2022-23 BOYS WINTER TRACK MEETS

Junior Nick Galasso had a fantastic day placing third overall in the High Jump (5'8") in his first Indoor T&F meet ever. Junior Nathaniel Kluge placed 9th overall in the 3000m (10:00.51) in his first crack at the event. Short sprint specialist junior Calvin Jordan stretched up to the 400m, placing 18th overall in 56.47. Junior Kyle Friend had an excellent opening season 55m running 6.99, barely missing the All-Time Top 10 list.

The boys team headed up to the Lehigh Valley for their first conference meet of the year. The highlight of the meet came early in the 60m dash where junior Calvin Jordan ran 7.33 in the finals of the event. That time qualifies him for the TFCAofGP Meet of Champions (to be held on February 18) and stands in a tie for 7th fastest 60m dash in Conestoga T&F history. Sophomore Aidan Mahoney opened his season with a massive PR in the 3000m (9:54.15) followed by his teammate Nav Manick (10:22.59), another big PR. Not to be outdone by their teammates, the boys 4x200 relay team of Charlie Henderson, Alex Krapels, Kyle Friend, and Calvin Jordan ran an impressive time of 1:39.08, a top-25 performance in the TFCAofGP. Sophomore Vir Chopra also opened up his season with a new Indoor personal best in the Triple Jump, 33'11.5".

Junior Charlie Henderson ran 53.63 for 400m on 12/22 - another Meet of Champions qualifying mark, the first of his career, and an Indoor personal best by over a second. He currently sits as the 35th best in the State.

Junior Nick Galasso, in only his third ever Indoor competition, high jumped 5'10" on 12/29 placing 5th - another Meet of Champions qualifier. His mark sits T-17 in the State and places him as #3 All-Time in Conestoga Indoor T&F history.

The boys brought a sampling of all disciplines up to Lehigh to try and improve in 2023. Junior Kyle Friend ran a personal best for 60m (7.53), less than 0.2 second away from his MoC qualifier. Senior Aidan Max had an exceptional 3000m race, placing 6th overall in 9:34.96 - a 25 second improvement than earlier this season. We wanted to highlight our freshman/sophomore group that raced the Distance Medley Relay - Jackson Kime, Jack Connolly, Biji Blagoev, and Shane Harley. Most of these boys were racing their first high school T&F race, were very prepared, and had incredibly positive attitudes! The star of the day goes to sophomore Patrick Barausky for placing 6th overall in the Pole Vault with a jump of 10'6". That jump ties the All-Time Conestoga Indoor T&F school record. 

The underclassmen were on display, once again; this time in the distance events. Freshman Laura Traineau had a lifetime PR in her first high school T&F race - 6:05.75 for Mile. Her distance teammates followed up with excellent 3000m results. Brendan McGuilkin (SR) ran 10:28.02, Ethan Del Viscio (SO) ran 10:46.19, and Lilly Jones (SO) ran 11:19.23 -- great results for athletes competing in the event for the first time. The star of the day goes to freshman Alexia Tubbs for placing 6th overall in the 3000m running 11:06.26 - currently the #2 overall freshman girl for 3000m in the State of Pennsylvania and currently #10 All-Time for Conestoga Indoor T&F.

The boys competed at Lehigh University, the last stop in the Lehigh Valley until mid-February. Junior Nick Galasso continued his strong season, high jumping 5'10" again and winning the overall event. Junior Calvin Jordan ran a lifetime best for 200m -- 23.99, good for 7th overall. Sophomore Aidan Mahoney ran a tactical 3000m race, finishing 8th overall in a new lifetime best 9:39.31. Sophomore Vir Chopra jumped a new Indoor best in the Triple Jump (34'1.5"). The star of the meet goes to junior Colin Grimes who runs 7.32 for his first-ever 60m. That time lands him at #7 All-Time in Conestoga Indoor Track & Field history and moves his teammate Jordan down to #8. Grimes was also the leadoff leg for the boys 4x200m relay who ran 1:37.571, a mere 0.331 off a Meet of Champions qualifier. That team consisted of Grimes, Alex Krapels, Kyle Friend, and Jordan.

A much larger co-ed squad headed over to Collegeville for the final meet at Ursinus on our calendar. Once again, there were nearly 1,200 student-athletes competing which made for a very long day of competition and patience.

On the boys side: 

• Junior Nick Galasso puts in a consistently strong performance, high jumping 5'10 and finishing 2nd overall. 

• Junior Nathan Kluge pushed through that 10:00 barrier in the 3000m for the first time, finishing in 9:51.58 and 11th place. 

• Junior Colin Grimes had the best 200m performance from the team, racing 24.13 and a new personal best. 

• Freshman Jack Connolly, in his second lifetime Indoor race, set a new personal best in the 55m - 7.45. 

• Star(s) of the Meet - (1) Calvin Jordan ran a huge lifetime best over 55m (6.75) which moves him up the All-Time charts to #6, just behind 2021 star graduate Henry Miller (now competing at Univ. of Vermont). (2) junior Kyle Friend had a massive Indoor personal best in the Long Jump, jumping 19'2.25" (over 1' better than his previous best). That marks moves him up to #8 All-Time Conestoga Indoor Track & Field.

A small squad of boys went out to the Glen Mills school:

• sophomore 55m hurdles Brendan Wahlers (9.56) came away with a 12th place finish and his first appearance in a Conference final. 

• The Distance Medley Relay team of Ryan Erwin, Jacob Yan, Biji Blagoev, and Shane Harley took home a 13th place finish (13:47.32) with Erwin having the most impressive relay split (4:25.05 for 1200m). 

• Star of the Meet goes to sophomore Patrick Barausky and his silver medal for pole vaulting 10'0", just below his personal best of 10'6" set earlier this season.

A group of our boy athletes headed out for their final meet held at Glen Mills. Senior Pierce Skrdla set an Indoor personal best for 200m (27.58). Sophomore Patrick Barausky took home another silver medal after matching his personal best in the Pole Vault (10'6"). Senior Zach Rosan set an Indoor personal best for an open 800m (2:24.24). Star of the Meet goes to sophomore hurdler Adrian Rodrigo who set a big Indoor personal best over 55m H, finishing the race in 9.70.

Sophomore Brendan Wahlers opened the action with a new personal best 55m H (9.31 - good for #4 All-Time in Conestoga history), placing 10th in the Freshman division and barely missing the finals. Junior Colin Grimes continued with a 55m personal best of his own (6.82 - good for #7 All-Time in Conestoga history). Juniors Nathanael Chen and Alex Krapels also had impressive 55m races, 7.14 and 7.19 respectively. Freshman Jack Connolly finished his season with a nice duo of events - 7.42 55m and 26.76 200m, both lifetime bests for the newcomer. The Mile race saw tremendous output from our distance group - Aidan Max (4:44.87), Nav Manick (4:45.69), Tommy Barausky (4:46.00), Nathaniel Kluge (4:47.95) were all under the 5:00 barrier. This marks the first time Conestoga has had four boys under 5:00 Indoors since 2017. Eight additional boys also ran lifetime bests in the Mile race. In the field, junior Kyle Friend exploded for another lifetime best in the Long Jump (20'3.25" - improving to #4 All-Time in Conestoga history) and sophomore Vir Chopra had another lifetime best in the Triple Jump (34'5.75"). The boys 4x200m relay team of Calvin Jordan, Colin Grimes, Kyle Friend, and Alex Krapels ran 1:34.30 - a season best and good for #9 All-Time in Conestoga history. That performance is currently #32 in the State of PA and less than a second off of a State Championship Qualifying performance (before flat track conversions). Star of the Meet (#1) goes to new school record holder, sophomore Patrick Barausky for his 11'6" Pole Vault performance. This jump was a full 1' improvement on his season with lots of room to continue. Star of the Meet (#2) goes to new school record holder, junior Calvin Jordan for his 6.61 55m performance. Jordan ran 6.67 in the preliminary rounds to advance to the finals where he improved significantly. This time is a State Championship qualifier, however, only 24 athletes will be selected for this event and Jordan currently stands at #27.

After record setting performances last weekend at Ocean Breeze, it was going to be difficult to replicate similar performances in only six days. Unfortunately, that was the scenario on Friday evening for the boys team out at Lehigh University. Junior Tommy Barausky was a bright spot, racing in only his second Indoor event of the season (and his career). He placed 10th overall in the 800m (2:06.22). Junior Calvin Jordan placed 5th overall in the 60m event, racing 7.15 and moving his name to 4th All-Time in Conestoga history for the event. That time does not improve upon his converted 55m performance from last weekend (6.61 --> 7.11) and he remains tied for #30 on the State Champs descending order list, as of the writing of this post. The top 24 athletes that declare for this particular event will be selected to race in the State Championships on February 26. Stars of the Meet: Jordan joined with his teammates Colin Grimes, Kyle Friend, and Alex Krapels to land our final Meet of Champions qualifying performance in the 4x200m relay. The boys ran 1:36.35 with an excellent opening leg from Grimes (23.59).

We had some very quality performances from both the boys and girls team against some stiff competition from around the State. Senior Aidan Max ran a tactically sound race to finish 6th overall in the 3000m. His time (9:19.86) moves him onto the All-Time List at #9 -- not bad for an athlete in only his third season of competition. Sophomore Kevin Gares, back in competition after a nagging hip injury, reset his lifetime personal best in the Pole Vault in only his second meet back. His jump of 11'0" moves him to #2 All-Time in Conestoga history. We finished the Indoor season with two boy Pole Vaulters in the top 65 of the State -- a feat never before accomplished in program history.

At the TFCAofGP Meet of Champions, our boys team was represented across three events. 

• The boys 4x200m relay team opened up the meet with an 8th place finish (1:35.45 - flat track conversion - 1:33.85), a season's best. That team consisted of Colin Grimes, Alex Krapels, Kyle Friend, and Calvin Jordan. This performance barely misses a State Championship qualifying performance where the standard is 1:35.17, but does land them at #9 All-Time in Conestoga history. Grimes and Jordan came back only minutes later to compete in the 60m dash. Grimes ran a lifetime best 7.26 (#7 All-Time) but missed the final round by one spot. 

• Jordan, having made the final round by one spot racing 7.24, improved his time and place in that final round. He finished 8th overall in 7.22. 

• High Jumper Nick Galasso closed out our weekend with a 14th place finish, jumping 5'9". This was Galasso's first Indoor campaign where he improved his best performance by 4".

Calvin Jordan – 60m: placed 22nd (7.26)

Calvin was a bit of a surprise to make the meet, to be honest., considering he was State ranked #32. After scratches, he came in to the meet ranked 24th and would have had to set lifetime personal bests just to move from the prelim round to the semi round. This was the first time Conestoga has had a short sprints male qualify for this meet in 9 years, which is impressive considering we pull more from soccer types and not football types. Only one other CAL athlete (Lavar Jackson, Upper Darby – finished 8th) qualified in the same event. FYI: 7 out of the top 8 boys in the State Championship 60m final play high school football, including an All-State running back. Current Conestoga football players on roster: 2