The Stuart Hall Knights and the Convent Cubs have a lot to defend this year, especially the league title. Track and Field is a sport for almost everyone, with a variety of events ranging from running to throwing. This year, the Knights and the Cubs will miss key athletes which include Bosco Bapuopeleh, Drew Xandrine-Anderson, Benji Bapuopeleh, Liam Campbell and Sarah Seltzer, all from the class of 2015. Bosco was one of the best sprinters in the Bay Area and went to the division one college, Wofford. Drew was a dominant athlete on the jump squad who is now on the U.C. Davis Track and Field Team. Without these people, Head Coach Michael Buckley and the Track and Field team must look towards rookies and veterans to get points. The team is very strong, even without some of these outstanding athletes.

Among long distance runners, Eli Horwitz ‘17, Julian Moreno ‘16 and Patrick Dilworth ‘17 are expected to continue their form from last year. Rookie, Skyler Dela Cruz ‘19, is an excellent runner and is anticipated to do well on the track. Eli is looking to be the best long distance runner in school history and is expected to both break all the school records and make State Finals. Last year the sprint team was the most successful out of the four events and is expected to maintain its dominance on the track with Team Captains, Alex Macdonald ‘17 and Elijah Horwitz ‘17, along with Jorim Powell ‘18 and Callaghan Swearengen ‘16. Alex is one of the most promising sprinters in the league who posted a 51.71 in the 400m race last year. This is 0.68 more than Bosco’s 51.03. In the 4×100 relay, the team finished in 44.32 seconds which is a solid performance.

With the absence of Drew Xandrine-Anderson and Benji Bapoupeleh, Jonny Forman ‘18 and Jorim Powell ‘18 must really strive to have good performances to get points for the jumping squad. The throwing squad also took a big hit with the loss of Liam Campbell ‘15. But we have team captain, Omid Ravanfar ‘16, and Alex Berbey ‘17 consistently getting points these past years. In shot put, Alex posted 37ft with a 12lb shot put, 3ft less than the school record. Omid has been killing it in discus with a personal best of 110ft. Both are expected to qualify for NCS.

Jorim Powell ‘18 says, “We are going to do well this year with all the new incoming people.” The Track Team has gone from 73 athletes to 94 athletes and with that rate of growth, there might have to be cuts in coming years. The Knights and Cubs look strong this year and are going to be tough competitors that have a great chance of defending the league title.