Ward Melville's Joglanio Alcindor overcomes football injury to win indoor track title
Ward Melville's Joglanio Alcindor wins the 55-meter dash during the Suffolk boys indoor track and field large school championships on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026 at Suffolk Federal Credit Union Arena in Brentwood. Credit: Brittney Dietz
It has been a rough couple of months for Ward Melville senior Joglanio Alcindor.
While playing for the school’s football team, Alcindor took a helmet off the knee in a Suffolk Division I semifinals game against Sachem North on Nov. 14, spraining his medial collateral ligament. The injury was expected to keep him sidelined for the entirety of the indoor track season, which was a devastating blow to Alcindor, given that he was the fifth-best returning sprinter in New York in the 55 meter.
However, he attacked his physical therapy sessions aggressively, and his knee fully recovered ahead of schedule. After finally making his indoor season debut on Jan. 18, Alcindor experienced another setback just 10 days later, only this one was emotional and not physical. His grandmother, Marie Alcindor, died.
That made Sunday’s moment even more special when Alcindor won the 55 in 6.48 seconds at the Suffolk large schools championships meet at Suffolk Federal Credit Union Arena in Brentwood.
“It really broke my heart and my father’s heart,” Alcindor said of his grandmother’s passing. “I wasn’t going to let that get in my way, though. I was planning to run hard for her today and show everybody that I could still do it.”
Alcindor’s rust was apparent in his first three races back. On Jan. 18 at the league championships, he ran 6.68 in the preliminaries and 6.66 in the finals, and only cut down to 6.6 for the preliminaries on Sunday. However, he found that extra gear by making a mechanical change to his starts.
Rather than raising his posture straight up directly after the start, Alcindor stayed low and slowly progressed into the upright position as he sprinted down the straightaway. That one fix was enough for him to pull off the surprise of the day.
“I didn’t think I was going to do this at first, but I couldn’t let them doubt me,” Alcindor said. “This feels good, I’m not going to lie.”
Elsewhere, Connetquot senior Devin Woodard became the meet's only double champion as he won the 55 hurdles (7.65) and the high jump. He cleared 6 feet, 2 inches in the high jump on his final attempt to win it outright.
His two individual titles helped Connetquot score 56 points, winning its second consecutive team championship.
“Going into it, I was really confident in the high jump, not as much in the hurdles,” Woodard said. “I was really nervous, and I’m usually not nervous before meets, but I was today. After that first win, all the nerves were gone. I was really confident, and the high jumps were really good after that.”
The morale boost was crucial in Woodard’s victory in the high jump, as he was down to his last lifeline with the bar set at 6-2. Had he not cleared it, he would have placed third.
On his last chance, he rapidly approached the bar from the right side, leapt up into the air and landed back-first onto the mat. The bar wobbled, but did not fall, giving him sole possession of first place, with no other jumpers having any attempts left to try and outdo him.
“That bar wobble really got me,” Woodard said. “In my third attempt, I was just trusting my approach and my jump. You’ve got to go in with confidence and you can do anything. I just stuck to my ritual to help me calm down and focus, looked at the bar, imagined myself clearing it and then went and did it.”
Connetquot also produced an individual champion in the long jump when junior Jadon Anglin flew 23-4.
With West Babylon senior Khadin Muhammad — the state’s top triple jumper — competing at the Millrose Games in Manhattan on Sunday, that opened the field up for Commack senior Emerson Atkin.
Atkin flew 47-½, wiping out his previous personal record of 45-6. The championship-winning jump ranks him fourth in New York.
“It’s a crazy feeling; I’ve been wanting this since I was a freshman,” Atkin said. “My legacy is going to be better, and my name’s going to get on the wall in my school. It feels great.”
Mike Anderson is a high school sports reporter who has covered 12 sports so far at Newsday. He was the sports editor of Stony Brook University's campus newspaper for two years.
