How John Jay track and field coaches devised a winning formula

 John Jay seniors Sloan Wasserman (1) and Emma Barniv (5) finished 1st and 4th in the 3,000-meter race. JIM MACLEAN PHOTOS

Penelope Wein lands in the long jump pit at the State Qualifier meet in Arlington on June 4

James Withers-Tinio throws the javelin on his way to a third-place finish.

 Will George races to a ninth place finish in the 3,200 meter to earn top-ten honors.

, Hasti Shahdad was second in the racewalk at Hen Hud.

By JIM MACLEAN

In the sport of track and field the results speak for themselves — you run the fastest time, throw the farthest, jump the highest or longest mark, and the final result determines where you stand. 

By now, everyone in Section 1 track and field knows what John Jay is capable of doing in the distance running events, and now the Wolves are starting to see the results across the board.

John Jay coach Dey Dey has the distance teams competing at the top, and the Wolves brought in coach Joe Bachana to work with the sprinters and jumpers, along with coach Dylan Shuck to work with the throwers, and the results were clear with a number of top 10 finishers in several events throughout the three-day Section 1 State Qualifier meet.

“We coaches all feel that this was a season to remember,” Bachana said after the state qualifier meet. “From sprinters improving, to our distance squad’s domination, and on to all the different field events, we are seeing our vision of building a more well-rounded program that can punch above our weight against much larger schools at these big track meets. One big highlight was when our girls team won the Class B county championship. We hope to continue this work together to make the track and field experience a memorable one for our athletes at John Jay.”

As usual, senior Sloan Wasserman led the way as she qualified for the state meet in four different events. Wasserman won the 3,000-meter race on June 4, at Arlington, with a time of 9:57.85, with teammates Emma Barniv in fourth and Maya Serai in ninth also finishing in the top 10.

Wasserman came back the next day to win the 2,000-meter steeplechase race at Suffern on June 5, with a time of 7:04.79. That was the first of three races for her on a busy day as she then came back for the 1,500-meter race, where she had already met the super standard qualifying time for the state meet, and she finished fourth with teammates Mia Haimelin in eighth and Barniv in 10th.

Then she came back to anchor the John Jay 4x800 relay team. Teaming up with Lila Rotter, Serai, and Haimelin, the Wolves finished second with a time of 9:19.8, which qualified them for a trip to the state meet at Rochester. Wasserman will compete in the 3,000 and the steeplechase, but has elected to withdraw from the 1,500 so she can be ready for the relay event at the state meet.

“That was the main thing, to have the 4x8 qualify,” explained coach Dey. “Sloan beats herself up, but she was tired and did good. The plan was for her to do all three races at states, but that’s too much and she wants to help her team in the relay. It’s very exciting to get the relay team to states. That was the plan from the beginning and they have a good chance to win in Class B.”

Haimelin also earned a top 10 finish in the girls 800-meter race with a personal best time to finish seventh overall.

In the boys distance events, Rohan Patel was sixth in the 3,200-meter race and Will George was ninth in the 800-meter to earn top 10 finishes. The duo came back to team up with Matthew Ebert and Tarun Patel to finish ninth in the boys 4x800-meter relay event.

Landon Goodman capped off a big senior year with a sixth-place finish in the boys 400-meter race, with teammate Nicolai Elias right behind in seventh place.

Freshman Kelsey Topay was 10th in the girls 400, and she teamed up with Bluma Klein, Fidela Swana, and Penelope Wein to finish eighth in the girls’ 4x400 relay event.

In the field events, junior Elyse Hermanto finished tied for second in the high jump as three girls cleared the top height of 4’ 9” and it came down to attempts. Hermanto has a personal best of 5’2” in the event, but she has been struggling with a knee injury in the spring and has elected to not compete at states despite qualifying.

“Elyse did qualify for states since the girl that won on misses was not going,” Bachana said of Hermanto. “However, she has been struggling with knee issues, so we decided it would be better for her to wrap up her season, get healthy and come back stronger next year.”

Senior Skylar Monasch capped his career with a big day in the boys shot put as he finished second in Class B with a personal best throw of 45’ 2.25” and put his name in the record book at John Jay.

“Skylar threw a career best distance, which was fourth on the all-time record list at John Jay that dates back to 1960,” Bachana said of Monasch. “He just missed the state qualification by inches, but it was a great way to end his high school career.”

In the 1,500 racewalk event, senior Hasti Shahdad finished second with a time of 9:14.43 to cap her John Jay career before she goes on to compete for Hunter College next year.

Lorelei Schembri was busy competing on two days in five events as part of the Pentathlon, turning in a personal best score of 2,114 points to finish fourth. Sophia Calandros was fourth in the girls shot put, and senior Penelope Wein was sixth in the long jump.

John Jay had a big day in javelin as James Withers-Tinio finished third with a throw of 138’ 1” at Hen Hud on June 3. Charlotte Rupenstein was second and Bluma Klein was fourth in javelin for the girls. Edwin Garcia was eighth in the boys hammer throw.