was 27th in the 600-meter race.
Fox the Fox Lane girls’ team, Natalie Desforges was 17th in the 3,000-meter race, and Daniella Perez-lopez was 28th in the 1,500-meter race. The Foxes teamed up to finish ninth in the girls’ 4x800 relay.