The Fort Lee indoor track team competed at the Ridgewood Winter Games Friday and came away from the event with an impressive haul of medals.

The games began with the 55 meter dash on one side of the gym, while the 55 meter hurdles started on the opposite side of the Rothman Center.

Fort Lee was successful in both events, claiming four medals in the earlygoing.

Ashley Jenq placed fifth in the freshman girls' 55 meter dash, while Shawn Bei finished third in the freshman boys' 55 meter hurdles.

“[Ashley] has placed in the 55 meter freshman dash in every race this season,” said coach Ed Garrison. “We have a lot of first year runners that are stepping up.”

That includes junior Nikola Gogic, who is running for the first time this season. He medaled (third) in the 55 meter boys' novice race with a time of 8.8 seconds.

“This is his first year ever running in the hurdles, and we don’t know how he got by the last two years,” said Garrison. “He ran great tonight.”

Also medaling was sophomore Masaru Yamaguchi, who placed second in the 55 meter dash with a time of 6.9 seconds. Fort Lee collected four medals in the early events before entering the longer distance runs.

Fort Lee then had one of their best runs in recent years, according to coach Garrison, when the Lady Bridgemen finished fourth in the varsity girlss 4 x 800 meter relay.

Senior Nancie Sophias, sophomores Christina Ramirez and Julie Lau and freshman Melanie Plattner combined for a time of 10:37.6 , which pleased many of the Fort Lee following.

“Our girls placed ninth in Group 2 this weekend and placed fourth tonight, making us one of the top teams in Bergen County,” Garrison said proudly. “They are a very young team, which makes it even more impressive.”

 After the 200 meter dashes, Fort Lee was back to their medaling ways in the 4 x 1 lap relays. The freshman girlss team placed third with an overall time of 1:59.3 . The team of Ashley Jenq, Jacqueline Greenfield, Melanie Plattner and Victoria Tam all raced within 0.3 seconds of one another. The novice boys' team also placed second in the same event with a time of 1:38.8 . Yamaguchi, Gogic, junior Dan Koch and sophomore Samuel Topaz all received medals.

Fort Lee then added to their medal count with two more runners placing in the 800 meter runs. Freshman Melanie Plattner finished fourth in the freshman run at 2:46, while fellow freshman Sochiro Itagaki placed fourth on the boys' side with a time of 2:20.6.

Following those races, the student athletes competed in the 600 meter run, where senior Nancie Sophias outran all of her opponents to take first in the race with a time of 1:38.3.

“She beat the girl who had the previous best time in Bergen County,” Garrison said, going on to name Sophias the athlete of the meet, as she led the girl’s varsity 4 x 400 meter relay team to fifth in the final race of the day as well.

The team of Sophias, sophomore Julie Lau, senior Olia Pappas and Christina Ramirez finished with a time of 4:38.3.

Fort Lee now looks forward to the weeks ahead. They have two events next week before racing in the Big North Championship on Jan. 31.