Monroe College’s Christopher Lewis with a 6.7 clocking captured the 60-meter dash, one place ahead of teammate Jaymen Teeemer (6.8) and Kalfani Bernard (6.8) in the Fordham Intercollegiate Track and Field Season Opener at the Lombardi Fieldhouse in the Bronx. Monroe College has branches both in The Bronx and Westchester County.
Teammates Joshua Blango (6.9), Jerrod Worthington (6.9), Mamadon Gueye (7.0) also did well in the same met.
Some of the athletes came back and ran in two events. Lewis came back and was clocked in 22.3 and Bernard a 22.6 in the longer 200 meters in the annual meet, which enables the coaches to see where their athletes ‘are. Lewis had run the 200 meter before.
All times in the meet were hand timed.
Lewis thus made a successful debut in running the 60-meter dash. A freshman out of South Shore High School in Brooklyn, he was nervous and said that he did not know how to run the sprint. This meet marked the first time at this distance.
“I felt great in winning it,” the 5-9 Lewis said. All of his teammate congratulated him.
Lewis wasn’t so impressed with the Fordham University track.
“I paced myself to run on the track and did what I had to do (to win),” Lewis later said about evaluating his race. “Whenever I turn onto the track I have to go all the way on the outside. When I get back on the track, I have to push myself. I do what Coach Mark Goodman tells me to do.”
Unfortunately, there isn’t any outdoor or indoor regulation size track at Monroe College. So, the athletes train elsewhere.
“We only have a weight room and run outside,” Lewis said. “Coach gives us instructions.”
The 18-year-old Lewis was a former soccer player in high school for four years. He gave it up to concentrate on track.
Because he didn’t receive a scholarship for soccer, he decided to give track all his energy to besides academics. Track is paying off in the long run. He received a two year college scholarship to Monroe, and then hopes to continue the sport when he finishes up at a four year college.
“And I’m getting good at it,” Lewis said. “My goal is to make it to the Olympics.”
Lewis is a native of Jamaica, West Indies. Chris’ farther was not a soccer player but a cricket one. He still resides in Jamaica. And Chris played cricket until he was 15 years of age in Jamaica.
“When I went to South Shore, my high school didn’t have a cricket team, but it’s getting one now,” he added.
“We recruited him as a short sprinter and he has been doing very well,” Goodman said.,”In high school he was one of the top runneers in the State in the 100 and 200 meters. We recruited him to be one of our top sprinters. He is a freshman, doing what he has to do and works hard. I expect big things from him.”
