On April 11 and 12, the boys outdoor track team competed in the annual citywide Mayor’s Cup Meet.  With the goal to become “Best in the City”, the boys came out strong, running well against some of the best PSAL, CHSAA, and AAIS runners in the city.

Some standouts in the meet included sophomore Abdoulaye Diallo running a school record 400 meter dash time of 50.73 seconds, getting fourth place overall.  Another great performance was by freshman Muhamed Bicic who ran in the varsity 1600 meter run.  Battling against many upperclassmen, Muhamed earned a respectable twelfth place with a time of 4:43.38.  Muhammad also came back to compete in the varsity 3200 run and got ninth place with a time of 10:16.98.  Both of these times qualified Muhamed for the city championships.

Reflecting on his strong performances, Muhamed said that he was very satisfied with his times and actually quite surprised. “I didn’t think I would have been able to qualify for cities and have a good PR in two meets back to back.”

Abdoulaye also commented on his performance saying his success was due to his mental toughness. “My 400m performance was largely due to breaking the mental barrier I had of telling myself I can’t do x, y, z so I just went out there and had fun.”  Abdoulaye added that, “When the gun went off everything went silent I was overcome with adrenaline and all I could think about was crossing that finish line as fast as I could. I already came this far and I didn’t plan on doing anything less than my very best”

Muhamed agreed with Diallo about the mental aspect saying, “Other than becoming a stronger runner, I have been working on the mental aspect of the sport. Both coaches really have been motivating us to have a greater mindset during races and reach for more daunting goals.”

Other great times came from junior Yashvi Sharma, running the 3000 meter varsity steeplechase in 10:47.56, earning him fifth place as well as qualifying him for city championships.  The varsity 4X800 relay also did well placing seventh with a time of 8:45.22.  The sophomore 4X4 and freshmen 4X8 relays had good showings as well coming in 6th and 8th places, respectively.

In response to these performances, coach George Rio was very pleased especially with the amount of city qualifying runs and throws by the team.  Rio is also hopeful, expecting even more people to qualify.  “I was very happy with the boys who ran really well.  Four people qualified for cities and there are still more people that should make cities.  Our Varsity 4X8 team is prime to make it to cities.”

Senior Captain Christian Castro reacted to the meet, “Over the weekend, our track team stepped up and proved to be one of the best teams in NY. We had splendid performances from all the boys and some even went on to qualify for city championships. Others include sophomores and freshmen who PR’d despite facing other top rivals from NY.”

Chris was really happy with the results of this meet and very hopeful saying that the team “expects to see great things later this season.”