Boys and Girls v. Red Bank Regional
by Ed Grant
New Jersey track writer
Netters:
It was a case, as the sage of Montclair once put it, of deja vu
all
over again.
I refer to last night's national record girls DMR race between
Boys
and Girls and Red Bank at the Eastern HS championships at the NY
Armory
center.,
The race was in every sense a repeat of the 2001 clash with the
same
personnel on both :"long legs" and some of the same on
the decisive shorter
ones as well, The only difference was that this one was almost 10
seconds
faster and resulted in a NR of 11:50.86 for B&G and a NJ record
of 11:51.54
for RB (No mean feat in itself, as the former state record---once
the
National mark as well--was 11:58.04 by Bernards at the 2.5M distance
in the
1983 Easterns at Harvard.)
Once again Stacy Livingston for B&G and Kathleen Trotter for
RB were
on the opejing 1200M leg a=which went in about 3:35 with Livingston
lead by
a few steps. And once again the next two legs saw B&G open a
10-second gap
with its greater speed. And once again Amanda Trotter gradually
caught up
with Adilah Vargas---though this time she never passed her--only
to have
Vargas outkick her.
The only consolation for RB, aside from the SR, was that the
Trotters will return next year (and probably with a CC season behind
them
for the first time) while Livingston will be off to college. Red
Bank does
lose its 800 leg, Katie Kingsbery, and may have trouble replacing
her 2:16.7
carry.
This was the premiere race of the six-hour meet, but there were
some near contenders. Brian Dalpiaz of Sayville gave a good run
at Alberto
Salazar's 9:01.1 MR in the boys 2M, but had no help over the last
mile and
finished in 9:03.65. Brendan Fennell of Pearl River, his CC sparring
mate,
is playing basketball this winter. Dalpiaz will also get another
crack as he
is a junior and, prhaps, Fennell will realize he is not Michael
Jordan and
join him next year,
Glenn DiGiorgio of Bayonne got a little closer to older brother
Kevin's NJ state record of 67-3 as he won the SP at 66-2, in the
process
breaking the MR of 64-10 which had been set by Steve Adams of St.
Joseph,
Montvale, in 1970 when the meet was also held at the NY Armory.
And, as
usual these days, Adams was officiating the event.
Another MR (and NJ SR) fell in the 400 when Ray Williams of Scotch
Plains came from behind to win in 47.45. Williams is the mos promising
400
runner to come along in NJ since Olympic relay gold medalist Lamont
Smith of
Willingboro a decade ago, but his track future is cloudy because
he is also
a top wide receiver and is going to Purdue on a football scholarship.
There is no such problem with the 800M winner Ken Sinkovitz of
Bergen
Catholic who set a state junior class record with his 1:53.88. A
junior, Ken
is also an A+ student and appears to have a limitless fuiture in
the sport.,
He recently coasted a 1:21.7 600M at the Armory track.
Camden scored an impressive double when it won the boys 800R in
1:28.82 and the 1600R in 3:19.61. What made it most impressive is
that it
was accomplished without the services of 2001 Nike Invitational
60M winner
Jamar Ervin who was held out of the meet for "disciplinary
reasons." (Ervin
has run only one meet this season) Jade Smith passed up individual
events to
anchor both teams.
Haddonfield missed the MR by only a second in the DMR when it
defeated Scotia-Glenville (NY) by 15 yards in 10:16.84. A 3:05 opening
1200
by Skip Stiles set the tone for this one, but Chris Platt still
had to come
from behind with a 4:18 anchor to clinch the victory. The Haddons
also got
some good news later in the night when long-injured John Bernetich
ran a
4:33+ 1600 to insure their entry in the 4MR at the Nike meet in
Landover.
(It was Bernetich's absence that probably cost Haddonfield a No.
1 national
ranking in CC this past fall) And they got a real bonus when Matt
Dahms
scored an upset win in the HH over 5 NJ rivals in 7.52.
Willingboro also was a double winner with Michael Morrison having
his third Armory clearance of 7-0 or better to take the HJ and the
3200R
running away from the field in 7:53.64.
B&G picked up a 2nd win in the girls when Desiree Morrer defeated
heat-leader Jenna Harris of Fraklin in the 55M in 7.02, Harris coming
back
to take the 200 in 24.80.
Tawana Watkins of Paterson Kennedy, the nation's premiere 400M
hurdler, did not let the absence of barriers bother her in the flat
race as
she ran away from the field in 54.98. just missing the MR. The 800
saw
Shayna Staton of Bay Shore (NY) make a late charge to catch Megan
Olds of
Glovresville in 2:16.94.
Bronxville dominated the girls' mile, running 1-2-3 most of the
way
with Michelle Rorke winning in 5:00.2 and the Mullens twins finished
3-5,
also under 5:05. The 3200 saw Heather Iatauro of Tri-Valley take
over over
with a couple of laps to go and win in 11:08.61.
Shenae Dawkins of New Rochelle, who has dominated 55H races at
the
Armory all winter, won that event with a nation-leading 7.92.
New Jersey dominated the field events with the exception of the
horizontal jumpos and, ever there, went 2-3. The Fazekas sisters
of Demarest
were 1-2 in the SP, junior Kelly winning at 43-10 1.2, Debra Vento
of
Freehold Boro took the HJ on misses at 5-6 and Danielle O'Reilly
of Shawnee
ditto the PV at 11-0.
With B&G skipping all other relay events, Willingboro took
the 1600R
from DeWitt Clinton in 3:52.76, just half a second over the MR,
Wilson of
Camden the 3200R in 9:25.81 and Suffern the 800R in 1:42.93.
Eastern States Championships
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