Colonie-96 Shen-85
Shen-109 Saratoga-72
Colonie-110 Saratoga-71
The Plainsmen lost their second meet of the season as Colonie was fueled by winning performances in the 4x800, triple jump, shot put, and discus. Shen will finish third this year in the Suburban Council Blue Division.
Colonie kicked things off in the 4x800 as the team of Evan Mastaitis, Jim Tremblay, Mike Gathen, and Bryan Susser ran an 8:05.3, beating out the Shen team of Andruski, Hansen, Slater, and Lynch, who ran a team best 8:07. In the 110 high hurdles, sophomore Andre Vives finished first with a 16.4. Colonie senior J.J. Harvey won the 100 with a time of 11.1. The Siena College bound Harvey also was on the winning 4x100 team (44.7) and finished first in the triple jump (42-3.75). His triple jump victory was one of the keys to the Garnet Raider victory, as they managed to score 5 points.
In the 1600, Andruski finished first with a 4:31.7. Jeremy Relyea was first in the 3200 for Shen, as he ran a personal best 10:32. Shen junior Dave Vickers stepped it up for the Plainsmen in the 400 hurdles as he ran a 59.0, beating out Colonie's Brett Thompson. In the 400, Susser was first with a 50.8 and in the 200, Gathen won with a 22.9. Gathen was also on the winning 4x800 and 4x400 teams.
In the field events, Vives won with the long jump a 19-9 performance. Ammon Nelson won the high jump with a jump of 6-0. The Garnet Raider throw team of Larry Burben (shot-44-11.5) and Matt Tarullo (discus-131-8) combined to beat Shen 8-3 in both of those events.
As many predicted, the meet came down to the final event, the 4x400. With Harvey's victory in the triple jump, Shen would need a 7-2 victory in the 4x400 and an 8-3 win in the pole vault. Erik Ela led off the Shen team and managed to hang on. Wagner Samaniego took on Colonie's eighth-grade phenom Kyle Audi for the second leg and kept Shen in it. Colonie's third leg, UConn bound Jim Tremblay pulled out a gutsy performance as he passed Sam Silver on the back straight away to put Colonie in the lead. Gathen ran the anchor leg against Lynch and the Colonie junior managed to maintain the lead for the victory.
Despite the loss many Shen athletes ran personal bests. The 4x400 (3:32.3) and 4x800 (2:07) both ran team bests. Many individuals also ran personal bests. Senior Mike Hauser ran a 2:12 in the 800 and 57.5 in the 4x400, both PRs.
