On a weekend when many high school runners had already packed up their spikes and called it a year, Rye’s track and field coaches saw too many benefits to pass up one final meet in 2024.
Sophomore Tino MacKinnon medaled at the Coach Saint Invitational, Dec. 20 at the Armory Track and Field Center in New York City, and three other Rye athletes set new personal records heading into the holidays.
“It was a big meet with great competition,” said Head Coach Bryan Johnson. “We decided to put a meet right before the break to give some of our kids an event to look toward during the week of practice. Without a meet Friday, it would have been three weeks, and we wanted to keep our edge heading into break.”
MacKinnon finished third in the 1,000-meter run, with a season-best time of 2:44.58.
Personal records were set by junior Sophia Ambrosini in the 600-meter run (1:52.93), junior Lily Oberbannscheidt in the 1,000 (3:21.01), and senior Alex Schatz in the triple jump.
In addition to the date — on the Friday before Christmas and Hannukah — what Kevin Murphy, another of Rye’s head coaches, found appealing about the meet was it gave the Garnets some non-traditional distances to run.
“Our runners in the 55, hurdles, and field events got their work in, but an athlete who usually runs the 300 or 600 could run the 500,” Murphy said. “That’s a really unique race to run, and a change of pace is sometimes good for a runner.”
Three Rye girls set season-best marks in events they’ve long been familiar with: sophomore Jillian DeSanto in the 55-meter race, senior Sophia Bubeck in the 55-meter hurdles, and junior Kate Schatz in the triple jump.
The next indoor track and field meet is at 6 p.m. Sunday, once again at the Armory in New York City.
