"Don't be surprised if ." was the phrase that came out of coach Charlie Powell's mouth most often this weekend after his team's performance Friday night at the Great Dane Classic in Albany, N.Y.
The men's track team finished first overall, ahead of 21 other teams. The Red and Blue scored a total of 115 points, three different athletes finished first and 19 Quakers finished in the top five.
The most notable performers were Tim Kaijala, who took first in the one-mile run with a time of 4:10.84. Junior Reid McEwen also finished first in the 3,000-meter run coming in at 8:20.51. Freshman John Carelli was the third top performer for the Quakers, taking first in the triple jump with a height of 14.67 meters.
"We went out there and were aggressive and competitive. It is still very early in the season for us, but I thought they really went out and competed well," Powell said.
Powell is excited about his team's performance and about its future. He believes that the confidence level is starting to grow and taking first this weekend helped.
"Winning an event changes the view; everyone needs a little verification that they are doing well, much like acing a calc test. All of the sudden they know they can do this," says Powell.
Much like that math test, there are always more to follow. Powell thinks the team will keep working hard and responding to their challenges.
The main area Powell is excited about is the emergence of several younger athletes.
He believes freshman John Carelli, Jeremy Sinclair, Alex Bleday, and Kevin Kiley are all starting to perform at a very high level. "Don't be surprised if all of these guys start doing really well," Powell added.
"As a coach you wait in hoping that kids develop, because the step from high school to college is a big one, a major step. The fact that some of these guys are able to take it this early is huge."
Sophomore Anthony Abitante has also made major strides already this season for the Quakers. He came in first last week at Navy and cleared the same height this week, even though he took fourth.
"We saw Anthony perform in high school and knew what kind of potential he had. Last year he was third or fourth in the league as a freshman, and now he is coming into his own."
The main thing now for the Quakers is to keep performing at the high level and continue getting better as a team.
"Things are really starting to roll, and championship teams start rolling midseason and the pieces start falling into place," Powell said.
"We have some really talented kids on this team, and the question is, do we have enough?"
