MARIE ORTIZ CBA’s Tom Falvey (l) runs during Saturday’s Meet of Champions at Holmdel Park. Falvey’s sixth-place finish helped lead the Colts to their sixth straight MOC title.
Lia Poeder of Aberdeen won the gold medal in the 12/13-year-old female division in the National Youth Games Soccer Finals, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, the weekend of Oct. 19. A total of 85 finalists from the mainland and Hawaii participated in the competition, which consisted of a rapid-fire scoring challenge, testing dribbling and shooting skills in a race against the clock. Poeder won with a time of 22.42 seconds.
In order to qualify for the nationals, Poeder, a seventh-grade student at Matawan Avenue Middle School, competed in one of 2,500 local competitions held across the nation. From there, she advanced to the sectional competition at Fort Monmouth, where she won first place. Her top score in the Northeast region earned her a spot in the finals. The National Youth Games is a grassroots youth participation program in which youngsters between the ages of 8 and 13 participate in any of four athletic events, basketball, soccer, swimming, and track and field. The games are designed to encourage participation in sports while programming sportsmanship. Approximately 150,000 participants competed this year.
On a cold, windy day the Hazlet Wave, an under-13 boys soccer team, closed out their season with a decisive 8-0 win over Middletown. The scoring started quickly on a pass from Sean Lennon to Scott Latham in the box. The second score came unassisted by Tommy Devlin, and, to close out the first half, Robby Hollywood passed to Scott Latham for a quick shot past the goalie. The second half started out just as quickly with a score from Scott Latham (unassisted) for his second goal. Brendan Hilliard then made a score into the lower left off the goal on a pass from Hollywood. Lennon scored a quick goal into the top left corner of the net. Hilliard scored his second goal unassisted which shot past the goalie. Josh Barbarich scored the final goal of the game to end the season with a winning record. The Wave midfielders and defenders, Beau Dummer, Greg Godzwon, Tom Grobelny, Tommy Friscia, Angel Martinez, Matt Richards, Mike Sullivan, and goalie Jeff King did a great job containing the Middletown offense. Gene Lennon and Randy Richards coach the Hazlet Wave.
The Rutgers University baseball team added another New Jersey standout to its 2000 recruiting class, as head coach Fred Hill announced that Middletown’s Aaron Kalb has signed a national letter of intent to attend Rutgers and play baseball beginning with the 2001-2002 academic year. Kalb joins Toms River’s Jeff Frazier, who inked his letter of intent to play for the Scarlet Knights earlier this week.
Kalb, 6-0 and 175 pounds, was a First Team All-Monmouth County pick last season, posting a 7-4 mark with 74 strikeouts in 60 innings of action. He is widely considered the top returning pitcher in his league this season after leading his team to an 18-7-1 mark and the Shore Conference title game. Kalb also batted .417 for Middletown North and Head Coach Rich Veth.
Rutgers, the defending Big East Regular Season and Tournament champion, is coming off a 40-18 season and a final national ranking of 23rd. Rutgers returns its entire pitching staff and five positional starters in 2001. The Scarlet Knights open their season on Friday, Feb. 16, when they travel to Norfolk, Va., for a three-game set with Old Dominion University.