Shannon Kelly called it “a very big season, very unexpected.”
In her first indoor track and field season, Scarsdale’s Shannon Kelly is going to states. The junior placed fourth at the New York State qualifier in the 600-meter and will be part of the intersectional relay.
After coming close to the school record in the girls 4x400-meter relay, Scarsdale sophomore Eva Gibney, junior Ari Sobel, junior Shannon Kelly and freshman Maria Roberts didn’t just break the mark at the Millrose Games on Feb. 11, they shattered it by three seconds.
The Scarsdale track and field team is making up for lost time. After losing multiple longtime coaches and valuable months of competing and training over multiple seasons during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Raiders have assembled a new coaching staff and a new set of rising stars.
When Leo Khang joined the winter track and field team at Scarsdale High School a year ago, he figured the speed that served him so well on the soccer field would translate into wins in a race. Instead of taking first or second, which he fully expected to do, Khang placed last.
One look around the stadium at Franklin Field on the University of Pennsylvania campus and Edgemont junior Connor Fisher knew what he had to do.
For a pair of local track and field stars, this was their time to shine on the big stage competing against the best in the state on June 10 and 11 at the New York State track and field championship meet at Cicero-North Syracuse High School.
For the senior class on the Scarsdale High School track and field program, this was their last chance to compete together as a team in Section 1 competition.
It took two days to complete, but in the end it was another performance that proved to Scarsdale track and field coach Vincent Modafferi that the Raiders are heading in the right direction to finish the season strong.
A record day at Loucks Games was just what Scarsdale senior Diya Shadaksharappa needed heading into the major championships meets. With personal bests in the triple jump and long jump, Shadaksharappa’s pacing throughout the season to achieve her top marks when they matter most is paying off.
Heading into a league, county or class meet, track and field coaches and teams often have a sense of where they’ll fall amongst the competition. A meet like the Joe Wynne Somers Lions Club Invitational with dozens of teams of all shapes and sizes is more about competing well and preparing fo…
When Ethan Rifkin was a freshman, he watched Dorji Phuntsho dominate as a thrower for the Scarsdale spring track and field team. Now as a senior, Rifkin, despite not having a 2020 season and having a shortened 2021 season due to COVID-19, is peaking with his senior year performances.
In a way, Scarsdale senior Diya Shadaksharappa was back home competing on her home turf, but she had never seen it like this before.
The day started at the break of dawn with a long bus ride only to be greeted by a locked door, but by the time it ended Scarsdale seniors Avery Bensche and Diya Shadaksharappa both agreed it was an experience they will never forget.
It has been a familiar sight at the jumping pits for a long time whenever Scarsdale competes at a track and field meet. Two girls, always together working and helping each other prepare and compete.
Diya Shadaksharappa and Avery Bensche are as ready as they’ll ever be for the biggest meet of their high school careers, the upcoming Section 1 state qualifiers, which will be their final chance to qualify for the state championships.
Scarsdale has the best girls jumping tandem in Westchester County. Seniors Avery Bensche and Diya Shadaksharappa combined for three titles and a runner-up finish at the county championships at the Armory on Sunday, Jan. 23.
Nothing seemed to go right for Scarsdale’s winter track and field team to begin the season. Many of the Raiders found themselves in quarantine due to COVID in December and weather-related cancellations kept them from competing in multiple meets after that.
For a team that had no meets and cut its training short last winter due to COVID-19 and a barrage of snow, the Scarsdale indoor track and field team didn’t think things could get any worse this year. This winter they did, though the next month could turn things around for the Raiders.
After running modified cross-country and spring track as an eighth grader, Jake Coleman thought he was a sprinter. By the end of freshman year that would change and his distance running would take him places he never thought imaginable at times he thought he could only dream of.
For a program that hadn’t experienced normalcy over three straight seasons, this spring, though shortened and without a full schedule of meets and opportunities, was as close as Scarsdale’s runners, jumpers and throwers have seen since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. And the Raiders …
With experienced senior captains Alexandre Friedman and Jake Coleman leading the way, it was only a matter of time before the Scarsdale boys track and field team brought home another outdoor league title.
Championship season began for the Scarsdale girls track team on May 20 when the Raiders hosted the League 1B championship meet. The girls, led by veteran seniors like Alexa Doyle and Yurami Van Eer, finished third of five teams, finishing sandwiched between New Rochelle and Ursuline in first…
With upgrades and construction scattered over the last 15 or so years, Scarsdale coach Rich Clark doesn’t remember the last time the track and field program hosted a full varsity meet at Butler Field prior to April 28 for the season opener against Mamaroneck. It was a momentous day for the R…
Coach Rich Clark was almost ready to pull out a second hand to count the number of legitimate potential New York State championships qualifiers from Scarsdale’s indoor track and field team this past winter. But in the end, only one advanced.
Scarsdale has the top male and female 600-meter runners in Section 1 Class A. At the Feb. 23 state qualifier, they hope to prove they are the best among all classes in those two events and others.
As further evidenced by standout performances at the Westchester County Championships, relays have become a strength for the Scarsdale track and field team.
Placing third of five in the league for the girls and third of four for the boys, the Scarsdale track and field team did its best to score points over as many events as possible, but fell short for a number of reasons.
Three meets over the two-week vacation offered Scarsdale’s track and field competitors of all skill levels a chance to compete. At each of the three meets, however, the one constant was D.J. Matusz.
Distance runners don’t often get to run true distance relays, so when senior Victoria Capobianco, junior Alexa Doyle and sophomores Natalyn Kapner and Lizzie Hurshman had the opportunity to run the 4x1,500-meter relay at the Jim Mitchell Invitational at the Armory, the foursome seized the op…
The Scarsdale track and field team sent a pair of relays to New Balance Nationals in North Carolina last weekend. For the girls, it was the first time since 2014 that a team made the trek.
Nico Bernard had an important job as the anchor of Scarsdale’s 4x800-meter relay in the winter and spring. His goal was to cross the finish line before the opposing anchors, but despite being the team’s fastest leg, he could only achieve his objective if everyone on the team stepped up.
Ward Bandsma, Eric Jacobson, D.J. Matusz and Nico Bernard placed second in New York State in the 4x800-meter relay over the winter. They lowered their time to 7:49.43 at New Balance Nationals a week later.
It’s amazing what you can learn from picking random Scarsdale High School track and field team members who are doing well and chatting them up for a few minutes.
Building a throwing team has been a hard sell at Scarsdale High School.
In a word, “Nothing.”
Lack of a proper training facility, having to improvise with road and fitness center treadmill workouts, death of the parent of a key teammate and some tough late-season injuries did not derail the Scarsdale track and field team this winter. While it may have slowed the girls team down quite…
Nico Bernard runs until the only thing he feels in his legs is pain. If there isn’t unbearable pain, he isn’t pushing himself hard enough.
Having coached cross-country and track and field at Scarsdale since the 1982-83 school year, Rich Clark doesn’t experience many firsts anymore. This winter, however, the 4x800-meter relay team provided him with a new one as Ward Bandsma, Eric Jacobson, D.J. Matusz and Nico Bernard became his…
It’s been a season of breaking records for the Scarsdale track and field team.
When you consider how many key events the Scarsdale track and field team didn’t contest, the boys taking second and the girls tying for fifth at Sunday’s Westchester County Championship meet is quite remarkable.
And they’re off!
When Brooke Bensche decided to try track during her freshman year at Scarsdale High School, it was mostly because her sister, who also had a background in gymnastics, had done it and found success. Like Kendall, who just finished her freshman year at Harvard, Brooke gave up gymnastics in fav…
They were going the distance.
A couple of winter track records linger from the 1980s, but another longtime Scarsdale school mark from the ’90s has fallen.
