New York, March 22, 2015 – With the 2014-15 indoor season sadly coming to a close, many of the areas young up-and-comers visited The Armory to compete in the Armory Youth Last Chance Presented by NYRR.

Boys Recap 

Ledgister Fitzroy of the Jersey City Recreational Panthers and Shamali-Kalil Whittle of MySprintClub established a friendly rivalry during this past indoor season and met once again today in the 11-12 age group 400m. Ledgister established the early lead while Shamali ran closely behind, waiting for the right opportunity to make a move. The opportunity, however, never came for Shamali, who crossed the finish line in a still very impressive time of 1:01.88, slightly behind Fitzroy’s 1:01.41.

“Shamali made today’s race hard, but I like to push myself,” said Ledgister.

“It was a really good race, but my biggest goal is to run under four minutes,” added Shamali.

Before the day was done, the two raced again in the 200m, where Ledgister won with 27.99 and Shamali took third with 28.61. Ledgister also won the 55m dash in 7.55.

Itamar Pres, a Chelsea Greyhounds runner, looked calm and collected while winning the 11-12 age group 800m in 2:34.1: “I like running because you’re not fighting against other people, you’re fighting against yourself,” said Itamar, who also won the mile in 5:30.15 and ran the 400m in 1:07.94.

“I like running at The Armory because it makes me feel like I’m running with professionals said,” Jelani Johnson after winning the 9-10 age group 800m in 2:39.87. Jelani’s Metro Eagles Track Club teammate, Aaron Brown, finished second in 2:47.26.

Girls Recap

Kaylen Boyd ran the under eight age group 400m in 1:33.24 and won her 200m heat in 37.66: “it felt good to win, even though it was a little hard to run both races,” said Kaylen.

Tess Wiltshire of Five Points ran an impressive 33.05 in the 11-12 age group 200m and reached 10’ 1” in the long jump before anchoring her 4x200m relay team to a 2:23.25 victory.

“It was really exciting because my whole team was counting on me,” said Tess. “The race rested on my shoulders, so I’m glad I was able to win for my team.” 

Katy Niola competed unattached in the 17-18 age group and was overjoyed to run under her school’s 800m record with a 2:18.61 victory.

“I’ve been trying to get that record for a long time, so today was a big PR for me,” said Niola. “My next goal is to get the automatic qualifying time in the 800 for states outdoor.”

Though it was her first and last race of the indoor season, Angela Saidman of Wilton Running Club recorded a second place finish in the 13-14 age group 800m in 2:30.39 and mile victory in 5:39.27: “It’s always a lot of fun running at the armory. My goal is to improve my 1,500 time from last year.”