Five of Irvington’s boys’ track and field athletes competed in a 4×100 relay- an event where each of the 4 runners run a portion of the race before passing the baton to their next teammate- at the 50th annual Arcadia Invitational in Arcadia, California. Known as one of the largest and most selective track and field competitions in the nation, the Arcadia Invitational boasts over 650 schools in attendance. Competing alongside many of the country’s finest high school track and field athletes are juniors Achint Jha and Ayman Ibrahim, and seniors Grant Nguyen, Riley Sasaki and Mickey Tadepalli.

“Irvington hasn’t had a relay team this competitive in years and we are all grateful to be a part of it,” Sasaki said.  “As long as we trust the process and keep putting in the work that is needed, success will come.”

Setting a new bar for Irvington’s track and field athletes, the relayers got second in their heat, or preliminary racing group, and 22nd in the race as a whole, matching their previous record time of 43.48 seconds. Furthermore, Sasaki ran in the 100m and 200m sprints, finishing second in his heat for the 100m race and breaking his, and the school’s, previous record of 10.83 seconds. After pulling his hamstring mid-race, he was unable to finish the 200m.  

“I feel like our handoffs could have been better,” Ibrahim said. “We are a growing team and we benefited from this just by being on the big stage and running against the nation’s best.”

Overall, the athletes have an optimistic outlook for the future of their 4×100 relay team, emphasizing that though there are always things to improve upon, competing in such a highly competitive national meet was inspirational and educational.

“I think overall it’s the little things that can make the difference,” Jha said. “Knowing that, we just have to work on things that we personally have problems with. We hope to get better so in the real race we can bring our best.”