Thursday, October 1, 2026
Neither a calf injury nor food poisoning could stop Glen Head resident Gary Leschinski at the National Junior College Athletic Association track and field championships. After picking up track late in high school, the Suffolk Community College student won the NJCAA Division III championship in the decathlon.
Leschinski first began running track at North Shore High School because his friends were on the team and to stay in shape for baseball, his primary sport. In his first year of college at Nassau Community College, he had to make a choice. He decided to run track and keep training for baseball separately. He then transferred to Suffolk because he would be allowed to participate in both sports.
“This year, the goal was to do both at the same time, which ended up in a lot of injuries, a lot of stress,” Leschinski said. “At the end, I kind of left baseball in the backseat, and it worked out.”
Despite getting involved in track to support his baseball career, he ended up excelling, primarily in sprints, at Nassau.
“I think it’s just the mindset of being the best at everything,” Leschinski said. “Everything I do, I have to kind of take really seriously. I can’t just do something for fun.”
It was at Nassau that Leschinski would discover his affinity for the javelin throw, in which athletes throw a metal-tipped spear for distance after a running approach. Two weeks before last year’s NJCAA championship, Leschinski came across a turbo jav, a training javelin, in the gym.
“I don’t know who put it there,” he said. “I don’t know what happened. It wasn’t ours; it wasn’t the track team’s. So, I took it home with me.”
Leschinski began to experiment with the turbo jav, culminating in a video of himself throwing it a considerable distance. He sent the video to his coach who sent it to Nassau’s athletic director.
“And then,” he said, “they bought me a javelin.”
At the first meet during which Leschinski threw javelin, he qualified for the national championship. He continued to teach himself, using online videos to improve his technique. It has since become one of his favorite track and field events.
There has been a lot of travel involved for Leschinski as he has navigated track and baseball at Suffolk. The college has two campuses, one in Seldon and one in Brentwood. He would often have to go to class in Seldon, head to Brentwood for baseball practice, then go back to Seldon for track practice. When it came to further training for the decathlon, Leschinski and his training partner found themselves at an unaffiliated facility in Holbrook.
“He’s very mature,” said Kim Saladino, Leschinski’s mother. “He’s very disciplined. He’s very focused on his goals in life, which is a great thing
Leschinski explained that he thinks of the decathlon in three categories: sprints, throws, and jumps.
“My coach looked at me, and he was like, ‘Yeah, you throw baseballs very hard, and I’ve seen you’ve been a successful sprinter’,” he said. “So, he basically looked at those and said, ‘Let’s kind of see if we could make something out of that.’”
The decathlon includes a 100-meter sprint, long jump, shot put, high jump, a 400-meter sprint, the 110-meter hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw, and a 1500-meter race. While Leschinski said he disliked events like the high jump because he believes he lacks the required grace to be successful, he particularly enjoys the javelin throw. This is one of his strongest events.
“It’s just like, ‘Let me see how far I could throw this big pole, this metal object’,” he said. “All the people who do it are really cool. It’s very low stress.”
The decathlon is a two-day event, requiring athletes to continually check in for different elements and any other events in which they may be competing. In the chaos, Leschinski missed two javelin throws, which he said was concerning since he was hoping that would get him the most points to move ahead of the competition. It did anyway.
On day one, Leschinski said his calves “knotted up.” He was using IcyHot during the meet to manage the injury. By the time he had to run a relay, it was too late to substitute. He said his coaches told him to just walk the relay.
“I’m an idiot, so I didn’t do that,” Leschinski said. “I sprinted it, and I ended up going down and not coming up.” He had to be carted off the track that day.
That night, Leschinski’s teammates went to a steakhouse for dinner. He remained at the hotel. Leschinski said he was worried about how could compete on day two.
“I took an ice bath. I took a hot bath. I used compression boots. I was massage gunning. I was stretching,” he said. “For like, three hours that night, I was just doing everything I could just to be able to stand up the next morning.”
On top of the calf injury, Leschinski said he did not sleep well and likely got food poisoning the same night. He met his coach in the hotel lobby at 5:30 a.m. on the second day of the championship.
“I was like, ‘Listen, this is going to be the hardest thing I’ve ever done’,” Leschinski said. “I was up all night. My stomach was killing me.”
Leschinski’s lower legs had to be wrapped, and instead of wearing spikes which would have made the 110-meter hurdles easier, he wore shoes with more support. Despite the injury, the lack of sleep, and the food poisoning, Leschinski made it through the second day’s events.
“I wasn’t surprised that he forged through,” Saladino said, “because that’s just what he does.”
It ended with the 1500-meter race. The competitor in second place had to beat Leschinski by roughly 30 seconds to make up ground overall. Leschinski won by two hundredths of a second.
“I thought he got me,” he said. “But I dipped at the line, and the moment I went through the line, I knew I won.”
Leschinski is now exploring four-year schools and said he is unsure which coaches to reach out to now that baseball might come second to track. He is also a volunteer firefighter at Glenwood Fire Company.
“Gary has proven himself to be a valuable asset to us here in the Glenwood Hook and Ladder Engine and Hose Company,” Chief Donald Sinski wrote in a statement. “We are very proud of him.”
