Photo from The Blue and Gold archives.
Malden High continues to have a good season in indoor track, with victories for both boys and girls at Wednesday’s meet on January 19th at the Salemwood school against Lynn Classical. The Malden High Indoor Track team, currently 4-0-1, secured a decisive victory, with wins in most events held that night. Understandably, most are in good spirits concerning the team.
Starting the night off, there was the JV 600 meter race, won handily by Malden. One of the runners in the race, junior Jonathan Brill, said that “the Lynn Classical squad is so small, but they do have some good runners…so we just ran.”
Following the JV 600m were the short events, the hurdles and the 50 meter races. In the hurdles, Malden won in both events for both genders, with senior Jelani Garrett clocking a time of 7.8 seconds for the boys, and sophomore Shuyi Chen coming in at 9.6 seconds for the girls.
Throughout the 600m and the short events, the shot put and high jump were contested. For the high jump, Malden came out victorious, with a jump of 5’6” made by senior Gavin West for the boys, and a jump of 4’2” made by freshman Makenzie Jenkins for the girls. In the shot put, also won by Malden, seniors Aiden Thompson threw the farthest for the boys, and Yusra Tafraoui won the contest for the girls.
After this came the one mile runs, with Malden once again triumphing for both the boys and girls squads. For the boys, freshman Marc Naceus, running a time of 6:07, won the contest. For the girls, the honor went to senior Sara Dzaferagic, running a time of 6:24.
Next came the 300, the 600 and the 1000 meter races. Malden was victorious in all races on the girl’s side, but on the boy’s side, Lynn scored a victory in the 300 meters. For the girls, the victorious were Jenkins, senior captain Leslie Rodriguez and senior Cynthia Nguyen, running times of 0:54, 2:15 and 4:10 in their respective categories. For the boys, the winners were junior Jose Guerrero-Mejia in the 600 meters, with a time of 1:47, and senior Nicholas Wong, with a time of 3:01 in the 1000 meters.
After that came the two mile races and the last event of the night, the 4×400 relay. Malden handily won both events, with senior Katrina Chang racking a time of 17:49 for the girls, and senior captain Marcos Ruiz sporting a time of 11:17 for the boys. The 4×400 relay went swimmingly for the Maldonians, with our proud relay racers beating Lynn with times of 4:13 for the boys and 5:13 for the girls, exactly one minute apart.
After the meet, runners expressed mostly gratitude and resolve concerning their victory, as expressed in these comments from boys captain, Marcos Ruiz: “…I think we all perform really well. I think we [have just] got to get back into the routine of just running your race. Go be mentally prepared.” Coach Mark Ferrara, echoed a similar sentiment: “I think we did everything we could have done today. We had a lot of personal records today…I think [we performed] very adequately today.”
Adding on to that thought, junior Wilson Jiang stated that “I feel like our team everybody here gave their truest…Now that’s what I think makes us a winner, because I don’t [rely on] on model spirits, everybody here that’s a Maldonian, we put 110% out every meet, that’s what in our heart.” To use the words of Ferrara, Malden High’s Indoor Track team is making a comeback.
