By Bill Landon
Rocky Point and Harborfields each looked to notch their first victory of the season Tuesday, but the Tornadoes’ boys’ track and field team blew past the Eagles on their home track, to win the League V meet, 103-38.
Harborfields long jump standout Randy Maldon, a senior, was the talk of the event, taking first with a jump of 18-9 3/4, to come up well ahead of the second place finisher.
Maldon, who has competed in the event since his sophomore year, also runs winter track, and said the windy conditions affected his performance despite the positive turnout.
“The wind definitely throws off my steps — it’s pushing me back so I have to push harder, and it affects me in the air,” he said. “Going down the runway, I drifted to the left a little bit.”
The Tornadoes flexed their muscles early, dominating, the 1,600-meter to take the top five spots. First across the line for Harborfields was sophomore James DeSantis, who won the event in 4 minutes, 59:06 seconds. Harborfields senior Jake Miller won the 3,000 in 11:28.2, finishing just ahead of teammate Alexander Martin, a junior, as both runners traded the lead several times.
“It was windy, but I ran with my teammate Alex alternating laps and we would take turns blocking the wind,” Miller said. “We needed to see who had a little bit left with 800 meters left.”
Rocky Point’s Chris Valleau, a three-year varsity competitor, competed in the 200 and 400 dashes, and said he felt he underperformed.
“I can run better than I did today,” the junior said, adding that it had nothing to do with the windy conditions.
Rocky Point senior Kevin LaRosa, who competed in the 100 and 200, finished the races in 13 seconds and 28 seconds, respectively.
“I thought we underperformed as a team today — we certainly could’ve done better,” LaRosa said. “The conditions really didn’t affect me today in the shorter races, but it does in the longer distances.”
Alex DeMottie, a senior who competed in the high jump, 800 and 4×800 relay, echoed LaRosa’s and Valleau’s assessment that there was room for improvement.
“It wasn’t my best performance,” DeMottie said. “I’ve got to work harder to improve my times.”
Rocky Point head coach Chris Donadoni said in the end, his Eagles just faced a better team.
“I was pleased with our shotput and discus events today, although we didn’t get to see those because those events are held on the lower field,” the head coach said, adding that his assistant coach said each kid threw their best in both events. “It’s a growing process with this team. They’re real young and inexperienced, so each meet is an opportunity for all of them to learn something. We’ll look at each of their performances, but more importantly, how they prepare mentally for each event. They’ve made progress in their preparation since the start of the season.”
With the win, Harborfields improves to 1-2 as the Eagles fall to 0-3.
Rocky Point travels to Westhampton Beach on April 30 for an 8:30 a.m. meet.
