Fast times at Colgate Women’s Games Semi-Finals

Get ready, here it comes — Runners, jumpers, and throwers of all ages are ready for the thrilling series finals of the annual 49th Colgate Women’s Games coming Saturday, Feb. 1 to the indoor Nike Track and Field Center at the Armory, 216 Fort Washington Ave. in upper Manhattan, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Family, friends, and supporters will gather in-person for the culmination of the highly competitive series finale. Tickets to the Colgate Women’s Games are free and must be reserved online atbit.ly/Colgate-Womens-Games-Finals-2025. And the multifaceted event will also be broadcast free of charge onwww.armorytrack.org.

During the Colgate Women’s Games series, contestants amass points to gain educational scholarships. In each divisional event, the top three competitors with the greatest number of points for all meets combined will win educational grant-in-aid prizes of $2,000, $1,000 and $500, respectively. And in all the Colgate series meets, prizes are awarded for places 1 through 6 in the finals.

In the preliminary Colgate meets, contestants were allowed to compete in more than one event. However, participants are allowed only to compete in a single event in the semi-finals and finals. With point scores increased for the finals, trailing athletes can have an opportunity to improve their overall scores and even overtake their competitors.

Entering the finals, Abigail Clue, an 8th grader at IS 238 in Queens, leads the point-scorers in the Mid School 800-meter run.  “The team at Colgate cares about us.  They push us to do better,” said Clue. “Even if we slow down or stop running, they cheer us on and make sure we pick up our speed,” she said. Clue’s closest competitor in the Mid-School 800 is Aniyah McCollin Skelton of the Cambridge Street Upper School in Cambridge, MA.

Longtime Colgate Women’s Games runner Dylan McElhinney, a senior at Manhattan’s Hunter College, moved confidently into the High School 1500 Meter finals, with a leading point score and a near record-breaking 4:30.63-minute performance in the semi-finals. Close behind McElhinney, is Lily Day of the Walter Panas H.S. in Westchester County’s Cortlandt Manor.

With cellphones at the ready, athletes and friends kept the Armory Results Photo Board busy at the semi-finals — getting a big screen digital display of the competitors’ name and hometown as backdrop for keepsake photos. Among them were Amaya-Paige Knox from Howell Road School in Valley Stream, L.I. Knox, a 55-meter hurdler in Elementary B division, who made it into the finals with third-place points ranking. Samara Sweven of Roxbury, Massachusetts leads the division, followed by Luna Williams of Wynnewood, PA’s Friends’ Central School.

Colgate novice Morgan Whitman, an Elementary B 55-meter runner from PS 124 in Queens, took photos to mark her entrance into the finals. She trails behind first-place point-scorer Gabriella Valerio of Pine Tree Elementary in Monroe, NY, and second-place Victoria Holmes of Trinity Elementary New Rochelle, NY.

Knox’s other photo booth friend, Mid School 55-meter hurdler Chanayah Murray from Queens, failed to make the finals competition, but had a photo taken to commemorate her positive Colgate Women’s Games experience. For more information about Colgate Women’s Games, visitwww.colgatepalmolive.com.