By Jay Cook |
LINCROFT – For the fourth time since 2011, the Christian Brothers Academy Colts have been crowned national champions in one of the toughest relays in indoor track.
Racing at the New Balance Indoor National Championship just a few blocks away from the Hudson River, head coach Karl Torchia said the Colts used a combination of experience and talent to come out on top in the 4xMile event yet again.
“It’s been like this for years where we rely on the past, and keep talking about all the alumni,” he said. “The young men that come here try to leave the school better than when they came in. Every year, these guys seem to inch a little closer to being better.”
Junior Brian Hill (4:20.4), sophomore Tim McInerney (4:22.3) and seniors Noah Yuro (4:21.6) and Colin Tringani (4:21.1) teamed up to capture the national championship, making their mark as the top crew in the entire country.
With a collective time at 17:25.47, CBA topped another Shore Conference team that is actually less than 10 miles down the road from them: the Colts Neck Cougars.
The Cougars were guided by head coach Jim Schlentz, and have also become perennial track and cross country powerhouses on the national stage. Torchia said it was ironic that the teams were facing off in New York City, when a simple bus ride could have been had across town for the head to head showdown.
“(Coach Schlentz) does a great job every year getting quality kids out,” Torchia said. “It just so happened this year that they had four running relay very well. They’re one of the top programs in the country.”
While Yuro and Tringani have seen firsthand what it takes to be on a national championship team, Torchia said one of his young runners was thrown into the fray. For McInerney, he was only running in his third mile ever.
Torchia mentioned that the coach who works directly with the long-distance track team coach Sean McCafferty, deserved much of the credit for creating a successful pipeline of runners.
Considering that, maybe even a more notable achievement over the weekend was where the B-team came in at the March 11 event. Runners Joe Boyle, Patrick Kilcooley, JP Stark and Genaro Anzalone finished fifth place in the country in the 4xMile event.
“It goes to show the depth of our team, Torchia said. “We have lots of depth at distance running, very good depth in the shuttle/hurdles too. We had 12 All-Americans overall, and not too many teams in the country can say that.”
Torchia said that with such a competitive team, ranging from all of the indoor track sports, a competitive culture has been created at CBA. The student-athletes cannot afford to mess around with complacency.
“The big thing is that they motivate each other,” he said. “There’s a lot of good guys that you get to train with and if you’re not going hard, there’s somebody that will take your place.”
