Plainfield rips meet records of 42.1 and 1:27.5 in the boys 4x100 and 4x200 and adds 3:37.8 win in the sprint medley.
The Rahway boys take down meet marks in the shuttle hurdles with 59.9 and the 4x400 with a 3:20.9
Story
The Plainfield sprinters have been waiting all season to bust out and throw down some hot times. All they needed were the right conditions.
They certainly got that yesterday and Plainfield responded by torching the track with two meet records and adding a victory in the sprint medley as seniors Isaiah Gill, Stephon Knox, Daniel Woods and Tristan Simms electrified the crowd at Gary Kehler Stadium at the 21stBlue Devil Classic in Westfield.
Plainfield scorched the competition in the 4x100-meter relay, crossing first in 42.1, and the 4x200 in 1:27.5 to smash both records as Gill, Knox, Woods and Simms shared the baton in each race. Both times are the fastest in the state this season.
That same foursome returned to add a victory in the sprint medley in 3:37.8.
In the 4x100, Knox led off in 10.6, Gill went 10.2, Woods 10.6 and Simms 10.8. In the 4x200, Gill went 21.6, Woods 21.3, Knox 22.7 and Simms 22.3.
Then in the SM, Knox led off in 49.7 for 400, Woods went 22.4 and Simms 22.0 on the 200 legs, and Gill anchored with a 2:03.5 800 anchor.
Knox said Plainfield finally had a chance to show what it could do
``It’s been cold and windy every week this season,’’ said Knox. ``But we knew we had the talent to run fast if we just got a good day to run. This was big for our confidence and now it’s time to get back to work and get ready for Penn. I think we can do some big things next week.’’
Plainfield’s 4x100 performance certainly puts it in the mix for a qualifying spot in this weekend’s Championship of America race at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia.
Plainfield will run in the 4x100 qualifying heats on Friday. The fastest eight teams will make the C of A race on Saturday.
Plainfield last appeared in a C of A 4x100 at Penn in 1998.
``Our goal is not just to make the final, but to try and win it,’’ said Gill. ``If we get better handoffs, we can go a lot faster and I think we can surprise a lot of teams at Penn next week.’’
Plainfield wasn’t the only team to rip up the record book.
Rahway got the meet started when it blasted the first sub 60.0 time in the state thisseason with a meet record 59.9, and it closed out the meet with a 3:20.9 meet record win in the 4x400.
In the shuttles, senior Chris Whyte split 14.3, senior Jose Benjamin-Pena 15.7, junior Vinnie Marcino 15.7, and Pierre Darisme anchored in 14.2.
Whyte came back to lead off the 4x400 with a 49.6 leadoff and was joined by Ricky Draughn (49.7), Marquis Barnes (51.8) and Chris Brown (49.7). Barnes was filling in the Russell Jenkins.
Rahway will be running the 4x100, 4x400 and 4x800 at Penn.
Jon Jackson of Union, who returned last Tuesday after missing approximately two months of running because of a stress fracture in his left foot, looked like he was in top form with a pair of strong baton carries.
Jackson used his big kick over the final 200 to take the elad for good on his way to a 4:29.1 1,600 anchor leg, bringing his team across first in the distance medley (10:37.1). Jackson added 1:57.9 leadoff leg on the winning 4x800 that ran 8:08.7.
Summitturned in a sparkling performance in the girls distance medley. Junior Nikki Hallenborg ran 3:55 for 1,200, senior Alex Reid went 62.7 for 400, senior Danielle Allocco split 2:25.9 for 800 and junior Kearsley Olcott came from way back with a 5:15.2 1,600 anchor to bring Summit across first in 12:39.2
Nichelle Harris had a spectacular day for the Rahway girls. The junior split 3:39.1 for 1,200 for the fifth-place DM, 2:14.5 on the fifth-place 4x800 team, and capped her day with an anchor carry of 59.6 come from behind win in the 4x400 (
All-State thrower Jorge Merino of Old Bridge led his team to a pair of victories with meet best throws of 56-2 ½ in the shot put and 137-5 in the discus.
In other highlights, Josh Einbinder of Westfield ripped off a 1:57.6 800 leg for the runner-up boys DM team…All-Stater D.J. Thornton of Union Catholic had two big splits for Union Catholic. He ran 3:09.1 1,200 on the sixth-place DM and a 1: second leg for the third-place 4x4800 team…..Mark Jones of Summit cleared a meet best 6-4 in the boys high jump to help his team finish second.
Troy Eastman of Rahway had the top boys javelin throw of the meet with a 172-9 to lead his team to win that event…Tim Woods had the top pole vault mark of the day, clearing 12-0 to lead the Westfield boys to victory with a combined 23-6…Sophomore Chris Ibrahim soared a personal best 21-7 ½ and Dan Battaglia 20-6 ½ to lead Hunterdon Central to victory in the boys long jump with a 42.2.
Ugonna Ndu of soared a meet best 17-3 ½ to help Union finish third in the girls long jump…..Brigitte Mania split 2:18.4 for Hunterdon Central’s first-place 4x800 (9:36.1), which will be running at Penn on Thursday…Cranford won the girls sprint medley in 4:20.4 as Natalie Englese ran 57.4 for 400, Kelly Burke 2.74 and Gillian Burke 26.9 for the 200 legs and Claire Humen 2:28.6 in the 800…. Maneek Kumar split 3:09.0 for 1,200 for the Piscataway boys DM team.
Results
Boys
400-METER RELAY: 1-Plainfield (Stephon Knox, Isaiah Gill, Daniel Woods and Tristan Simms) 42.1 record; former record, 43.0, Old Bridge, 2005. 2-Rahway 43.3. 3-Elizabeth 43.4. 4-Westfield 43.5. 5-Shabazz 43.6. 6-Piscataway 43.9.
SPRINT MEDLEY RELAY: 1-Plainfield (Stephon Knox, Daniel Woods, Tristan Simms and Isaiah Gill) 3:37.8. 2-Hunterdon Central 3:39.7. 3-Westfield 3:40.0. 4-Summit 3:43.3. 5-Scotch Plains 3:49.9. 6-Union Catholic 3:52.7.
DISTANCE MEDLEY RELAY: 1-Union (Bayaan Oluyadi, Andre Highsmith, Stefano Craig and Jon Jackson) 10:37.1. 2-Westfield 10:37.9. 3-Old Bridge A 10:41.1. 4-Old Bridge B 10:50.0. 5-Hunterdon Central 10:53.7. 6-Union Catholic 10:54.1.
SHUTTLE HURDLES: 1-Rahway (Chris Whyte, Jose Benjamin-Pena, Vinnie Marcino and Pierre Darisme) 59.9, record; former record, 1:00.4, Roselle, 2008. 2-Piscataway 1:02.7. 3-Union 1:05.3. 4-Phillipsburg 1:06.2. 5-Linden 1:07.4. 6-Union Catholic 1:08.7.
TEAM HIGH JUMP: 1-Union (Martin Prokopovich and Stanley Pluviose) 12-0. 2-Summit 11-10. 3-South Plainfield 11-6. 4-Piscataway and Hunterdon Central 11-4. 6-Scotch Plains 11-2.
TEAM LONG JUMP: 1-Hunterdon Central (Dan Battaglia and Chris Ibrahim) 42-2. 2-Westfield 40-11 ¾. 3-Old Bridge 40-6. 4-Scotch Plains 39-10 ¾. 5-Phillipsburg 39-6. 6-Union 38-10 1/4
TEAM SHOT PUT: 1-Old Bridge A (Jorge Merino and Eric Mahler) 103-0. 2-Franklin 91-0. 3-Old Bridge B 88-10 ½. 4-Scotch Plains-Fanwood 84-8. 5-Summit 83-9 ¼. 6-Westfield 81-5 ¾.
TEAM DISCUS: 1-Old Bridge (Jorge Merino and Andre Davis) 266-3. 2-Union 244-2. 3-South Plainfield 243-7. 4-Hunterdon Central 231-6. 5-Phillipsburg 219-9. 6-Scotch Plains-Fanwood 211-8.
TEAM POLE VAULT: 1-Westfield A (Tim Woods and Dave Fishman) 23-6. 2-Scotch Plains 22-6. 3-Westfield B 22-0. 4-Phillipsburg 21-6. 5-Hunterdon Central 21-6. 6-Cranford 21-0.
DISTANCE MEDLEY RELAY: 1-Summit (Nikki Hallenborg, Alex Reid, Danielle Allocco and Kearsley Olcott) 12:39.2. 2-Hunterdon Central 12:46.1. 3-Piscataway 12:58.3. 4-Mt. St. Mary 13:07.6. 5-Rahway 13:12.6. 6-Scotch Plains-Fanwood 13:12.7.
SHUTTLE HURDLES: 1-Rahway (Ernestine Rodgers, Michelle Ibanibo, Zakiya Stewart and Denice Martin) 1:08.6. 2-Hunterdon Central 1:10.9. 3-Union 1:12.2. 4-Scotch Plains 1:12.6. 5-Linden 1:17.0. 6-Matawan 1:17.9.
TEAM HIGH JUMP: 1-Union Catholic (Caryn Grabowski and Katie Colombo) 9-4. 2-Hunterdon Central 9-2. 3-Scotch Plains 9-0. 4- Franklin 8-10. 5-Westfield 4-8. 6-Cranford 4-6.
TEAM LONG JUMP: 1-Scotch Plains (Sarah Canfield and Whitney Adams) 32-5 ½. 2-Elizabeth 32-2 ¾. 3-Union 31-8 ½. 4-Summit 30-11 ½. 5-Plainfield 30-8. 5-Roselle 29-11 ¼.
TEAM SHOT PUT: 1-Franklin (Monica Amoo-Achampong and Katrina Washington) 71-4. 2-Union 67-1 ½. 3-Piscataway 66-5 ¼. 4-Franklin and Rahway 62-7. 6-Matawan 61-3 ½.
TEAM DISCUS: 1- Union (Cristina Vilsaint and Oziome Onyebule) 187-0. 2-Franklin A 173-11. 3-Piscataway 162-1. 4-Franklin B 153-1. 5-Mt. St. Mary 149-3. 6-Westfield 147-6.
TEAM JAVELIN: 1-Mt. St. Mary (Patricia Deutsch and Bonnie Malhotra) 189-4. 2-Cranford 185-9. 3-Hunterdon Central 184-0. 4-Franklin 182-3. 5-Rahway 167-7. 6- Westfield 1:58-3.
TEAM POLE VAULT: 1-Hunterdon Central (Brooke Kohler and Rebecca Pavics) 19-0. 2-Phillipsburg 17-6. 3-Hunterdon Central B 17-0. 4-Franklin 16-0. 5-Matwan 14-0.