Avalanche of Medals for
Blue Devil Boys' Track
The Huntington High School boy's track and field team picked up 20 medals at the St. Anthony's Christmas Classic. The jaw-dropping performance saw many Blue Devils post personal records in their respective events.
Richie Fernandez placed first in the shot put with a throw of 48' while Shaheem Lewis placed fourth in the same event with a throw of 43'2. In the freshmen shot put, eighth-grader Matteo McNeil placed second with a throw of 42'6. Y'Majesty Allen won the freshmen 300m dash in a time of 41.36 seconds.
Tyriek Johnson won the long jump with a leap of 21'10 and was first in the 55m high hurdles in a time of 7.71 seconds. In the 55m dash Michael Marchetta placed third in 6.9 seconds and Danny Plant placed sixth in 7.22 seconds.
Matt Whitcher ran 10.25 seconds in the freshmen 55m high hurdles to capture a first place medal. Tyler Wolfe placed first in the freshmen mile run in a time of 4:53.
Huntington's freshmen sprint medley relay (Y'Majesty Allen, Giancarlo Puello, Joshua Watkins, and Matt Whitcher) also placed first, earning gold medals. In the high jump, Danny McQuade leaped 5'8 to finish third in a field of 15. Matt Poellnitz placed third in the long jump with a leap of 19'8.
The Blue Devils' 4 x 200m relay team (Conor Reilly, Poellnitz, Jared Thorbourne, Eric Szilagy) dropped the baton and ended up far in the back. "However, that did not stop our runners," Wilson said. "Matt Poellnitz picked up the dropped baton and began to close ground on the other five teams. He passed the baton off to Jared Thorbourne who passed a competitor and then continued to close ground on the other four competitors. He passed the baton off to the anchor, Eric Szilagy who made a huge move at the 150 meter mark and passed two more competitors to place the team in third. It was a great comeback!"
"We were very pleased with the performances of our boys," Wilson said.