Xavier Track Wins NYCHSAA and City Championships

By Billy Malewich ‘12

The day began with the weather being the polar opposite of the weekend before, when the rain hindered the performance of just about every athlete. With the weather cooperating this time around, May 20 turned out to be a great day for Xavier Track and Field.

The team saw multiple wins across the board, including in the javelin (Patrick Heaney '18), 3000-meter steeplechase (Sawyer Gwyn-Rowsom '18), the two-mile run (Aidan Donahue '18), 800 meters (Michael Crorkin '18), and the 4 x 800-meter run (Patrick Norako ’17, Jerardo Perez ’18, Gwyn-Rowsom, and Donahue). Aidan Donahue also won the Jose Benitez Award, given to the victor in the two-mile run each year.

Xavier also saw scorers across a number of events, with Josef Oettl ’18 running an impressive 4:21 in the 1600 for second place, Heaney placing third in the shot put, and Norako placing second in the two-mile. Steven LaRussa ’17 stepped up and gathered a point in the Javelin with a PR of 128’6”, and Fergus MacDonnell ’18 scored in both the 400-meter hurdles and the 800-meter run. MacDonnell was one of seven athletes to score in multiple events on the day, with Gwyn-Rowsom, Oettl, Crorkin, Heaney, Donahue, and Norako being the others.

Finally, the future of Xavier Track looks bright as underclassmen were able to step up and score on the varsity level. Oliver Branham-Upton ’20 placed third in the 3000-meter steeplechase, which was also the third-best performance in the league this year. Joseph Medina ’19 scored four points for the team with his second-place finish in the shot put. Dylan Abernathy ’19, Christian Ruiz ’19, Julian Bastianello ’19, and Robert Emmet Gregory ’20 were four of the six members of the non-scoring 1600-meter run, all four within three seconds of each other and a few seconds of the five-minute mark.

The Varsity will compete this weekend for the New York state title when they run against the rest of the CHSAA and schools from Buffalo. All news, schedules, and results can be found here.

Good luck to all of the athletes and coaches!