Schools
Whiz Kids: Blue Track
The boys and girls track athletes drew consistent accolades from their coaches for the athletes' discipline, determination and focus.
Editor's note: Whiz Kid typically appears on Monday but with the Memorial Day holiday we bumped it up to Tuesday.
To the coaches, their staffs and the athletes' credit the outdoors track teams remained focused and worked hard in the wake of the resignation of Dom Finelli, an inspirational coach.
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The boys' competed throughout the season and set 11 personal records and six state-qualifying performances at the Northeast Conference meet. They came in 14th in the states.
The girls' team claimed their first NEC title in decades and came in 11th in the states.
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The coaches' remarks about their teams, as the season progressed, point to the athletes' dedication.
Here are some of these remarks.
Girls' team Coach Joe Tenney:
April 15 — "The team has been showing more and more signs of coming together as one huge track team. My seniors down to my little freshmen are amazing."
May 18 — "I have seen a vast improvement with all the runners that are heading both into the NEC meet and States next week."
May 23 — The older girls from past track teams and now have helped build this program to where it is now: nothing short of amazing.
Boys' team Coach Peter Bush
April 15 — "I am very proud of the way we continued to compete throughout the entire meet but we now have to focus on getting healthy and getting some extra work with our field event competitors."
May 10 — "All the training and hard work is starting to pay off as several athletes set (personal records) and are peaking at the right time."
May 22 — "To have 11 PR's and 6 state qualifying performances at a highy competitive meet is quite an accomplishment. Even though we fell short of our ultimate goal of winning the meet, everyone competed from start to finish and there were no regrets. It is great to see how everyone progressed as the season went on. This sport is very demanding both mentally and physically and at times we had to focus our attention on maintaining that edge of outworking the compettion during practices."
For their perseverance and accomplishment, the Blue track athletes and coaches and staffs are this week's Whiz Kids (and Whiz Adults).
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