What: 2014 New York Relays Live Broadcast
When: Thursday, April 17, 2014 @ 5:00 p.m. ET; Saturday, April 19, 2014 @ 9 a.m. ET
Where: Icahn Stadium | Randalls Island, NYC
We are thrilled to announce that we will be kicking off our live streaming coverage of events in New York State with the aptly named, New York Relays. Watch live from the comfort of your homes as some of the state's top talent battles it out at Icahn Stadium. Annually one of the biggest early season invites, this year brings many podium-placing athletes from the Indoor State Championships to the big blue oval in New York City.
The live stream of the New York Relays is available to MileSplit insiders from all states. If you are not currently a MileSplit Insider and would like to have access to the New York Relays live stream, you can sign up for MileSplit Insider access here in advance or click on the Insider tab in the navigational bar on your respective MileSplit state site page to support the coverage directly in your state.
Direct link to the live stream (which begins on Thursday, April 17th at 5:00 PM ET) can be found here or direct link: https://livecoverage.milesplit.com/event/151-new-york-relays
Videos will also be archived to watch after the meet on the New York Relays meet page on MileSplitNY here:
The field for this year's New York Relays includes several All-American caliber athletes, ready to open their Invitational Season. Some of the best events of the weekend will be the ones over hurdles. Headlining the 400m hurdles is defending champion, Rai Benjamin of Mt. Vernon (below). Fresh off a win, in what would have been a nationally leading 53.32 performance had the hurdles been set at Federation height, Benjamin will be look to make a mark that sticks. As someone who ran one of the fastest 300m flat-track marks indoors, ever in the country, this junior will be one to watch. Another junior to watch is state runner up Sidney Gibbons of Monsignor McClancy. Entered in the 110m Hurdles, Gibbons looks to match his drastic improvements indoors, where he went 7.38 over hurdles at the 55m distance. In the longest hurdle race, both Brent Freestone of Saratoga Springs, and Alex Shodai of Middletown, have hit 6:15 for the 2000m Steeplechase. That pair will be dueling at the front of the pack during the invitational event.
In the middle distances, Benjamin will return for the 400m open, where NYC top talent Kwasie Applewhite of Tilden and Mohamed Kouyate of Taft will compete for the title. All athletes have broken 50seconds before, and will be joined by 600m Indoor State podium placer Trevor Guerrera of Sachem East, who has improved significantly Indoors.
While the sprints may bring many of the highlights, the distance races are not to be ignored. Returning 3200m champion from last year, Jay Navin of Saratoga Springs, is now the top entrant in the Invite 800m run. Boasting speed that saw him steal a third place finish from the unseeded heat at the Indoor State Championships, Navin will look to do some fine tuning before he leads off his teams DMR the following week at Penn Relays. With Navin sticking to the shorter distance, a quartet out of Ridgefield, CT leads the way in the 3,200m. Headlined by William Bordash, all four athletes, (Bordash, Hopper, Gilbert, Altopp) broke the 9-minute barrier for 3000m at the Yale Track Classic, and will look to maintain that pack mentality on Randall's Island..
True to the meet's namesake, several key relays will be making their outdoor debuts. Taking All-American honors indoors, the 4x1600m relay from Fordham Prep will look to equal or better their mark of 17:44.11 set at those National Championships, for the full 4xMile distance. The 4x400m looks equally as stacked, as Newburgh, Tilden, Clara Barton, Paul Robeson, and Mount Vernon have all run 3:24 or better indoors. Finally, Saratoga will round out the Sprint Medley Relays, running what looks to be a fast relay.
For the girls, some of the top talent will also be over the barriers. Reigning 400m Hurdle State Champ, Emma Gallagher of Garden City, will be opening her season over the hurdles. Coming off a third straight win over 600m indoors at the state level, Gallagher will a gain look to push the 60second barrier. Gallagher's teammate, Jennifer Gerland, will be battling that of Kalleigh Forrester of Newburgh over the Steeple barriers, where both athletes have run under 7:15 for the 2000m distance. Finally, for the short hurdles, Niamani Morrison of Archbishop Molloy, third in the hurdle final at the Indoor State Meet, headlines the 100m distance outdoors.
In the distance events, Gianna Frontera of Newburgh will look to better her first runner up status from the 2013 edition of the New Relays. Returning to the 3000m, Frontera finds herself the top seed in the new year. In the 800m, it will be West Coast vs. East Coast, as Brianna Bardello of Laguna Hills, California, will face off against Amari Onque-Shabazz of Mount Saint Dominic, NJ. Both are hovering around sub-2:20 for the distance, and will be battling several NY'ers in the process.
In the girls' 400 meter race, Halie Snyder of Moriah will be taking the long trip from the Lake Placid area of New York State, to face off against New York City's own, Shanee Grant of Fashion Industries. There are several other ladies hovering around that 57second mark for the full lap, and it will prove to be one of the most competitive sprint finals of the day.
Much like the boys, the relays look to be the highlight of the meet. Six teams are seeded under 50seconds in the 4x100m relay, including Uniondale, the 4x400m Indoor State Champs. They'll be running that event too, alongside Neptune of New Jersey, who has similarly broken 3:55 in the relay. Finally, in the Sprint Medley Relay, four teams (Brentwood, Longwood, Washingtonville, and Hempstead) have all broken 4:20 before, and will look to do so once more.
Don't forget to sign up in advance to get access to watch the live stream of the New York Relays here! We will have start to finish live video coverage of the running events on both Thursday and Saturday, while videos can also be viewed, archived on demand, for MileSplit Insiders uploaded post-event on the New York Relays Meet Page at MileSplit NY, a MileSplit affiliate.