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New Jersey Weekly Roundup |
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The bad news in New Jersey last week was that national 600-meter record-holder Shaquan Brown of Paterson Kennedy will not be competing this winter due to an upcoming operation for a football injury. The good news is that it is a shoulder injury that has sidelined Shaquan who ran 1:17.9 in a special race at the New York Armory Center last winter. He is training in the pool and its expected to return in full fettle for the outdoor campaign. But this again postpones a direct meeting between Brown and Bryant McCombs of Old Bridge, who won the National 400-meter crown last March. In a series of seemingly impossible coincidences last year, the two sub-47-second 400M runners, met just once on the track and Brown was coming off a flu bout when it happened in last winter’s Gr. IV 400. Indoors, McCombs won the all-group 200 and Brown the 400; outdoors, they switched these titles after Brown missed the call for the Gr. IV 400. It was the 400 that produced one of last week’s top marks for Garden State athletes, but this was on the girls’ side as indoor 400-meter champ Krystal Cantey of Winslow Twp took the event at the Hispanic Games in 55.16, also running fourth in the 55M in 7.22. The latter was bested by outdoor 100-meter champ Ogechi Nwaneri of Chatham who won the 55M in the Hills Division of the iron Hills Conference on Friday in a spikeless 7.18. The championship season really got away last weekend, beginning on Thursday with the Middlesex County Relays at the Jersey City Armory. Old Bridge won both titles, with McCombs leading off a 1:35.7 win in the 800R and an anchor on a 3:33.3 victory in the 1600R. The Knights took five of the eight events and were second in the other three for a 74-47 defeat of South Brunswick. The next night, it was the Iron Hills meet at Drew. Seton Hall and Morris Hills repeated in the boys’ divisions, with East Orange taking the Iron Girls and Chatham repeating in the Hills. Individually, Ben Massam of Chatham doubled in the Hills distance races, setting a 1600 record of 4:22.53 and just missing Stete Slattery’s 3200 mark at 9:26.19. The top match of the night was the Iron 400 where Jason Apwah of Roxbury outkicked Pat Blackie of Seton Hall in a slow-paced (57-second first quarter) at a meet record 1:24.64. The girls’ meet provided six new records, three in each division, as well as one tie. In the Iron Division, Rolanda Bruce of East Orange ran 1:37.25 in the 600 and Kris Stevens of Roxbury 11:14.11 in the 3200, while Iman Johnson of Columbia broke her own shot put mark at 40-2 1/2. Her teammate Bianca Stewart matched the high jump record at 5-4. In addition to Nwaneri’s mark, the Hills division produced a 41.45 by Celeste Holder of Parsippany in the 300 and Chatham’s 4:14.02 in the 1600R. The next morning at Drew, LaShonda Carter of Rahway put on a typical one-woman show in the Mountain Valley Conference with new records of 7.36 in the 55, 1:00.33 in the 400 and 8.49 in the 55H. She also tied her own mark of 5-6 in the HJ, but it was all in vain as New Providence scored 22 points in the last two events for a 52-51 victory. The boys’ division had an even closer finish with Rahway and Union Catholic winging up in a 63-63 deadlock. That one was followed immediately by the Northern Hills meet where Delbarton and West Orange scored repeat wins in the boys and girls’ meets, respectively. The top individual here as Ryan Manning of West orange, who won the boys’ HJ at 6-4 and anchored a 3:35.8 win in the 160R. There were three other NJ winners at the Hispanic Games. Avionne Sloan of Camden backed up Cantey’s win in the invitational 400 by taking the open event in 58.41. In boys’ action, Justin Frick of Marlboro scored his second armory win of the season at 6-6 in the HJ and Pleasantville took the 3200R in a season-s best of 8:00.84. Less than 24 hours after their exertions at the Iron Hills meet, Jenn Ennis and Kris Stevens of Roxbury had a pair of thirds in the two miles. Ennis ran 5:02.01 in the invitation event, Stevens 5:09.08 in the open. In the boys’ invitation mile, Byron Williams of Ridgewood ran 7th in 4:18.62 with Anthony LaMastro of Pope John, a Millrose qualifier last year, eighth at 4:20.80. State CC champ Craig Forys of Colts Neck will make his Millrose bid in this weekend’s Stanner Games. The state’s top 800R team ran 2-3 behind Simon Gratz’ national leading 1:28.41 with Camden clocking 1:30.08 and St. Benedict’s 1:31.44. That evening at the Kutztown Invitational, Brittany Sedberry of Ocean City had her second outing of the winter and won the 3K in 10:11.8. The next day, at the Jersey City Armory, her successor as all-group cross-country champ, Danielle Tauro of Southern Ocean anchored a 12:51.3 win over Jackson at the Ocean County Relays, but it did nothing to stop the Jaguars from another team title as they won five other events and tied for a sixth in a 64-52 defeat of Toms River North. The wins included a season-leading 33.0 in the shuttle hurdles, a 1:48.3 in the 800R and a 4:10.3 in the 1600R. The other team winners in a day-long Jersey Shore competition were Christian Brothers in Monmouth Boys, Central Ocean Regional in Ocean boys and Ocean Twp in Monmouth girls. CBA played it cool with the New Jersey Catholic Track Conference Relays the next night in New York, but had no trouble defeating Matawan, 52-35 with a 32.0 from its shuttle hurdle team among its four event wins. Paul Fay anchored victories in the 800R, 1600R and SHR for Central Ocean. Georgina Nembhard and outdoor 400-meter champ Tiffany Grant led Ocean Twp’s 40-37 1/2 win over Freehold Twp. They ran together in 800R and 1600R wins, while Nembhard led off a 33.4 victory in the SHR. Monday was a busy evening with the action led by the NJCTC meet on the fast NY Armory track. The big race was the boys’ SMR where Seton Hall won by five yards over CBA in a season-leading 3:34.8, anchored by Blackie. The Millrose-qualified Pony Pirates also had a 3:26.6 in the 1600R. Pope John won the DMR in 10:41.3 with LaMastro under 3:10 on the opening 1200. In the girls’ meet the Lions set a record of 4:19.3 in the SMR and St, Patrick’s of Elizabeth, which has the state’s No. 1 boys’ basketball team this winter, had a 67-7 1/2 mark in the triple jump relay. After a day off, the Roxbury distance stars came back on Monday at Drew to set a MR of 12:16.28 in the DMR with Stevens leading off and Ennis anchoring and another mark of 9:40.55 in the 3200R with Jenn and Kris running the first two legs. But Morris Knolls had an easy team win with records of 4:07.63 in the 1600R and 4:19.71 in the sprint medley with Lauren Gregory running third leg on the 1600 and anchor on the SMR. She was also second leg in a 34.87 SHR win.
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John Dye - founder and editor in chief |