Huntington Boys’ Track Strikes Again

The Huntington boys’ track and field team was a worthy competitor at the Section XI state qualifier at Suffolk-West in Brentwood on Monday night. The Blue Devils qualified their 4x400m relay for the state finals.

The 4x400m relay team of lead leg junior Robbie Campbell, second leg senior Titan Elysee, third leg junior Adan Ntambw, and anchor leg junior Eric Heinz held off a late charge from Half Hallow Hills West to claim gold in the event and punch their ticket to the state championships in March.

The race was thrilling. Huntington found itself in third position behind top-ranked Longwood and William Floyd. Longwood outlasted the Blue Devils last week at the Large School County Championship winning in 3:31.91, with Huntington not far behind at 3:32.45.

This week proved to be a different story. “We are ready today coach,” said Elysee who took the baton from Campbell in third place. On the first lap, Elysee made up ground and passed William Floyd.

It was assistant coach Eli Acosta that informed the team that he was going to switch Elysee to second leg from third leg to keep it close and it paid big dividends. On his last lap he caught the runner from Longwood and passed the baton off in first place to Ntambwe, who immediately looked impressive.

“He was out on a mission and was determined not to relinquish the lead,” head coach Ronald E. Wilson said. “While he was working to hold off Longwood, Hills West was making up a lot of ground and was now in second place. Ntambwe handed off to Heinz, who battled hard to keep a commanding lead. Anchor leg of Hills West made up a lot of ground, however, it was Heinz who help him off at the finish line and finished in first place in a time of 3:27.48. Hills West finished in 3:27.63. The crowd was up on their feet watching this epic battle unfold.”

Hills West head coach Jim Christian recounted the race and said, “Here we go again!” He was remembering the epic battles that took place when current Huntington assistant coach Kyree Johnson was an athlete back in 2015-2017 and Huntington outlasted them at every big track meet.

Over the past 11 years, Huntington has earned a trip to the state championship and dominated the event winning in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, placing second in 2018, 2022 and 2024.

That dominance also came in the 600m dash with names like Jahmar Francis who went to state twice for the event (2022, 2024), Kender Eduazin (2023), CJ Kiviat (2019, 2020), Justin Stevens (2020), Isaiah James (2019), Johnathan Smith (2018, 2019), Lawrence Leake (2017) and Infinite Tucker in 2015. Tucker later opted to do the hurdles his senior year and went on to win the county and state in 2016. Johnson had pure dominance in the short sprints (55m dash, 300m dash) in 2015, 2016, and 2017.

In other action at the state qualifier:

• Sophomore Spencer Sturges got experience competing at a high level in the 55m high hurdles. His spectacular performance last week earned him a spot in the qualifier. “Only the top 24 athletes in the county in each event can compete and he was blessed to be one of them,” Wilson said. “He placed fifth in his heat in 8.74, which is just short of his personal best of 8.35. We are very proud of his progress and know that he is only going to get better!”

• In the shot put, junior Colby Curran threw a personal best of 50’1 placing fourth and senior Jean Riboul threw a persona best of 48’11 placing sixth. Huntington was the only team to qualify three individuals in this event. Senior Matt Ross finished 12th with a toss of 45’9. The three will compete along with senior Banny Soc Concua and junior Zach Matthews in the weight throw on Friday at St. Anthony’s at 5 p.m.