Double Dipped: Rye Track and Field Wins League Championships in Both Boys and Girls
The Rye Track and Field team reached new heights early this week, with both the boys and girls sides winning the league championship. The two-day meet started on Monday, April 28, at Pelham High School, and concluded on Tuesday at Nugent Stadium in Rye. The Garnets won on both sides handily, following up on a winter season in which the team also won the title in both boys and girls – a quadruple sweep.
“I’m honestly not certain when the last time was prior to this year that we had both boys and girls team titles, but to have this happen twice in one school year is extremely special for our program,” Head Coach Bryan Johnson told MyRye.com on Wednesday. He, along with Blair Moynahan, Kevin Murphy, and Joel Jenson, led the Garnets to the four combined titles across the boys and girls teams and seasons.
Rye scored 130.5 points on the boys side, more than doubling second-place Edgemont (63). The girls put up 128.5, with Eastchester a far second at 84.5. Sixteen individual athletes earned all-league honors for contributing to the Garnets’ success, including four who claimed those honors in multiple events. Below is a list of Rye’s all-league recipients in 2025:
All League: Boys
Aidan Schmidt, 200 meters
Justin McCarthy, 400M
Timothy O’Donnell, 400 hurdles
Ben Truman, 800M
Clayton Stark, 1600M and 3200M
Calvin Holler, discus
Henry O’Rorke, long jump
Rocklan Boisseau, pole vault
4x400M relay, Sebastian Lewis/Stark/McCarthy/Truman
All League: Girls
Erin Ball, 200M, high jump, long jump, and shot put
Katie Hillis, 100M
Sophia Bubeck, 100H
4x400M relay, Margot Kelly/Sophia Ambrosini/Lila Hudson/Claire Curran
The list is highlighted by Clayton Stark and Erin Ball. Stark was the only male competitor to win more than one individual event on any team. Stark won the 1600M by more than five seconds and the 3200M by more than eleven. He also set a personal record in the 400M hurdles event, coming in third place and seeing his teammate Timmy O’Donnell finish in first.
Ball was the only competitor on either side to win more than two individual events, taking home four gold medals. That includes beating more than fifty racers in the 200M relay and winning the shot put event on her first try. This comes off the heels of her breaking her own RHS record in the long jump over the weekend during the Rye Relays meet with a leap of 17′ 9″. Although she came short of that on Tuesday, her 17′ 5″ jump was almost three whole feet longer than second-place Sophia Bubeck. It’s been a pretty good season for the senior.
Along with the top performances of Stark and Ball, Johnson was quick to credit his other scorers that helped chip in points. Rye thrived by being able to have multiple top five finishers in almost every event, meaning they did not rely on Stark, Ball, and other first-place finishers to carry the load.
“Besides the selfless nature of the team, we’ve also worked to instill the sense in the athletes that everyone can make a contribution,” Johnson told MyRye.com. “We sort of took a page out of Coach Yedowitz’ playbook and reminded the kids that those points from second through fifth that make a huge difference along the way.”
Seventy of Rye’s 130.5 points on the boys side were from 2-5 finishers, while 86 of 128.5 were for the girls. In both cases, more than half of the Garnets’ success came from not only earning depth points, but preventing Eastchester, Edgemont, and Pelham from picking up those extra points.
“When you combine depth and the willingness to compete in multiple events and put the team first, you find success,” Johnson continued. “Having a deep roster certainly helps.”
Johnson highlighted Fiona Marino (3rd in the 3000M, 5th in the 1500M, both PRs), Lucy Carey (3rd in the high jump, 4th in the 100M with a PR, and fifth in the 200M with a PR), and Timmy O’Donnell (2nd in the 110H and triple jump to go along with his first place finish in the 400H, all of which were PRs) and key point thieves. He also made sure to mention Ben Von Homeyer, Egan Powers, Hudson Covello, Clayton Stark, Sadie Fu, Amaryn Farr, Katie Hillis, and Olivia Anderson – a list of athletes who tried pole vault and hurdles for the first time. All eight earned points in those events. “Without the contributions of those athletes we would not have had the success that we did,” Johnson said. “They were open to trying something new, and wound up helping the team.”
Eleanor Pandl and Lucy Carey also helped out with the high jump as well, scoring valuable third- and fourth-place points.
Rye still has bigger fish to fry coming off this amazing two-day meet. They turn their post-celebration focus to the Section 1 championships on Saturday, May 10 against seventeen other schools at Irvington High School. The all-day event begins at 8:30am at Meszaro Field.
