The Ridge Track and Field Team traveled up to Boston to compete at New Balance Indoor Nationals.
From Thursday through Sunday, 15 different athletes from Ridge raced, with some personal bests, season best relay times, and an All-American relay.
On Thursday, Freshmen Kenji Hou and Tristan Frank raced in the freshman 400. Both of them crushed the qualifying standard of 56 seconds to enter this event. Kenji ran a 54.20, and Tristan ran a 55.07- both great times for freshmen.
On Friday, the boys Distance Medley Relay had an awesome performance, placing 4th overall, and earning All-American status.
With senior Dev Patel running 3:08.86 for the 1200, senior Owen Mays running 51.49 for the 400, senior Edward Condolon running 1:56.46 for the 800, and junior Brenden McMahon bringing it home with a 4:13.41 1600 leg, the squad had a total time of 10:10.20, improving on their season best. This relay team now has the 2nd and 3rd fastest DMR times in school history, only behind the high school national record of 9:53.40 set by Ridge in 2022.
On Saturday morning, Owen took on the 60m hurdles bright and early running a competitive time of 8.59 against stacked competition.
Later that afternoon, Brenden McMahon dropped an incredible time in the 2 mile, running 9:04.07. Placing 2nd in his heat and 15th overall, this time converts down to a 9:00.91 3200 meter run, a 17 second indoor personal best. Brenden improves his standing as #2 on the Ridge all time list, over 25 seconds ahead of Ridge #3.
On Sunday, the boys Shuttle Hurdle Relay improved on their school record with a time of 32.14.
The team of juniors Joseph Dachnowicz, Jared Rascio, and Marcus Reilly and senior Owen Mays holds the top 2 times in school history, with this 32.14 and their previous record of 32.39.
Up next was the 4×800 relay. The boys ran an 8:01.34 , with Brenden McMahon and Edward Condolon both splitting 1:58s and junior Kaleb Huang setting a new relay split PR of 2:02.10. Right after the boys were the girls, who set a new season best of 9:31.29.
With senior Elena Nicholson leading off in 2:26.25, senior Ryan Ireland running the second leg in 2:21.37, senior Elayna Douglas running 2:25.69, and senior Katharine Frank anchoring in 2:18.00, the girls had a really strong performance to close out their season.
Finally, the boys 4×400 relay of juniors Joseph Dachnowicz and Chase Fritz, and seniors Edward Condolon and Owen Mays ran a 3:26.63 to finish out the weekend. This time is #3 in school history, and this same team holds the school record of 3:24.88, set last weekend at the New Jersey Meet of Champions.
Next up for Ridge is the Spring Track Season, kicking off later this month.
— By Brenden McMahon
