65.0°,
A Few Clouds Jets cruise to track title
It’s hard to tell what’s in better shape right now, the athletes on East Meadow’s boys’ track team or the program itself. Just four short seasons ago, the winter track team finished dead last in its conference and in the spring season that followed, the Jets failed to win a single meet.
Fast forward to 2009-10, however, and things couldn’t be more different. East Meadow captured its first ever Conference title in boys’ indoor track, beating out eight other teams at the Section VIII Conference 2 Championships on Jan. 31 at St. Anthony’s. The Jets finished first with 131.5 total points, while Calhoun was second (123.5) and Port Washington a distant third (69).
“We always had the talent there but we were young,” coach Jim McGlynn said of the difference between his first year with the team (2006) and now. “We weren’t battle-tested and didn’t know how to win.”
Topping the charts for East Meadow is senior Baffour Obiem, who won the 55-meter hurdles at not only the Conference II Championships, but also the Nassau Class A Championships on Feb. 10 and most recently the state qualifying meet on Feb. 24 at Suffolk Community College.
Obiem, who also scored points at the Conference II Championships by finishing first in the 300m and third in the high jump, qualified for the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Championships in the 55 hurdles this Saturday based on his performance at the state qualifier.
“He’s a good leader and quiet,” McGlynn said. “He does anything we ask him to do and he’s versatile.”
East Meadow dominated the field events at St. Anthony’s, sweeping all three places in the pole vault, taking two of the top three slots in the long jump and getting an even further boost by the first-place performance by Herbert Flores in the shot put. The senior beat out Calhoun’s Tim Reid by nearly two feet, launching his best throw 45 feet, 7.25 inches. Senior Tim Nevins won the pole vault (nine feet), while senior teammate Paolo Acuna and junior Tom Milian tied for second and third, exactly one foot behind.
