Article and Videos by Cameron Dubin and Eli Braginsky
Sports Reporters
Scroll over the interactive photo below to see video interviews with members of the track team and a handoff between senior captain Noah Shuster and senior David Berman. *NOTE*: Although Soberanis and Batler are in the interactive weblink, they will not be traveling to Nationals this year.
In late June, several student-athletes from Newton South will travel to Greensboro, North Carolina to compete with other runners from around the nation.
Seniors Noah Shuster, David Berman, and Levon Tiekka, along with juniors Jake Epstein, Alex Huang, and Anthony DeNitto will make the trip to race against the top runners in the country to try to prove that they are the best in front of a variety of college coaches from across the country.
The track team will be represented through the Newton Center Track Club due to rules at the highly appraised New Balance National Outdoor Track and Field competition on June 19-21. The rules dictate that runners cannot wear their school issued uniforms, nor any uniform with the school names on them.
Sophomore Clare Martin will also be traveling to North Carolina for Nationals after she qualified for the competition in the Steeple Chase, where she set a meet record. She has also set the school record in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:12.
The 4×100-meter and 800-meter sprint-medley relay teams that will be representing South will include six runners with alternates. In addition, DeNitto will be competing in the Decathlon, which he actually qualified for last year, but did not end up going.
His score at the Decathlon last year would have placed him among the nation’s best.
“It’s a huge honor,” Epstein said. “Every track runner’s goal is to try to make it to Nationals.”
“It will be awesome,” senior captain Shuster said, “to have an experience to go across the country for the sake of representing the school.”
Racing against some of the elite athletes in the country will also be a new event for these student athletes.
“To compete at such a high level, it’s exciting,” Huang said. “It’s nothing I’ve had the chance to do before…it’ll be a lot of fun.”
“It’s gonna be a great experience,” said junior Jamyre Soberanis, part of the 4×100-meter relay team. “A lot of fast runners gonna be out there competing hard.”
Soberanis worked hard from last year to improve his running form after his first year running last year. That worked has paid off has he is now one of the fastest runners in the program. However, for various reasons, Soberanis will actually not be making the trip to North Carolina.
The journey to Nationals this year was a tough one as members of the team worked hard to overcome injuries and started training earlier in the season to work on their times.
“We definitely worked more on hand-offs,” Batler said. “[It] counts for a huge part of your time.”
Batler, who has overcome injuries since running for South, worked to rehab from a foot injury and stay healthy. He has been doing his own regiment of lifting and eating healthier so he can perform his best.
He will also not be making the trip because of a nagging hamstring injury. He had also qualified for Indoor Nationals, but did not go due to an injury, and his freshmen nationals experienced was marred by him running on a hamstring injury that, according to the sprinter, “Ruined the competition aspect.”
Epstein agrees that the program has worked hard in the offseason to get to this point.
“[We have been] working since November, we’ve had this goal. In the fall, some people who weren’t doing fall sports were working hard, doing their own track workouts…A lot more handoff preparation. Changed up orders on some relays to try and get the best chemistry,” he said.
No corners were cut for South runners this year, who have been giving their best effort to achieve all season.
“We always do our workouts to the full extent,” Huang said.
Whether they make All-American or not, all six runners are high spirited and ready to compete.
“We’re expecting to have a good time,” Epstein said. “Everyone is looking forward to it.”
UPDATED on 6/1/2015
correction – Clare Martin has a Weston Twilight meet record in the steeplechase, but not a school record.
correction has been made, thank you!