When walking down to the track, junior Derek Alban had one thing on his mind: to win.  The men’s outdoor track team went up against St. Mary’s and Spalding to see who would be the MIAA ‘B’ Conference champions on April 25.

The men’s team went into the season as the underdogs.  “At the beginning of the season, based off of numbers, I didn’t think we had that great of a shot,” head coach Rob Torres said.  The men’s team had lost numerous seniors from last year, which resulted in a shortage in sprinters.  This didn’t stop the team from winning this year’s championship.

The meet started off roughly for JC, who lost the 4-by-800 meter sprint.  “I felt kind of bad because I forgot my spikes, so we lost because I didn’t have them,” Alban said. He was forced to run in sneakers.  Alban made up for the loss, however, by coming back and winning the 1600m race and 800m open.

With just the right amount of men, Torres was able to fill every event, which helped place JC ahead of the other two teams.  “We won a lot easier than I thought we would. We won by at least 40 points ahead of each team,” Torres said.

Junior Austin Markley helped keep JC ahead with four individual wins.  “I came into the meet hoping I could get as many points as possible.  I got first in all of my events,” Markley said.   Markley ran a time of 11.2 in the 100m open and 22.5 in the 200m open.  In long jump he jumped 19 feet and 2 inches, while in the triple jump he jumped 40 feet and 7 inches.

The team wasn’t just dominating on the track.  In the field events, senior Denzel Varner helped stack the team’s points in the shot put and discus throw.  This is Varner’s third consecutive championship.

JC beat St. Mary’s, 50-42, and Spalding, 48-6, on the track and as well in the field. JC dominating, St. Mary’s 44-8 for a 94-50 victory and Spalding 97-49.

“Next year it would be great to go undefeated again and to win championships for three years in a row,” Markley said.

Megan Battaglia is a Multimedia Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com