Rising Expectations for the Greyducks’ Outdoor Season

The Stuyvesant Greyducks, the boys’ track team, started their outdoor season on April 14 at Mayor’s Cup at Icahn Stadium. After a strong indoor season, the team was hoping to hit the ground running in their first meet. “During the 2018 Manhattan indoor Borough Championships, sophomore Nicholas Siauw managed to score a lot of points for the team, which helped us win the championships again,” sophomore sprinter James Chun said. He expects key sprinters such as Siauw and sophomore Harper Andrews to help carry the burden for the team this outdoor season.

Mayor’s Cup was not without its bright spots, as senior Thomas Thread placed ninth in the 200-meter sprint in 23.76 seconds, and junior Richard Peng came in fifth for the 110-meter high hurdles. “With new faces joining the team this season, the underclassmen are more motivated to run faster and perform better. With every meet, the freshmen and sophomores are becoming more experienced in preparing for and performing in the meets,” senior and captain John Choi said. Some of these freshmen, Christian Nwenyi, Connor Ng, Laith Bahlouli, and Hadi Moukdad, exceeded expectations in their first meet. Their freshman team ran 48.76 seconds in the 4x100-meter relay, garnering a second place finish. However, with predominantly underclassmen on the 92-man roster, most members of the team are still getting used to the competition. The experienced team members believe that the potential of new members is high, though, and that they will play big roles this season as it progresses.

Other than sprinters Siauw and Andrews, there are several other critical returning players that are expected to lead the Greyducks this season. “Our core players are our two sprint captains John Choi and Joshel Xiedeng, who bring us points in the jumping and throwing events, Jeffrey Wu and Harper Andrews in jumps, and Joseph Lee and sophomore Nicholas Siauw in the running events,” Peng said.

Choi feels that coach Mankit Wong has a vital role on the team, helping out players and aiming to unite the team so that everybody can enjoy a great outdoor track season. “Coach Wong is actively trying to prepare us in a variety of ways this season. He has implemented more meetings to help figure out all of our mistakes while allowing everyone to feel more open to criticism. In addition, we are starting to run outside at the tracks more often as the weather warms up to make us feel more comfortable when we are competing at outdoor track meets,” Choi said. A more regimented schedule has helped the team prepare meet to meet and tweak anything in running form and strategy.

Despite being a young team, the Greyducks have high hopes for this outdoor season, and another Manhattan Borough Championship title is well within reach. “Coach Wong is preparing us to maintain our many-year reign in the Manhattan Borough Championships and get some seasoned runners to City’s,” Peng said. After a dominant indoor season, there is no reason to believe a similar outdoor season does not lie ahead.