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TheJournalNJ.com | APRIL 2021 15
RECOVERY IS
CLOSER THAN
YOU THINK
Chance to Compete at Polar Bear Meets
BY TIM MORRIS
W-
town High School North Coaches Ray Convey and Brock Silvestri
came up with a solution for the athletes: go outdoors. North
hosted a series of Polar Bear Meets on the Lions’ outdoor track to make up
for the lack of under-cover meets.
“Brock and I wanted to do something more for the kids,” said Convey.
“We wanted to give them more opportunities to compete.”
So they came up with the Polar Bear Meets idea, a twice weekly competition
that mirrored the indoor format. The 55-meter dash, for instance,
was run instead of the 100 meters and 55-meter hurdles in place of the
110. The competitions were held Tuesdays for the sprinters and hurdlers,
and Thursdays for the distance runners. Field events were spread out on
the two days. To spice things up, the coaches added a 4x200 relay for
sprinters and 4x800 for the distance runners.
Because of the lack of indoor meets this winter, the Lion coaches
did not limit entries. This would give so many more athletes the chance
to compete.
The competition wasn’t limited to Middletown North. The meets
were held in a Bayshore Pod that included Middletown South, Holmdel,
Monmouth Regionals, Matawan and Raritan.
The meets got off to a shaky start with the snowstorms that covered
the North track and some bitter cold weather that pushed the start of
the Polar Bear competition from February back to March 3 and 4. The wait
was worth it.
“It was nice to be back and so good to see them compete again,” said
Convey. “It was great seeing the kids smiling and cheering for each other.”
and prove the hard work they had put in prior to the races.
The indoor schedule this year was so limited that for Shore teams,
it was just one qualifying meet in the Bennett Indoor Complex in Toms
-
ships. This severely limited the number of athletes who could compete.
But thanks to Polar Bear, the indoor athletes had more options.
-
ivia Kelly (55 hurdles, ahead of teammate Hailey Guerrieri in second) won
their respective races. Also claiming wins for the girls were Emma Powers
(400) and Maya Yesalonis (shot put, with teammate Jada McKnight second).
For the boys, Anthony Crimaldi (55 hurdles) took gold as well as Levi
Wilson (long jump).
Holmdel winners were Ella Jennings (1,600) and Arianna Bartholemew
(long jump) for the girls, and Dylan Day (55 dash) for the boys.
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