Dahlmeier, Conner record one-sided wins in MCT events
By:Kyle Moylan
Peddie girls’ track coach Mark Gartner was happy that his team won the Prep A championship back on May 9. It was the way his girls performed on the bus on the way home, however, that really made Gartner proud.
“I think they finally got it,” Gartner said. “They finally understood my philosophy. We were coming home on the bus after winning the Preps and the girls weren’t all giddy and laughing. It was a subdued group. They said the win was great for Peddie, but that they wished they had performed better. I nearly stopped the bus.
“Winning championships and the Prep Relays are nice for the school, but the primary goal is to do your best. It’s all about performing.”
Peddie placed first out of the seven teams in the event with 89 points. The majority of those points — 70 of them — came via seven first places.
One performance that certainly was extraordinary was that of the 4X100 team. Amber Forrester, Roslyn Johnson, Jennifer Escotto and Titi Wilson set a school mark in the event with a time of 50.2.
Cafe Efros won the shot (33-5.5) and the discus (103-10.5). Actually, Efros tied for first in the discus and was awarded the championship based on her second best throw.
The other winners for Peddie were Amber Forrester in the high jump (5 feet), Veronica McRipley in the 400 hurdles (1:06.7), Lindsay Walker in the pole vault (6 feet) and Titi Wilson in the 100 (12.8).
In the Mercer County Championships this past Saturday Peddie placed 10th out of 17 teams. Gartner was happy with the way his girls performed, though.
“Despite not scoring a whole lot of points, we did have some nice performances,” Gartner said. “It’s all about the competition and they competed well. If we only score 10 points, we only score 10 points. That’s fine.”
McRipley placed fourth in both the 100 hurdles (16) and 400 hurdles (1:06.6). Forrester was sixth in the high jump (4-8). The 4X400 team of Kelly Sullivan, Wilson, Johnson and McRipley also placed sixth in a time of 4:13.8.
The season is over for most of the Peddie girls. Cafe Efros and Abby Temeng will compete in the shot put at the East Coast Relays on Monday.
BOYSŽ
Matt Dahlmeier was six feet under his personal best in the discus during the Mercer County Championships this past Saturday at Steinert. Never fear. His throw of 153-8 was still 16 feet better than anyone else.
“The other people there were throwing for second place,” Peddie coach Mark Gartner said. “His school mark is 159-2. He wanted to hit 160, but he didn’t do it. Oh, well.”
Tom Conner also came away with a win in the javelin with a personal best throw of 169-7. This was over nine feet better than the second-place finisher.
“Paying attention to what other people were doing in the county, I thought Conner would be in the top couple of spots if he had a good day,” Gartner said. “He wasn’t going to win by just showing up. He needed to have a good day. He had a good day.”
Conner also placed fifth in the pole vault with a mark of 11-6.
Yoshi Yokokawa (20 feet in the long jump), Dave Wilson (9:59.3 in the 3,200) and Derek Tong (22.7 in the 200) all placed third. The 4X400 relay team of Russell Gagnon, Chris Nixon, Conner and Derek Tong also placed third with a time of 3:27.9.
“There were two good races going on in that race — one for first and one for third,” Gartner noted.
Ewing (3:22.8) and Trenton (3:23.1) took the top two spots. Peddie held off Hopwell and Notre Dame for third.
In other action, Nixon placed fourth in the 100 with a time of 10.8.
Peddie placed third as a team with 50 points, trailing just powerhouses like Trenton and Ewing.
“Our thing with the county meet is we try not to have the kids do too many events,” Gartner said. “We just try and go hard in a few events and try and have our best performances of the season because this is the end of the season for most of our kids.
“To place third with so many good public schools, that was really nice for us.”
The last competition of the season for Peddie will be Monday when Conner and Yokokawa compete in the javelin at the East Coast Relays.
On May 11, Peddie placed second in the Prep Championships, held at Pingry. Pingry won with 96 points, six more than Peddie.
Dahlmeier continued his mastery in the discus, winning with a throw of 158-2. Conner won the javelin (167-10), Yokokawa won the long jump (20-2) and Gagnon won the 400 (51.1).
In addition to these wins, Nixon placed second in the high jump (5-10), Wilson was second in the 3,200 (9:58), Tong was third in the 200 (23.3) and Yokokawa was third in the javelin (148-9).
“We had a pretty good day,” Gartner said. “The Saturday before we had a blowout day, but this was a pretty good day.
“It was frustrating to fall six points short of winning. When I stepped back and looked at all the events, however, I don’t know if there was another six points for us to get out there.”
In both competitions, all the kids on both Peddie teams gave their best. And even after the win, the Peddie girls were looking for ways to improve on their performance. There’s not much more a coach can ask for. Certainly not Mark Gartner.