NFA sends strong track and field group to state championships

Newburgh Free Academy sent more than a headline act to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Outdoor Track and Field Championships. It sent depth, with sectional winners, relay points and podium finishes that showed how broad the Goldbacks’ track program had become heading into Webster Schroeder High School in Webster, near Rochester.

The strongest individual pushes came from three athletes who won sectional titles and earned state berths. Sophomore Benjamin Bermudez won the boys 800 meters in a personal-best 1 minute, 54.63 seconds. Junior Devon Pinto took the Class A 400-meter hurdles in 54.94 seconds, also a personal best, and later placed eighth in the 110-meter hurdles final. Senior Jaden Williams won the Class A triple jump with a personal-best leap of 48 feet, 6 and one-quarter inches.

But the qualifier was not only about the front-runners. Giwenn Eloge placed second in the Class A 110-meter hurdles in 14.75 seconds, a personal best, and helped the boys 4x400 relay to a third-place finish in 3:18.73. Newburgh’s boys 4x100 relay also finished third in 43.91 seconds, while Roman D’Alfonso was runner-up in the discus with a throw of 143 feet, 11 inches. Arturo Martinez added a third-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles.

The girls side delivered its own proof of range. Gabrielle Robles finished third in the Class A 400 meters in 58.59 seconds, a personal best, and came back for seventh in the 200-meter final. Morgan Edmondson-Burke placed second in the discus with a personal-best 116-2 and fourth in the shot put. The girls 4x400 relay finished fourth, another sign that Newburgh was scoring across events rather than leaning on one specialty.

The state meet was set for June 13 and 14 at Webster Schroeder High School after Section IX’s outdoor calendar listed the qualifying meet for June 3 at Cornwall High School and June 4 at Goshen High School. Additional Newburgh athletes could still qualify through NYSPHSAA state-standard provisions, leaving open the possibility that the Orange County contingent would grow even larger.

For Newburgh, the run carried broader meaning than a single weekend. The Goldbacks have been building a distance-running culture under coach Chris Marino, who said, “We’re looking to build off that and continue to grow a distance-running winning culture in Newburgh.” With Bermudez, Pinto, Williams and a deep supporting cast, NFA arrived at states looking less like a surprise and more like a program that had been constructing a real pipeline to this level.