KINGSTON � On Wednesday, May 26, the Ellenville Boys Track and Field team experienced a day at Dietz Stadium where everything went right for their opponents, although, when night started to fall, the tide would turn. Near the conclusion of the meet the Blue Devils were trailing both New Paltz and Liberty but they came back scoring 53 points in the final events to finish with 133 points and in a tie with New Paltz. According to Section IX personnel this was the first tie in a boy's championship in thirty-five years.

Over the course of the steamy day Ellenville was led by AJ Borriello who captured first place in both the shot put (50'3") and discus (147'2") in his final high school sporting event in an Ellenville uniform. Sophomore, Tyler Obryant had a huge day on the track, finishing in second place in both the 100 meter dash (11.34 seconds) and the 200 meter dash (23.55 seconds) for the Blue Devils. Joe Barrera finished third in the 110 meter high hurdles (16.12 seconds) and seventh in the 400 meter hurdles (61.43 seconds). Ben Altshuler, added a fourth place finish in the long jump (19'10"), a fifth place finish in the 400 meter hurdles (60.71 seconds), and an eighth place finish in the triple jump (37'1"). Tomasz Czarnecki also scored for the Blue Devils finishing in fourth in the 100 meter dash (11.56 seconds), and eighth in the long jump (19'5"). In the 400 meter dash Andrew Platt (53.69 seconds) finished in sixth place and Tishan Beaupierre (54.05 seconds) took seventh. In the 800 meter run Nick Vanderhoff (2:09.94) finished seventh and Andres Rojas (2:10.98) eighth. Finally, Jestin Velasquez finished in third in the triple jump (40'1") and in seventh in the high jump (5'8"), while Stephen Stephens finished seventh in the 3000 meter steeplechase (11:52).

When the sun started to set it would first be the relay teams which brought the Blue Devils back into contention. Leading the way was the 400 meter relay team consisting of Matt Persell, Joe Barrera, Toamsz Czarnecki, and Tyler Obryant who finished in first place with a time of 44.78 seconds. The 1600 meter relay team made up of Barrera, Andrew Platt, Tishan Beaupierre, and Andres Rojas finished in second with a time of 3:32.15. The 3200 meter relay team then added a third place finish when Rojas, Platt, Nick Vanderhoff, and Doug Lewis ran an 8:43.66. While the relays were concluding so was the pentathlon. MHAL pentathlon champion John Paulsen added a Section IX championship to his resume winning the event with a total of 2956 points. Freshman, Marco Torres finished fourth with a total of 2372 points.

After all the other events were finished and the sky was black, the light shined on the final event of the evening, the pole vault. At this point the Blue Devils were trailing New Paltz by 14 points in the meet. All the Huguenot vaulters had been eliminated and Ellenville's Doug Lewis and Justin Farrenkopf remained in the competition with two other competitors. The two Blue Devil vaulters knew what was at stake and finished in second (Farrekopf) and third place (Lewis) by clearing 12 feet to bring the meet to an even tie at 133 points.

The night was capped of by a 9:30 p.m. dual victory lap by both the New Paltz and Ellenville teams. In an outstanding display of sportsmanship the two teams shook hands and posed for a joint picture. Now that the team season for Ellenville track and field is over, select athletes will head to the New York State qualifier meet on June 3 and 4 to see who will make it the state championships in Vestal, NY the following weekend.