February is the time of year when all the miles runners have been logging in fall cross-country and winter track begin to pay off. Athletes find that they’re stronger — and therefore faster — than they were just a few months back.

 

By Mitch Silver

 

February is the time of year when all the miles runners have been logging in fall cross-country and winter track begin to pay off. Athletes find that they’re stronger — and therefore faster — than they were just a few months back.

 

Amanda Heyde took over the reins at Rye Neck this winter, and she’s been rewarded with personal bests on both the Boys’ and Girls’ teams.

 

For starters, senior co-captain Kate Brennan brought her 1,000-meter time down from 3:45 a year ago to 3:34 this month. She also cut two seconds off her time for the 600. On the Boys’ side, Timmy Kelly sliced four seconds off his personal best in the 1,000.

 

In the 1,600, Genki Ono was seven seconds quicker than he was in 2015, and teammate Mitch O’Brian dropped his best time from 6:12 to 5:47, a 25-second improvement. In the Girls’ 1,500, Catherine Lynch bested her own mark by eight seconds a couple of weeks ago.

 

Just as impressive, senior co-captain Michael Miranda notched a personal best in the 300-meter sprint by five full seconds. Michael Quartaro improved his 55-meter dash time as well.

 

Senior co-captain Conner Sexton won the League and Class C meets last month at 1,600 meters, and he ran a 9:48 3,200-meter time at the Westchester County Championships, placing fourth overall. At the Section 1 State Qualifier held at the Armory Track & Field Center in Upper Manhattan February 21, Sexton toed the line in the 1,600 and finished fifth in a personal best of 4:25.57, one-and-a-half seconds from the podium.

 

Coach Heyde was enthusiastic afterwards. “Conner tried to make a move on the final two laps but could not catch the fourth runner. He had an amazing season, and it was an honor to coach him.”

 

Longtime Rye High School Coach Jim Yedowitz was just as upbeat after his team’s Class B meet February 10. “There was magic in the air. It was a coach’s dream in that almost every athlete had a personal best…or two!”

 

Ninth grader Elena Perez-Segnini took second place in the 1,000 and broke the school record set by Juliette Kenny in 2001. Natalie Weiner, who’s just as young, broke Kenny’s freshman record in the 1,500. Then the two youngsters joined Garnet veterans Julia Donovan and Catherine Bird to win the Class B 4×800 relay.

 

Eleven days later, Perez-Segnini ran 3:08:04 for ninth overall in the 1,000 at the State Qualifier held at the Armory. Weiner’s 1,500 clocking smashed her personal best by seven seconds and gave her a top-8 finish out of 24 entrants. Her time of 4:51.68 already ranks third on Rye’s all-time list.

 

At the same meet, junior Mark Willis came in 15th in the Boys’ 600-meter run. His time was 1:28.72. Long jumping senior Owen Moore hit 18’ 3” to finish 14th.