Track will head into the Western League Preliminaries today at 3 p.m. after coming off a strong victory against Westchester last Thursday.

The Western League Preliminaries consist of Venice, Palisades, University, Hamilton, LACES & Westchester.

Of the 5 other competing schools, Coach Alfredo Korzenik said that the “team to always beat is Palisades.”

Korzenik explains that it is because of the dynamics of the Palisades team.

In order to compensate for that, Venice will need to have more commitments in other events to garner as many points as possible.

“We don’t have hurdlers, we don’t have high jumps – Palisades does. They get all those extra points from those events other teams don’t have.”

Despite all of this, Korzenik is confident in winning multiple races against them.

“Last year we beat them in quite a few races, and this year also during the regular season.”

“So we will be able to win some races against them,” he said.

In preparation for Preliminaries or any meet at all, Korzenik states that the team has been “building up & will start the tapering process,” which means that they don’t train to the point of being fatigued.

“We’re going to run them just hard enough that they’re ready but not so much that they’re going to be tired and still have enough energy for the meet.”

Last Thursday, boys’ and girls’ track defeated Westchester. 

Korzenik highlights the Girls’ Varsity 4×4 Relay Team as they beat the “allegedly better team on paper” by one second & Sophomore Saleida Miguez for winning the 4×100 Relay & 200 when Westchester almost passed her in both events.

As for the boys, Korzenik highlights Senior Nathan Santa Cruz as he performed “an impressive” 50 second flat in the 400-meter and Freshman Lawrence Kensinger for winning the shotput event.

Korzenik said that the team performed very well on Thursday’s meet despite missing multiple people due to injuries.

He also spoke about how the team needs to improve upon commitment in order to truly be in their best capabilities – as only one third of the 130 runners are truly dedicated.

“We would be a lot better – even though we’re good, we could be great if the whole team was truly dedicated.”