The Viking Boys’ Track team made a close but impressive win over host Wilcox Thursday, winning 66 1/3-60 2/3.
The meet kicked off with the Vikings winning the 4-by-100 relay, run by senior Joseph Ashufta, junior David Lefebvre, senior Nolan Prunty, and senior Rahsaan Carty.

"We had some very good marks all across the board, nothing I didn’t expect," coach Jason Fung said. "We’ve found our strengths in sprinting, not only in varsity, but in frosh-soph and JV as well."

The Vikings swept first, second, and third place in two events, the 110-meter hurdles and the two-mile.

In a dual meet, first place wins five points, second place wins three points, and third place wins one point. Extra points are awarded for winning all three places. It takes 64 points to win the meet, and the Vikings had enough after the two-mile race, so they didn’t run a 4-by-400-relay team.

The field events, which came close, looked good. In the Discus, Senior Nathan Taber placed first with a throw of 45’ even. Taber also placed third in shot put with a throw of 121’ 4.5’’. The Vikings made a good show in the throwing events, even with the absence of junior Alex Jugant, who qualified for CCS last year. In the jumps, the Vikings did well overall. Junior Eric Ruth placed second in triple jump with a jump of 38’ 3" and junior Sanjiv Ramdeo placed third in the high jump with 5’ 4". Senior Rahsaan Carty placed second in long jump with 19’ 1.5", but also placed first in the 100-meter dash with 11.25 seconds and second in 200-meter dash with 24.65 seconds.

The hurdle races saw some of Paly’s best performances with Ashufta winning the 110 hurdles and junior Ben Flamm winning the 300 hurdles. Junior Herrel Siller added 10 points by winning the two-mile and 800-meter race, while junior Danny Vinson won the mile.

However, despite all the success, the Vikings need a lot of improvements to occur to achieve the goals they’ve set for the rest of the season.

"We have a lot to do this week," Fung said. Paly will battle Lynbrook on Thursday, the team which co-shared the league title with the Vikings last year.

"Lynbrook has a good team; they will be returning a lot of sprinters and key athletes," Fung said. "We already know who will win the event, and it’ll even out, but it will become the battle of second and third places. It’s going to come down to who gets the most second and third places."

The Vikings next face Lynbrook on Thursday, March 18 at 3:00 p.m at Lynbrook.