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Ed Grant's NJ report 6-19

Craig Forys and Danielle Tauro move from Greensboro to Indy for HS finales.

June 19, 2007 New Jersey

by Ed Grant

 

          After quite contrasting results at the National scholastic meet in Greensboro, N.C., Danielle Tauro of Southern Ocean and Craig Forys of Colts Neck will complete their scholastic careers this weekend in the 1500-meter runs at the national Juniors in Indianapolis.

                        Tauro anchored a state record of 3:54.37 in the sprint medley at Greensboro, running 2:07.3, when brought the Rams’ distance medley home with an 11:40.81 victory in the distance medley, second fastest in state history. Forys, on the other hand, lost his duel with Matt Centrowitz Jr. in the boys’ two-mile, while lowering his state record for that distance to 8:44.53 and also fell short in the distance medley where the Cougars were second in 10:L04.15.

                        Southern Ocean’s win was one of four recorded by New Jersey athletes at Greensboro, four of them in relay events. The only individual winner was Forys’ teammate Ashley Higginson who took the girls’ two-mile in 10:17.44. Willingboro won the boys’ 800-meter sprint medley in a state record 1:30.89 and Don Bosco the boys’ 1600-meter sprint medley in 3:27.30.

                        Tauro, of course, could have added a fifth gold in the mile which she had won in 2006, but chose to concentrate on her relay duties. The sprint medley just gave up too much on the opening 200-meter legs to Eleanor Roosevelt, but soph Jillian Smith opened with a 3:29 in the distance medley and Kate Bergin and Chelsea Cox kept Southern Ocean close enough so that Tauro had no trouble reversing the indoor Nike Invitational loss to the Maryland school, which finished third behind New York’s defending Warwick Valley.

                        Tauro’s split was “only” 4:51.4 which indicates that Bay Shore’s national record of 11:33.42 was well within the range of Danielle who had run under 4:40 in winning the mile a year ago. But, as in the Rams’ earlier win at the Penn Relays, victory was more important than time to Tauro, who said on that occasion: “I just wanted to make sure I didn’t screw things up after the other girls had run so well.” It was this same team spirit that prompted her decision not to defend her mile title.

                        Higginson completed a perfect eight-lap season with her 2M victory, adding this to her indoor victory at the Nike meet, her 3K triumph at Penn and her indoor and outdoor state all-group 3200-meter repeats. She easily outkicked Neely Spence of Shippensburg, Pa., posting a time only slightly slower than her indoor one. But a double attempt failed when she finished third in the 2000-meter steeplechase to Hannah Davidson and Shelby Greaney of New York in 6:46.67, lowering her own state record in the process.

                        Willingboro’s short sprint medley win was a slight surprise only in the fact that they ran with hurdler Jusson Boyd on the anchor 400 rather than state all-group champ Antonio who had the individual 400 ---where he ran fifth in 46.90---later in the day. Boyd for the stick in third and outran DeMatha of Maryland and Teaneck, which finished fourth in 1:31.21. The ‘Boro would certainly have gone under 1:30 had Abney and Boyd switched legs.

                        Don Bosco actually finished second in the longer sprint medley, but winner New Bern of North Carolina was disqualified for two exchange zone violations. The finish then became a duplication of an earlier race at the East Coast Relays, but even closer, with Union Catholic chasing the Ironmen home in 3:27.36. This was, in a way, a duplication of the girls’ race with the two Jersey teams yielding ground on the earlier legs, but closing to within a few yards of defending New Bern on the anchor, state all-group champ Sharif Webb of Don Bosco running 1:52.4 and Brian Guterl of the Vikings about the same.

                        Other notable seconds for Jersey athletes started early with soph Doug Smith of Gill-St. Bernard’s finishing behind Matt Vess of Connecticut in Thursday’s 5,000-meter opener in 14:40.76. Monmouth was a close second in the boys’ 1600-meter relay in 3:14.07 and Pope John’s girls completed a great 3200R season with an 8:56.45. The Lions also took over the state 1600-meter relay lead with a sixth-place finish in 3:48.66 and ran seventh in the sprint medley in 4:02.68.

                        Willingboro posted two more outstanding marks as the same four boys who won the 800 sprint medley finished eighth in the more orthodox 4x200 event in 1:27.75 and then finished fifth in the 1600R in 3:14.79. And Ridgewood finished sixth in the distance medley in 10:07.94.

                        Two all-group winners placed third in their events, Manny Mayers of Lakewood in the boys’ intermediate hurdles in 52.15 and Stephanie McIntyre of South Brunswick in the girls’ triple jump at 39-6 1/2.

                        There were also several pleasant surprises. Though several of the state’s top distance medley teams skipped the meet, Voorhees joined the sub-12:00 club with a bang, finishing sixth behind Southern Ocean in 11:51.76, second-fastest New Jersey time of the season. Soph Melanie Thompson anchored this one and frosh Katie Petruzzellis led off, indicating that the Vikings could be a strong force next outdoor season, though qualifying for Penn will be a problem with Thompson playing basketball during the winter.

                        Even more astonishing were the huge PRs set by junior Katie McCafferty of Oak Knoll and the Millville girls’ 1600-meter relay team, McCafferty took 10 seconds off her best 1600-meter time as she won the Emerging Elite mile in 4:56.32 and Millville five seconds off its all-group performance as it placed eighth with an all-underclass team---none of them 400 specialists--- in 3:51.68.

                        And then there was Eastern freshman English Gardner, the state all-group 100-meter champ. She was wll off her best in that event, running only 11.94 in the trials. But she came back in the 400---an event she had avoided outdoors after winning the indoor all-group crown---to place third in 54.00, only two-tenths of a second off Stephanie Saleem’s 23-year-old state class record.      

  

 

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