By Titus Mohler
Correspondent

The Suffolk Stars Track Club recently returned from the AAU Track Club Championships in Orlando, Fla., with eight medals in tow after a strong performance.

The championships involved more than 100 teams, some international, and each event featured nearly 100 athletes. To win a medal, competitors needed to place in the top eight places in their events.

Niyah Gaston, Kennedy McIntyre, Kayla Baker, and Kianna Gray of the Stars became national champions by winning the 4×100 meter relay for the eight-and-under age division.

Donielle Alexander-Blake won medals by placing fourth in the Sub-Youth (13 years old) girls’ javelin event and seventh in the discus.

Alexis Rountree took fifth place in the Bantam (10 years old) girls’ 60-meter hurdles. Gregory Rountree Jr. placed fifth in the Intermediate (15 and 16 years old) boys’ triple jump. In the Youth (14 years old) girls’ triple jump, Kiera Rountree claimed sixth place.

To round out the Stars’ medal winners, Jacquazja Council earned sixth in the Youth girls’ long jump and seventh in the pentathlon.

Stars head coach Gregory Rountree Sr. explained why the event went so well and then emphasized how his team’s level of experience made the performance even more impressive.

“They competed hard all year,” he said. “Most of them actually were first-year competitors in track and field.”

The Stars were also heavily outnumbered in terms of the number of athletes they have compared to opposing teams.

“On our team, we only had 17,” Rountree said. “But most of those teams came down with 40 to 50 kids.”

Rountree estimated that more than 4,000 kids were competing in the championships, with some teams coming from as far away as Puerto Rico and Bermuda.

The small number of athletes on the Stars team is something the coach is hoping to change. It was an issue 12 years ago when he started the team and it is an issue now.

Registration for the Suffolk Stars has typically begun in February, but Rountree aims to start in September this year. The goal is to raise money, but also to advertise, because Rountree feels he has firsthand evidence that Suffolk is stocked with talented athletes.

“Every year, we get new athletes, first-timers in track and field, and they ended up placing in the national events,” he said.

Rountree started the Suffolk Stars club because of a lack of middle-school opportunities to train kids in track and field. Competing at the high school level was difficult, because opposing schools had athletes who were trained since they were young.

The Stars give young Suffolk athletes that training.

“And it’s paid off — Chris Copeland, JaQuan Demiel, all of those kids started off with the Suffolk Stars when they were very young,” Coach Rountree said. “The kids that we had this year, they worked really hard to get to that point, and when it was time for the competition to go off, they just showed up and did what they had to do.”