The ERHS Raiders started the year off strong with several personal records: a second place win for the boys, and a third place win for the girls at the Prince George’s County Indoor Track & Field Championships on January 16, 2020. 

In the Women’s Finals, senior Safarya Cheadle came in first in the 55-Meter Dash with a personal record (PR) of 7.18 seconds. Junior Adalin Corbin finished third in the 300-Meter Dash, and sophomore Ariel Igwe won third in the Triple Jump with a PR of 35’ 4.75”. Additionally, the girls’ relay teams did exceptionally well, winning first, second, and seventh in the 4×200, the 4×400, and the 4×800 consecutively.

In the Men’s Finals, junior Laurenz Colbert finished first in the 55-Meter Dash, while junior Khalid Hornsby took third. Colbert also came in second in the 300-Meter Dash; senior Brandon Lewis took third place in the 1600-Meter Run; senior Jamir Zubairu won first in the Long Jump with a PR of 20′ 5.25″; and senior Kendall Carr got third in the Shot Put with a PR of 44’ 8.5”. The relay teams also took first in the 4×200, sixth in the 4×400, and second in the 4×800.

At this meet, eleven Raiders met the MileSplit US Second Team standard with their results at this meet, including junior Malachi Carter, Safarya Cheadle, Laurenz Colbert, junior Adala Corbin, Adalin Corbin, Khalid Hornsby, Chris Perrow, senior Ray Solomon III, senior Jazmine Thomas, senior Jordan Valentine, and sophomore Benno Wien.

With the boys scoring only 8.5 points behind Henry A. Wise High School and the girls missing second place by 23 points, Coach Elgin Gordon admits that “sometimes a team is just going to be better than you that day…and it hurts, but you take that pain and turn it into motivation.” For the upcoming outdoor track season, Coach Gordon says that the training stays pretty much the same, but that he aims to “bring back some old Roosevelt tradition,” referring to the multitude of state championship titles the team has earned in the past.

Building on that, he says that “mediocrity is unacceptable around here” and acknowledges how hard the student-athletes are working to achieve their personal goals and their team’s goals. Sophomore Rebekah Passe, for example, has set concrete time goals-including breaking six minutes in the 1600-Meter Run-which is a huge milestone for any runner. Interviews with Passe and junior Jennifer Onuoha revealed that the girls felt “pretty good” about their results as a team. Meanwhile, the boys had a much different reaction. 

Junior Nejib Abdela, junior Creed Jackson, Lewis, and Solomon, all agreed to Lewis’s statement that, “the whole boys’ team is coming for vengeance…and redemption.” 

Abdela also shared his plans to “train harder and take it more seriously” so that he can “score some more points” for the team. However, the responses of many athletes exhibited the team’s overwhelming excitement for the outdoor season to start and enthusiasm to move forward.