Baldwin boys win coveted spring track title

The Baldwin boys’ track and field team won its first county title in over a decade after holding off Port Washington’s Paul D. Schreiber High School at the Nassau Class AAA Championships in Westbury on May 22 and followed that up by having several of its athletes qualify for this weekend’s state championships in Syracuse.

After going 13-1 during the regular season despite not having a true home track and falling just 5.5 points shy of winning the Division 1B event on May 13, the Bruins bounced back to edge Schreiber by just four points (71-67) to claim their first Nassau championship since 2011.

Senior Tristan Brown won the 110- and 400-meter hurdles and helped the 4X100 relay team, which also featured juniors Proper Prawl and Nigel Wright and sophomore Brandon Thweatt, claim the top spot in that final. Junior Paul Fleck picked up a combined 12 points after finishing second in the 1,600-meter final and fourth in the 3,200-meter run.

The Bruins fell 3.5 points short during the 2022 counties and injuries to key seniors derailed their chances last spring, but they were always contenders in the eyes of coach Mike Higgins.

“The kids have been on fire the last three weeks,” he said. “They had a great division meet. We came up a little short by five points in winning the division. So we come back the next week and we have a plan to execute for taking a shot at the county championships and those guys literally executed the plan.”

Brown completed the 110-hurdle final in 14.74 seconds to edge Jalen Gordon of Farmingdale and his time of 55.67 in the 400 hurdles was almost two seconds better than Jayden Zarco-De La Cruz of Long Beach. He won the 400 hurdles by almost four seconds at the division championships.

The Bruins collected 20 points alone in the 110-meter hurdles, with Thweatt and Marlon Pierre finishing third and fourth, respectively. Thweatt was also second in the 100-meter dash finals, two spots ahead of Wright.

“This year we had this thing we called ‘Hurdle World’,” Higgins said. “Hurdle World is where we have nine guys that committed to winning the hurdles this year. We had guys that ran well during the indoor season and the focus was, and that was a part of the plan, to try to get in the top four.”’

Despite being hampered by an ailing knee sustained during the indoor season, Fleck was also the top Division 1 finisher at last week’s state qualifier with a personal-best time of 4:23.10.

Carter Hoskins scored a point in the 800-meter final with a season-best time of 2:00.48 and Kristopher Chambers’ first shot put throw of 46 feet, 0.75 inches held up for a third-place tie in that final.

At Syracuse, Brown will be competing in the 110 hurdles and the 4X100 relay with Prawl, Pierre, Thweatt, Wright, and Mikhi Williams. Thweatt and Wright will also participate in the 100-meter dash and Fleck will be in the 1,600-meter field.