Hendricken’s track and field team produced some great performances on the track this weekend. The Hawks brought their 4x800, 4x100 and 4x400 meter relay teams to Penn Relays, which is held at Franklin Field in Pennsylvania. The Hawks started their amazing weekend on Friday with the 4x800 and 4x100 meter relays. The 4x800 team of Harry Antone, Robert Merlino, Jeffrey Venter and Jordan Dagrin ran a time of 7:59.55, which became the third-fastest time in school history and the fastest time the school has ever ran at the Penn Relays.

After that, the 4x100 team of Ethan Pezzullo, Russell White, Desmond Bernal and Kwity Paye hopped on the track. This team ran a time of 43.65 and finished second in its heat, joining the 4x800 team as recording the fastest time the Hawks have ever ran at Penn Relays.

This momentum continued on into Saturday with the 4x400 meter relay team. The team of Antone, Merlino, Ethan Famiano and Duwuan Edwards ran a time of 3:25.88; Famiano dropped a 50.78 as the third leg, and this was Famiano’s second 400-meter relay this season.

“This year’s trip to the Penn Relays exceeded the expectations of the entire coaching staff,” Coach James Lourenco said. “All three of the relays that were in attendance ran the fastest times that the school has ever at Penn Relays.”

Back in Rhode Island, the rest of the Hawks’ track team was competing in the Classical Classic at Mount Pleasant High School. The Hawks continued their successful weekend, with great performances coming from senior Joseph Rivera Santos. This meet showed the great amount of depth Hendricken has with the varsity relays being away. The Hawks’ 4x100 relay team took third place with a time of 45.1. In the 110 hurdles, Rivera Santos won with a time of 14.8, crushing his personal best. Santos came back in the 300 hurdles and had another PR, finishing second. In the 100-meter dash, Juniors Devin Rivet and Brandon Arpin had some great performances in the preliminaries. Rivet finished with a time of 11.2, and Arpin with a time of 11.3.

Some more great performances came from the field for the Hawks. In the discus, senior Evan Storti placed third with a throw of 136 feet. In the hammer, Abraham Salako had a PR, throwing 189 feet, 10 inches, finishing fourth overall. In the shot put, Xavier Truss had a toss of 45 feet, placing him fifth. In the javelin, Matthew St. Jean had a toss of 144 feet to earn third. He would then come back in the 800 and place sixth with a time of 2:04.7. In the high jump, senior Michael Bittner placed second, but the big performance for the Hawks was from freshman Henry LeClaire, who cleared 5-foot-8. Two Hendricken freshman have now cleared 5-foot-8, with the other being Angel Sanchez.

Hendricken’s track and field team was set to wrap up its last dual meet of the season on Monday at home against Toll Gate, Paul Cuffee and Central, but results were unavailable at press time.

After this, the rest of the meets are all state meet qualifiers, and the teams at these meets are looking to secure themselves a good spot at the state meet on June 3.

“As a coaching staff, we are excited for what our team should be able to accomplish in the coming weeks, and the trip to Penn Relays was a great way to start the invitational season,” Lourenco said on the big upcoming meets.

This Saturday, the Hawks travel to Narragansett High School to compete at the Schomp Invitational.