By Rich Fisher | Correspondent
While not everything went according to plan for the Christian Brothers Academy track and field team at the Penn Relays, the big picture came out exactly the way Coach Karl Torchia would have hoped.
“We walk away completely satisfied with what we did; we’re happy,” said Torchia, who had five entries in track and field’s biggest carnival April 27-29 in Philadelphia. “We’re happy. It’s a fun weekend for all the kids and the younger guys go and get experience. With our 4×100 team, we ran all underclassmen so they can see what it’s like to run at (University of Pennsylvania’s) stadium. To run at Franklin Field is an incredible thing.”
And with CBA having such an incredible history, it’s not surprising that Torchia was not getting over-excited about results that would leave other programs thrilled.
Tim Jacoutot competed in the 400 hurdle championships and finished 10th overall in 55.20. Good, but not great, according to the coach.
“He didn’t do as well as we would have liked,” Torchia said. “He was moving great until the sixth hurdle and he smashed the sixth hurdle and it spun him around, basically, and that slowed him down. But he went out really, really well. We think he would have been close to the 52, 53 range if he hadn’t hit the hurdle.”
The Colts other individual entry was Jack Lotosky, who finished 20th in the javelin throw. Lotosky was not airing it out as much as he will be in June.
“He had an OK day,” Torchia said. “Our main goal with him is states. We want him to throw far at states, and it’s very hard to throw far now and throw far later. So he’s building up and getting better and better, with the ultimate goal of throwing the furthest in the state championship.”
The coach was also looking for a better finish in the Distance Medley Championship, as CBA finished seventh out of 18 teams. With the Colts’ rich tradition in distance running, the distance medley is one of the main reasons they go to Philadelphia.
“We go there to have fun, and race against some of the best teams in the country in the distance medley,” Torchia said. “The DM is a big deal at Penn and we go to see where we rank and then we start getting ready for states and nationals after that.
“We did OK. We just didn’t perform as well as we would have liked. But we got a lot of good experience there, which will help us for next year.”
Torchia was happy with the 4×400, which ran a 3:20.20, the best of any Colts team at Penn Relays. The 4×100 consisted of all underclassmen in a race designed to let them get a feel for running at Franklin Field.
In looking at where his team is at coming out of Penn Relays, Torchia said “I think we’re in very good shape. We’re going to run very well in the four by mile, and we may even have different legs and have a faster distance medley team.”