North Jersey Male Athlete of the Week realizing his full potential

His coaches saw the potential immediately.

Four months after he came out for winter track as a freshman in December 2023, Carter Solloway took fifth place in the NJIC Colonial 400 and went on to be one of the top 20 freshman 400 runners by the end of that spring season.

At times, though, the sport didn’t seem to matter that much to him.

“We saw in spurts how good he could be,” Hawthorne boys track coach Angelo Guarneri said. “But as a freshman, he’d miss practices and even overslept once and missed the bus for a meet. He was competitive but not always dependable.”

Then something changed.

“There was a lot of things that happened to me inside and outside of track during my sophomore year,” Solloway said without elaboration. “I think I started getting more enjoyment from getting myself to work harder.”

Yaniel Rodriguez, his classmate who pushed him to come out for track in the first place, along with the now-graduated Jeancarlos Mendoza, Tyler Lizardo and Jordan Mora, were getting progressively better through hard work and consistency, and Solloway wanted to be part of that.

His coaches noticed too.

“He saw how those guys worked and he needed to learn what it really takes to be a varsity runner,” Guarneri said. “The learning curve has been cool to watch.”

His times dropped quickly and he finished in both the Group 1 state indoor and outdoor 400 races a year ago, took third in the Passaic County 200 and even finished fourth in the NJIC Colonial 400 hurdles, nearly breaking the 60-second barrier.

The three seniors he looked up to and tried to emulate had graduated, and it wasn’t easy going from one in a training group to the leader of that group. But Solloway remained persistent in his quest to improve. It’s a trait Guarneri calls his biggest strength.

“He’s all about progressing and learning,” he said.

His persistence shows itself in other ways. After graduation next year, he hopes to study Computer Science and run track in college. He’s just finishing the creation of his first video game as part of his Advanced Placement Computer Science course.

“Creating the game is a similar challenge to getting better as a runner,” he says. “The basics are easy but it takes a lot of effort to get to the finished product.”

And perhaps, he’s most proud of his development as a chess player. “I love it because I love solving problems,” he says. “My dad got me into it and it took a long time to start beating him. Now I beat him more and more.”

Now, Solloway is the top 200 and 400 runner in Passaic County and the school record holder in the latter event, passing Casey Robert, who ran 49.7 in 2004 when he ran 49.58 to win this year’s Colonial title.

And he keeps getting better.