HHS boys want to join girls on county victory lap
By: Rudy Brandl
The relay season has two more big stops for Hillsborough High’s track and field athletes Saturday’s Somerset County Relay Championships at Franklin High and next week’s Penn Relays in Philadelphia.
Saturday, Hillsborough hopes to accomplish what it couldn’t quite do at the Skyland Conference Relays in Hackettstown two weeks ago pull off a boy-girl sweep of the team titles. While the HHS girls will be heavy favorites to repeat as team champions, the Raider boys are in for another dogfight.
Hillsborough and host Franklin will chase defending champion Somerville, which narrowly prevailed in the Skyland relay team title chase. All three teams have tinkered with the lineups and made adjustments to try to outscore the others in what figures to be another close one.
"There’s some strategy that will go into our lineup," HHS boys’ head coach Jim O’Connor said. "The biggest difference between Somerset County and the Skyland Conference is Hunterdon Central’s distance runners. This takes them out of the mix. We have three 4:30 milers and nobody else in the county can do that."
Unfortunately, these relay meets don’t play into the strength of the HHS boys’ team. There simply aren’t enough distance-oriented events to maximize the point-scoring potential of guys like Nick Vaccaro, Mike Klueber and Matt Lunemann. Aside from the distance medley leadoff (1,200 meters) and anchor (1,600 meters) legs, there’s nothing over 800 meters in length.
"What do we do with this barn full of stallions we have?" O’Connor said. "Nick, Mike and Matt are the best guys in the county. There’s just not enough spots for them in these relays."
The Raiders will have to find other ways to attack Somerville and Franklin. First, they’ll have to continue their dominance of the hurdling events. The Raiders defeated Somerville by around two seconds in both the shuttle hurdles and intermediate hurdles in Hackettstown.
Tony Flores, Asmor Green and Mike Barberio were double winners, while Jim Morley made it a foursome in the shuttles. Morley and Bryan Fox will have to improve in the high jump, which could be a key swing event this weekend.
The Raiders must also repeat their performances in the shot put and 4×800, where only Central ran faster but Bridgewater-Raritan wasn’t far behind. HHS will be looking to score more points in the long jump and hopes to knock off Somerville in at least one more weight event.
Hillsborough expects to dominate on the girls’ side, with Bridgewater and Franklin chasing for respectability. The improved Bridgewater girls scored 51 points to finish second at the conference relays, winning two weight events plus the 4×200.
The Raider girls won’t attack Bridgewater in those events but should rule the hurdling, jumping and distance events. HHS girls’ head coach Rich Refi has various options with his many versatile athletes who can score all over the place. Refi won’t have to stack too many relays to win, but may be tempted to go for a meet record or two.
"We’re putting people where we need them to score points," Refi said.
Jaci Pfeiffer won four golds at the Skyland Relays and Lauren Kloss helped three relay teams take first. Other HHS girls to watch include junior Erin Crawford and senior Ebony Foster, who has the ability to score in the hurdles, jumps and shot put.
Both Hillsborough teams will show off their depth and flexibility this weekend. If the athletes execute the game plan, there could be one big HHS victory lap on Saturday afternoon.
"We can revamp what we did at the conference," O’Connor said. "There will be a lot of changes, but it will be a brand-new ballgame. I hope it’s as exciting as the conference relays."