57 DyeStat Elite Marks - Ed Grant's Report

Girls Team Titles: Haddon Heights (1) , Pleasantville (2), Winslow Twp.(3), Jackson(4).

Boys Team Titles: Haddon Heights(1), Morris Hills(2), Monmouth Regional(3), Christian Brothers Academy(4).

Ocean City sr. Brittany Sedberry US#1 10:30.25 3200 in all-time classic Grp. 3 over Colts Neck and Roxbury duos.

Four wins for Pleasantville sr. Nia Ali in Grp. 2, leading team to state title

3 wins and a 2nd for Winslow Twp. sr. Krystal Cantey in Grp. 3, scoring ALL 38 of her team's points en route to team title.

Colts Neck's Craig Forys 4:22.03 and 9:22.08; Southern Regional's Danielle Tauro 2:15.10/5:00.46 and Pope John XXIII's Anthony LaMastro 1:58.99/4:20.92

Ed Grant's Report

Despite the individual heroics of Krystal Cantey of Winslow Twp and Nia Ali of Pleasantville---who single-handedly won state titles for their teams---it was a pair of distance runners who stole the show in the two marathon sessions of the New Jersey group meet last weekend at Princeton's Jadwin Gym.

It was a classic confrontation---the first meeting of Brittany Sedberry, two-time state all-group cross country champion (2003-04) and freshman Briana Jackucewicz of Colts Neck who had set a national scholastic 5,000-meter record while still a seventh grader at the 2004 indoor nationals.

They were expected to meet during the 2005 cross-country season, but fate decreed otherwise. They went separate ways the weekend of the Shore Coaches Invitational and a flu bout in November kept Sedberry out of the state meet where Jackucewicz finished third, going on the next week to qualify for the Foot Locker finals.

Both had impressive credentials from earlier meets this winter as they toed the line Sunday for the Gr. III 3200-meter championships. Sedberry had won a pair of fast 3Ks at the Seton Hall and Kutztown invitationals. Jackucewicz had run a 10:43+ 3200 at the Monmouth County championships two weeks earlier at the Jersey City Armory.

They were not alone in the classic field, which also included Jackucewicz' teammate, Ashley Higginson, the defending champion, and two members of Roxbury's No. 1 cross-country team, Jenn Ennis and Kris Stevens.

The five ran as a pack past the halfway 1600 mark in 5:17, but soon after the race settled down to the expected duel between Sedberry and Jackucewicz. And what a duel it was, with the lead changing hands four or five times as the two runners wove their way through a field of lapped runners. Jackuceiwicz was out in the third lane when she made her final move just before they passed the 3K mark in about 9:57. But, on the backstretch, Sedberry flew past and went on to win by five yards in 10:30.25, eight seconds under the meet record set by Anne Marie Letko 20 years ago. Jackucewicz and Higginson also finished under the old mark at 10:31.32 and 10:36.64.

The race was run without spikes on a flat 200-meter surface and, considering the extra distance run by the pair as they circled the field, probably rates at least a 10:20 at the NY Armory. Adjusted for the 2M distances, Sedberry's time is second only to Cate Guiney's 10:27.20 at the Nationals.

Missing from the race were the 1-2 finishers from the state CC championships, Danielle Tauro of Southern Ocean and Amanda Marino of Jackson, who had run the 800 and 1600 the day before in the Gr. IV meet. Tauro won both of these handily in 2:15.20 and 5:00.46, in both cases laying back until the final laps to use her impressive kick as she prepared for her appearance in the Millrose girls' HS mile this Friday at the Millrose Games. Marino was second in the 1600 and fourth in the 800 to help nail down a repeat win for Jackson.

Ali made a more than impressive debut in New Jersey state competition. The former West Catholic star won, in order, the 55M in 7.20, the 55H in 8.32, the 200 in 25.19 and the 400 in 59.54 to account for 40 points in a 42-33 defeat of Rahway (whose LaShonda Carter herself scored 29 points).

That was in the Sunday morning session and, in the afternoon, Cantey tried to match that performance, falling two points short as she scored all the points in Winslow's 38-35 victory over Colts Neck, the last 10 coming in a close 400 win in 57.11 over Kristen Mahon of Notre Dame, who earlier had spoiled Krystal's bid for perfection with a 25.12 win in the 200.

The Colts Neck distance duo returned to the track in the 1600 in a bid to get their team the title, but two Morris County runners foiled them. Ennis won that race from Higginson in 5:01.01 and Kim Standridge of Randolph edged Jackucewicz for third.

Jackson had had to come from well back to win Gr. IV as Racquel Vassell of East Orange scored an early triple in the 55, 200 and hurdles in 7.22, 25.66 and 8.28. Seconds by Jen Clausen in the 3200 and Nicole Castronuova in the 200 for the ball rolling, Kelly Fortune contributed seven points in the hurdles and high jump and Marino's 12 points in the 800 and 1600 but the Jaguars ahead. Kim Menafra added another six in the closing 400.

Three girls proved better than one in Gr. I as sprinter Jamie Walker, distance runner Nicole Briggs and high jumper Brianna Gray contributed 44 of the 46 points to outscore Leslie Njoku of McNair Academic who soloed for 33 with wins in the 400 and 55H. Annie Taft of defending Bishop Eustace got some help from shot put winner Stephanie Scaramella and Karhryn Rodgers in the 800 to slip past Njoku into second with 36 points.

Haddon Heights used the same formula to also win the boys' Gr. I title from another one-man show Bryant Fitzgerald of Highland Park, who performed the unprecedented feat of winning three state championships as a freshman, taking the 55 in 6.71, the 200 in 23.27 and the 400 in 51.71. Bryant comes from a track family, his grandmother is a many-time masters' sprint champion and his aunt Nancy was one of the state's top distance runners in the Joetta Clark era.

Christian Brothers joined Jackson as a repeat winner in Gr. IV despite a rather disappointing day. Parochial A cross-country champion Chris Horel was beaten in both distance races, the rest of the distance crew contributed only two points, but a second by John Carrol in the PV pulled out a 26-22 win over Southern Ocean.

With 400 rival Shaquan Brown of Paterson Kennedy watching from the stands after a shoulder operation for a football injury, defending champ Bryant McCombs of Old Bridge won the 400 from Pat Blackie of Seton Hall Prep in 50.15, previewing their anchor leg rivalry this Friday in the Suburban 1600R at the Millrose Games. But McCombs skipped the 200 as a precautionary measure, passing up an almost sure win which would have produced a 26-26 deadlock with CBA.

But the fastest 400 of the weekend came in Gr. II in a sizzling race between Garrett Kroner of Indian Hills and Corey Wright of Neptune. Kroner, who is built more like a distance runner, grabbed the lead going into the final lap and won by a yard or so in 49.63. He had earlier finished third in the 200 out of the third-seeded section in 22.85. That race was won by A.J. Bunton of West Deptford, whose sprint double at 6.58 and 22.58 gave his team an early lead which was finally worn down by the Morris Hills distance corps which scored the expected win over Neptune, 31-26, joining CBA as a repeater from the state relay championships a week earlier.

Morris Hills would have have an easier time but for the presence of Anthony LaMastro of Pope John who repeated his 800-1600 double in 1:58.99 and 4:20.92. In both cases, he sprinted past the earlier leaders in the last 50 yards. The 800 race was spoiled somewhat when Indian Hills soph star, Maxwell Bruno, suffered an injury while warming up.

Charles Cox doubled the 200 and 400 in 22.28 and 50.16 and was third in the 55 to lead Monmouth to its first state indoor title in 17 years, 39 3/4-24 over Roxbury in Gr. III. Craig Forys of Colts Neck, who will be running in the open mile at the College Classic at the New York Armory this weekend, had a routine double in the distances in 4:22.03 and 9:22.08.