The eagerly-anticipated Track and Field season has finally arrived. Unlike past recent years in the history of Choate Track and Field, this year marks the inauguration of the new Bruce and Luiza Gelb Track dedicated specifically to use by Choate runners. Although the track was scheduled for completion last year, production was delayed. According to Coach Jorge Olmo, our athletes had to use the tracks in a local high school, Lyman Hall. Going back and forth in a bus each day made practices seem much longer to both players and coaches. This year, Coach Olmo says that the team and coaches are “very satisfied with the new field and running tracks.”
On Wednesday, April 16th, the team had their first home meet of the season and the first home meet ever on the new facility. Both girls’ and boys’ teams had a meet against Hotchkiss, a very strong team. In the ’06-’07 season, the Hotchkiss Boys’ Varsity Track Team had a season record of 10-0 and came in first place for both the Founders League Championship and the New England Championship. The Hotchkiss Girls’ Varsity Team had a record of 6-2-1, also first place in Founders League, but 3rd place in New Englands. As the records suggested, this home meet was a tough match for Choate’s track team.
Overall, Hotchkiss track team won both boys’ and girls’ team events. The boys lost with a score of 50-95, and the girls 71.5-80. Despite the lopsided scoreboard, Coach Olmo feels that the team showed a good effort. Patrick Li ’10, one of the spectators at the meet, said, “I saw some great effort from the athletes, though Hotchkiss had still a very competitive team. Choate never backed down and gave them a good challenge.”
This year’s track team is led by Mr. Jim Davidson and Mr. Olmo, who have spent 33 years and 7 years coaching the team respectively. “We have a very young team, with many sophomores and freshmen,” explained Mr. Olmo. “For example, there’s only one male hurdler, Jay Kim ’10, who is a sophomore. One of our goals for the season is to prepare these guys for the future.” Describing the team as “focused and eager,” he said that they had good long distance runners from both the boys’ and girls’ teams. Good throwers among girls stood out. Also, Nick DeChello ’08 broke his own record from last season in javelin by a large margin, showing promising improvement.
So far this season, the boys have a season record of 2-3, and the girls 4-1. The boys’ team won against Trinity-Pawling and Westminster but was defeated by Taft and Avon Old Farms. The girls won meets with Miss Porter’s, Taft, Westminster, and Greenwich--their only loss being to Hotchkiss.
Jay Kim ’10 hurdles into his first home meet. Ian Morris
