Men’s varsity track and field team won the MAC championship on Saturday, May 13. GDS had a score of 189 points and beat five other teams.
GDS finished 89 points ahead of second-place Flint Hill. A team’s score in track and field is the sum of the points it won based on placements in individual events and relays. In the ISL championships, which took place on Friday and Saturday, the women’s varsity team finished sixth of 14 teams. Earlier in the week, on Tuesday, May 9, the B teams competed. The men’s B team finished first in the MAC, and the women’s B team finished eighth in the ISL.
The men’s varsity team finished first in four events. Senior Christian Freeman won the triple jump event and the 110-meter hurdles race, and GDS came in first in both the 4×400 and 4×100 relays. The team also had many second and third-place finishes in the other events. GDS runners set personal records (PRs) in 13 of the 19 events they competed in, with 18 total PRs for the team set Thursday and Saturday.
The league championship is a fitting capstone to a remarkable season for the team, whose accomplishments include a historic performance at the Penn Relay Carnival, known as the Penn Relays, at the end of April. Juniors Zach Kovner, Kovan Smith and Abe Badji, and senior Roshan Natarajan were on the MAC-winning 4×400 team on Saturday. Kovner and Smith, as well as fellow juniors Nathaniel Romine and Nathaniel Mintzer, ran the 4×100 relay in the MAC championship and set a new record for the school with a time of 43.21 seconds.
Mintzer set a school record in the 100-meter dash, running 11.04 in the preliminary race, where he finished second. He finished third in the final race with a time of 11.30, right behind Romine. The men’s track and field team set six school records in 2023, with 67 total spots on the school’s all-time leaderboard coming from this year.
Freshman Alexandra Solomon, a member of the women’s varsity team, explained that for head coach Anthony Belber “it’s not just about winning, but about making sure people enjoy running.” She added that she believes his focus on enjoying running has worked well for both her and the rest of the team.
The team’s next meet is on Wednesday, May 24, and Thursday, May 25, when they will compete in the District of Columbia State Athletic Association Championships.