HSMSE’s Boys Outdoor Track team had six qualifiers for the first time in school history for the City Championships that took place on May 28th. These six qualifiers have shown the diversity of the strengths of the track team.
There were three qualifiers in the pole vault event. Juniors Bryan Medina, Brandon Fajardo, and sophomore Owen Gao all made the cut for the championships. Coach Henning’s rigorous training and athletic development of these qualifiers has allowed for such a feat to be possible this spring season. The past seniors mentoring allowed city qualifiers such as Medina to improve tremendously.
“I continually and consistently go to practice and [give] my all during each practice, research, and ask more experienced sprinters for advice,” Medina said in a 2017 interview. “My fellow pole vaulters including Michael Proudnikov, a now graduated pole vaulter, were a big help in improving my skills and helping me persevere during long practices.”
The help the teammates provided each other was pivotal to the success of these different qualifiers. This support was evident to coach Henning as he watched the athletes mature.
“I think the natural progression in any athletic program, you will have people who were successful one year, who help inspire, teach and encourage the younger athletes,” Henning said. “Those younger athletes become older, they inspire others. So each year, we have had more and more experienced people and therefore more qualifiers.”
Henning also referred to Proudnikov as good example of mature athletes assisting their teammates in practice. Henning attributed him as one of the major factors in improving for the pole vaulters improvement.
“For example, Michael Proudnikov was the one pole vaulter we had last year,” Henning said. “He taught four other guys, and now we have more three qualifiers in the pole vaulting event.”
The two other events the track team qualified for was the high jump event and the 110 meter hurdles event. Both Miles Greenblatt and Danny Gong qualified for the high jump, and senior Bin Zhang qualified for the 110 meter hurdles.
Zhang has been running the 110 meter hurdles for three years. He is a perfect example of hard work culminating in a rewarding fashion, as he qualified for the City Championships in his final season. He attributes his accomplishment to the assistance he has received from fellow runners throughout the four years.
“The major factor was friends,” he said, “they pushed me to push myself at every given chance. One specific friend was Anand [Karmaker] who always stayed by my side; he pushed me to go to gym and that allowed me to push my limits.”
Fajardo was the only qualifier that won a medal. Fajardo came in 5th for the pole vault event, vaulting at a height of 11 feet. Henning described the field as very harsh due to the disadvantages of being in a small school without as many resources as other schools.
“We are competing different schools who have track in their back, with bigger teams, and more coaches, so it’s a tough competition,” Henning said.
Authored by Erick Romero and Anamul Hoque
Showing posts with label Coach Henning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Coach Henning. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Friday, February 27, 2015
The sucess of the 2014 Flying Dragons
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| Lucian Ramnarase / T. Henning |
Coach Tom Henning prides himself on his recruiting skills and applauds the student athletes for their drive to be faster runners.
“I think we’ve been successful because MSE students work hard in anything that they do,” Henning said. “I’ve been very persistent in recruiting students.”
One prime example of an MSE student working hard is varsity runner Lucian Ramnarase. Ramnarase had a breakout season this year, finishing in 39th place out of about 200 other runners in the City Championships, well above most of his fellow Flying Dragons.
Henning believes the success of his team is also due to coaching changes he made this season. Instead of increasing the mileage the runners run each week, he reduced the miles ran each week in order to develop faster runners instead of slower runners.
“I think I focused on more fast running, more high paced running with rest in between; I certainly took that from my track and field training,” Henning said.
Henning’s unorthodox quality over quantity approach has led to a team that reached the PSAL Cross Country City Championships for the first time. The accolades the team earned in the past year was a result of the enthusiasm the runners had, and the different approaches Henning used this past season in contrast to other great Cross Country teams.
Authors: Bruce Mayfield, Harry Smith
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