New Jersey indoor track and field, on the state level, goes back to its beginnings this weekend with the three-day relay championships at the Jersey City Armory where the modern program began in 1960.

The 70-year-old drillshed has a much different look than when the last state meet was held there in 1974. A 200-meter Mondo track was installed last year, lighting has been improved and a Madison Square Garden-style “scoreboard” hangs over the center of the basketball court which occupies the center of the infield.

Still, there remain a lot of questions as to how suitable a replacement the armory will be for Princeton’s Jadwin Gym, where the state program had been held in its entirely since 1975.  The all-group meet moved there four years earlier and, in 1972, was the site of what is still the fastest mile ever run in a purely high school indoor race, 4:06.6, by Vince Cartier of Scotch Plains. There has been more talk about this than about the outcome of the eight-division meet (four boys, four girls), which gets under way with Gr. I competition on Friday.

The armory does not have the seating capacity of Jadwin, so the rest of the weekend has been divided into six sessions, three on Saturday, three on Sunday, each day starting at 8 a.m. The new bubble in Toms River, still under construction, has even less seating capacity with double sessions for Gr. I and II on Feb. 15 and 16, and two single sessions for Gr. III and IV the following two days. Even the all-group meet has been divided into separate sessions with the girls going on Feb. 24 and the boys on Feb. 25.

The relay meet has always been a tough one to figure with many teams having it as the first meet of the season. The only clear favorite going into this weekend is Pope John in the Gr. I girls meet, after a stunning effort last Sunday in the New Jersey Catholic Track Conference Relays at the New York Armory Center. The Lions should win all five of the flat races this weekend, probably setting several group records in the process; they have undoubtedly the best all-around running team in the state this winter.

Most of the top action for New Jersey schools to date this winter has taken place at the New York Armory. Last weekend, for example, Garden State boys won eight events at the Hispanic Games with such choice items as a 9:14.64 two-mile for Brandon Jarrett of St. Benedict’s, a 48-6 triple jump for Devon Bond of Trenton (who also won the high jump at 6-6), and a nation-leading 1:28.48 for the Camden 800-meter relay team.

The marks by Jarrett and the Camden team were hardly a surprise. Brandon---who will not be in the state relays where his team could easily take the Gr. I title if it were a full NJSIAA member---ran 12th at the Footlocker Finals in December and is the likely successor to Craig Forys of Colts Neck as the state’s No. 1 distance runner next year. Camden had taken the national lead in the 800R a month ago at the Bishop Loughlin meet.

Nor was there anything new in Bond taking the HJ---he won at Loughlin at 6-11---but his emergence in the triple jump has been a major story this winter. He first tried the event at the Seton Hall Invitational during Christmas week, winning at 46-3 ½ and his latest effort is the fourth-best in state history.

Pleasantville had three of the other winners at the Hispanic Games. Alan Laws took the 800 in 1:56.94, Duke Mack won the secondary 400 from outdoor intermediate hurdles champ Duke Mack of Pleasantville in 49.24 and both ran on a 3200-meter relay team which scored in a season’s best 8:04.31. The other Jersey winner was Willingboro in the 1600-meter relay in 3:24.80.

Outdoor state long jump champ Hanif Kendrick of Franklin was second in that event at 6.59m and Tykeen Fulton also took silver in the HH in 7.48.

New Jersey girls did not fare as well with only one winner, Natalie Parkes in the pole vault at 11-0. National 400-meter hurdle champ Leslie Njoku of McNair Academic was third in the 400 at 56.71 and Symone O’Connor of Franklin, fifth in that race, took third in the 200 in 25.55.

The top girls action last week took place at Friday’s Ridgewood I meet at Fairleigh Dickinson’s Rothman Center in Hackensack. National outdoor mile champion Danielle Tauro of Sourthern Ocean, whose abbreviated cross-country season had ended with a big question mark after her collapse at the Footlocker Trials (she got up in time to qualify, but withdrew from the Nationals) answered all doubts.  She won the 600M from sophomore teammate Jillian Smith in 1:40.4, ran a 2:17.7 anchor in a 9:44.2 3200-meter relay win, and also anchored a 4:08.0 victory in the 1600-meter relay.

The championship season, which had opened with the Somerset County meet at Lehigh during Christmas week, got into full swing this past weekend, led by the annual tripleheader at Drew University: the Iron Hills meet on Friday night, the Mountain Valley and Northern Hills on Saturday, all completed within 24 hours.

The major individual news out of this marathon was the first appearance of outdoor 800-meter champ Jason Apwah, who broke two of his own records in the Iron Division of the Iron Hills meet, running 1:23.44 in the 600M and 2:35.11 in the 1K. The double had little effect on the team race with Randolph solidly defeating Seton Hall, 105-53. Morris Hills took its fourth straight in Hills, 78 ½-72, over Chatham with Kyle Soloff doubling the 1K and 1600 in 2:36.78 and 4:36.07.

The girls’ titles went to Columbia in Iron and Hanover Park in Hills with Racquel Vassell of East Orange the big winner as she tripled the Iron 55 in 7.33, 200 in 41.98 and 55H in 8.46. Columbia pulled out its 75-73 victory over Roxbury with a 1-2-3 finish in the high jump. Another key in this was Tori Berard of Morris Knolls upsetting Lauren Penney of Roxbury in the 3200 in 11:26.54.

The Mountain Valley meet went to a divisional format for the first time. Union Catholic was the big winner, taking the Mountain boys title outright and getting a tie with Cranford in the girls’ meet with a win in the closing 1600R. New Providence outclassed the Valley girls field, almost matching the points of its six rivals, while Roselle Catholic took the boys’ crown with a sprint double by Mark Givens and 62 points from its distance crew.

The Middlesex County Conference Relays on Saturday at the Jersey City Armory saw the  Old Bridge boys defeat South Brunswick in the closing 1600-meter relay for a 57-56 win over the Vikings, who took the girls’ crown from North Edison, 60-40.

St. Benedict’s, Notre Dame and Pope John were the big winners at the NJCTC Relays Sunday night at the New York Armory. Jarrett had a 4:18 anchor 1600 as the Gray Bees won the distance medley in 10:28.9 while Brian Bucknor---who had run a 49.61 400 the day before in the Hispanic Games---led off a 1:31.9 victory in the 800R. Gigi Gibilisco, who had run a 1:54.59 800 against Lionel Williams in the Marine Corps Holiday Festival, anchored Irish victories at 3:27.5 in the 1600R and 8:07.8 in the 3200R.

Pope John had three wins in the girls’ action, taking the 800R out of an unseeded section in 1:47.7, the sprint medley relay in a record 4:29.2 with essentially a second-string lineup, and the distance medley in 12:34.1. A fourth win escaped it when indoor all-group 200-meter champion Kristen Mahon of Notre Dame came from behind with a sub-57 anchor leg in a 4:04.8 victory.

Getting back to this weekend, two of the state’s top boy distance runners will join Jarrett on the sidelines. Doug Smith of Gill-St. Bernard’s is still serving his 30-day sentence for transferring from Roxbury, while Andrew Hanko of Trinity Christian is pretty much soloing it this winter his most recent outing being a record 9:32.3 3200 win at Monday’s North Jersey Invitational at Rothman center.

There will be two interesting field event duels at the Gr. IV meets. In the girls’ shot put on Saturday, the state’s top shot-putters go at it, Deanne Hahn of Brick and Sherri O’Connor of Hillsboro, both of whom have been over 45-0 this winter. (Hahn transferred from Lakewood over the summer, but a corresponding change of residence saves her from Smith’s fate.)

In Sunday’s boys’ high jump, Bond is matched up with Qaadir Tutor of West Orange, who has cleared 6-10 this winter. Both have able assistant who have topped 6-6, Farad Thompson for Trenton and Jon Arnold for West Orange, who actually defeated his teammate at the Northern Hills meet.

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