Girls track team won two titles this winter
By: Carolyn M. Hartko
At the beginning of this past high school winter track season, there were three local titles up for grabs. When all the dust had settled, the South Brunswick High School girls’ squad had captured two of them, and was runner-up for the third.
The Vikings have won county championships before, but this is the first time in school history that they captured two Greater Middlesex Conference titles in the same season. First, South Brunswick won five out of five running events to ace the twice-postponed GMC Relay Championships. Then the Vikings came back two weeks later to win the GMC Individual Championships.
"All the girls came through in the individuals," Viking head coach Brian Jost said. "They all did what they had to do."
The only thing that eluded South this winter was a division title. Instead, competing up in the GMC’s Red Division for the first time, the Vikings (4-1) had to settle for second behind Old Bridge. The Lady Knights claimed the Red title when they edged South Brunswick by a single point in a dual meet.
In addition to the success on the local scene, the Lady Vikings also made a splash at a few big regional meets held at the 168th Street Armory in New York City. They set two school records at the New Balance Games in January, then continued the trend by closing out the season with another new mark in the 4×400 meter relay in the Varsity Classic in February. Senior Anne O’Rane, junior Engedaye Polk, and sophomores Tanya Earl and Natalya Johnson ran a 4:07.4 on the banked track at the Armory.
But the brightest jewel in the string of successes at the Armory came in the Eastern States Regional Indoor Track and Field Championships on Jan. 27. Senior Laura Chmielewski won the girls’ pole vault by clearing 11-6. That was just short of her personal best of 11-9, which she vaulted at the beginning of the season. Although Chmielewski was a little disappointed with her performance, the gold medal in the regional meet is a good prelude to the high school national championships which are being held back at the Armory this Saturday.
"Laura’s steps were a little off, and I think she was expecting to go higher," Jost said. "But she got away with it this time, so we’re happy."
The accomplishments of the 2000-2001 Lady Vikings are even more impressive considering the amount of weather postponed and rescheduled meets this past winter.
"Training-wise, it wasn’t bad for us, because we had the hallways at school that we could run in and get decent workouts," Jost said. "For some other schools, I’m sure (the weather) was much more of a factor. But trying to schedule and re-schedule meets was not fun. You change your training patterns based on when you think you’re going to have a meet, then you don’t have a meet, and all of a sudden you lose training days. That has an affect on everybody."
About 60 girls showed up for the first meeting for spring track, and practices started last Thursday. Jost was glad that his winter runners and throwers had a few weeks rest between seasons, as the majority are planning on continuing through spring. Earl and junior distance runner Jen Gaze, however, will be going out for lacrosse.
The Vikings earned their two county championships with the help of distance runners Kristyn McGrath (senior), Navi Deol and Sajel Patel (juniors), shot putters Kim Yee (sophomore) and Morghan Transue (freshman), sprinters Lauren Broadnax (sophomore) and Sari Kaufman (freshman) and sophomore hurdler/high jumper Dayna O’Connor.
"I’m very pleased with what the girls were able to accomplish over the course of the season, and with their competitive spirit," Jost said. "They rose to the occasion each time, which was nice to see. I think this season gave them confidence in what their abilities are."
FOOTPRINTS: Jost was named girls’ Coach of the Year for both the Red Division and the conference … Earl, O’Rane, Johnson, Polk and Gaze were named to the all-GMC team, and the same group with the addition of McGrath were designated all-Red Division.