Track team faces Bound Brook today
By: Rudy Brandl
The Manville High boys’ track team is expecting a tight battle when it visits Bound Brook’s LaMonte field this afternoon.
While most of this year’s regular season meets have been lopsided, this one figures to come down to the wire. Jonathan Dayton Regional joins the competition to make it a tri-meet, but the two old neighboring rivals will provide the featured matchup.
"It should be a good meet," MHS head coach Tony Treonze said. "I don’t think either of us will have trouble beating Dayton, but we’ll push each other."
Today’s meet was originally scheduled to be run at Manville, but the addition of Dayton forced the event to be moved to a larger track. The Mustangs were supposed to face Dayton earlier in the week but now all three Valley Division teams will compete on the same day.
Manville is coming off a 92-30 home rout of Oratory Prep last Thursday afternoon. Franklin Andreyko and Ryan Gilmore each won three golds for the second straight meet. If this 1-2 punch can do it again today, the Mustangs should be in good shape.
Treonze is also looking for help from some of his other athletes. Six Mustangs combined to score 70 of the team’s 92 points vs. Oratory, a fact which has both positive and negative implications.
"If our weight people come through and Franklin can handle the sprints, we might be able to take out some of their throwers," Treonze said. "Maybe then I can move Ryan someplace else."
Gilmore still expects to run the 400 dash and intermediate hurdles along with the high jump. However, Treonze is considering moving his senior star to the shot put to combat Bound Brook’s power in the weight events.
Andreyko has become a reliable force in the sprints and long jump, where he broke his own school record last Thursday. After fouling twice, Andreyko soared past the 22-mark (22-0¾) for the first time in competition. The MHS sophomore also swept the 100 (11.41) and 200 (23.65) to finish the meet with 15 points.
Gilmore repeated his triple from the prior week with victories in the 400 dash (55.72), hurdles (63.57) and high jump (5-6). He also finished second to his teammate in the 200 (24.44).
Junior Chris Greene took over for the absent Mike Fasano and led the Manville weight men. Greene won the shot put (41-10¼) and javelin (134-1) and finished second in the discus (99-3) for 13 points.
Chris Wass and Chris Gonzales had solid meets, contributing seven points apiece. Wass prevailed in the 800 (2:17) and finished third in the 100 (12.11) and long jump (18-6½), while Gonzales took second in the 100 (11.70), 400 (60.19) and long jump (19-1). Jimmy Noble won the discus (101-0) to help the Mustangs enjoy a whopping 26-1 edge in the throwing events.
Other MHS points were scored by Scott Kagan in the 400 hurdles (2nd, 73.36), high jump (3rd, 4-10) and javelin (2nd, 108-9), Mike Zala in the 400 hurdles (3rd, 64.0), 100 hurdles (2nd, 21.2) and high jump (2nd, 5-2), Kile Galasso in the shot (2nd, 36-8½) and discus (3rd, 91-9), Chris Nordone in the 200 (3rd, 27.50), Mike Andreyko in the 1,600 (3rd, 5:24.3), Steve Michtich in the 3,200 (2nd, 11:51) and Noble in the shot (3rd, 32-5½).
A handful of Mustangs competed in Saturday’s Somerset County Relay Championships at Franklin High. Facing the caliber of large schools like Hillsborough, Franklin and Somerville should prepare the MHS athletes for an important stretch of upcoming meets.
Andreyko and Gonzales didn’t match their Thursday totals but still jumped far enough to combine for second place in the long jump. Andreyko (21-11) and Gonzales (17-9) finished behind Somerville’s talented Gary Domanski and Kyle Calvo by nearly four feet.
"Franklin pushed Domanski a little bit," Treonze said. "After he saw Franklin hit 21-11, he started going."
Andreyko and Gonzales received county medals for their efforts. Medals were awarded to the top three finishers in each event.
"It feels pretty good," Andreyko said. "We just came in here with a positive attitude. I was trying to go all-out so I fouled on my last jump."
"It’s great to come down here and compete against better schools," Gonzales said. "Now we know we can compete against the bigger schools,"
Manville, which finished seventh in the team standings with 10 points, also scored in the shot put relay. Gilmore (45-4¼), Fasano (42-4) and Greene (40-5¾) wound up two feet shy of a third-place medal, but Treonze now knows he can stack this event at the bigger meets later in the season.