With the season of autumn approaching its end, temperatures outside are dropping further, and trees are being stripped of their leaves. These transformations not only mark the end of fall, but they also mark the end of the fall season for sports. Tenafly students will remember this time with reminiscence of their notable accomplishments through the season, as many Tenafly teams made great strides in forwarding their athletic success for THS. Despite the bittersweet conclusion to fall sports, a positive outcome stems from this change—the new and exciting start of the winter sports season. 

During the brief interval between the fall and winter athletic periods, student-athletes eagerly laid in wait and began to prepare for the commencement of tryouts, practices, and games for their chosen winter sport. A particular interest among many students during this time of year is Winter Track. The very fact that there are people who like dedicating their time to running in the cold seems largely surprising to other students. However, track and field is a popular sport among the winter athletes. While the enthusiasm for a fresh year of competitions hangs in the athletes’ minds, many can’t help but wonder what the new teams will look like and how they will compete without last year’s prominent seniors. 

It’s safe to say that last year’s roster was senior-dominant, including graduated seniors Kenny Uchida (’22), the new record holder for Men’s Long Jump,  Rebecca Beaver (’22) leading the sprinters, and long-distance runners Jake Wolmer (’22), Jaden Uram (’22) and Aidan Devlin (’22). With their exceptional abilities, the seniors acted as the forefront of the team during last year’s practices and meets. Not only did they make Tenafly proud by bringing astonishing results, but they also demonstrated excellent sportsmanship and set an exemplary image in athleticism for the underclassmen. The departure of the class of 2022 marks the end of a golden era for THS Winter Track and may result in many significant changes to the team.

On the other hand, this situation also provides the upperclassmen with a great opportunity to fill the same role and to lead the team in their own way. One particular senior, Gerry Santosh (’23), who demonstrates impressive talent in the long-distance category, specifically the mile race, plans to use these circumstances in his favor to produce better times and ultimately improve his performance as a runner, as well as as a leader. “It’s definitely a negative impact because Jake Wolmer, Jaden Uram [were] big parts of the team,” Santosh said when asked about the impact of the departure of last year’s seniors. “But we’re going to step up…I’m going to step up in the mile, so it’s a negative effect, but it’s going to force us to work even harder.” Santosh’s main opinion from the preseason gives an optimistic view for this year’s track season. 

Likewise, Jordan Tobias (’23), a star sprinter for Tenafly,  expressed his high hopes for the upcoming season. “This upcoming Winter Track season is going to be really successful for Tenafly. We have a lot of lowerclassmen stepping up to the plate.” Tobias is looking to focus his efforts on bonding with the team and he’s thrilled to mentor the current lowerclassmen. 

Another talented runner, Jaylen Tang (’24), expressed similar enthusiasm regarding the newly modified squad and displayed his responsibility as an upperclassman sprinter after the graduation of last year’s seniors. “Definitely the loss of Kenny Uchida (’22) is taking a toll on our team and it forced me to step up a little bit.” He also anticipates an improvement for himself and shows his goals and ambitions for this season. “You know… just to perform great and improve from last year’s spring season, hopefully get recruited too,” Tang said. 

Even though this year’s Winter Track runners are faced with a few unfortunate circumstances, they positively view this season as a perfect time to improve their abilities even more than before and demonstrate their leadership skills as the experienced veterans of the team.