Posted on

RHS Boys Track & Field underclassmen show they belong at Nationals

granttai

PHOTO COURTESY OF JACOB BROWN
Ridgewood’s Kobi Grant, left, takes a handoff from Matt Tai in the sprint medley relay at last weekend’s New Balance Outdoor Nationals in Greensboro, N.C.

JUNE 26, 2015    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 2015, 12:31 AM
BY MATTHEW BIRCHENOUGH
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEW

In the final meet of the 2015 season, the Ridgewood High School boys track team’s contingent of young talent traveled to the New Balance Outdoor Nationals in Greensboro, N.C., not to show what they could provide the squad in 2016, but to prove that they were ready for the big time right now.

“Before the meet started, we challenged them that this meet wasn’t about getting ready for next year,” RHS head coach Josh Saladino said in a phone interview Monday night. “This meet was about rising to the expectation and the pressure of performing at a national-level championship this year.”

Saladino and the Maroons returned north happy with the work done by the six underclassmen that earned their way to Nationals, held on the campus of North Carolina A&T State University.

The quartet of freshman Matt Tai, sophomores Kobi Grant and Kyle Mack and junior Michael Thurston finished 21st in the sprint medley relay and 10th in the Swedish relay.

Tai also competed in the freshman 100-meter dash, and Thurston took 11th in the Emerging Elite Division 800 race.

https://www.northjersey.com/sports/high-school-sports/boys-track/maroon-boys-finish-year-on-a-positive-note-1.1363732