Foster, Crawford doubles lead way
By: Rudy Brandl
BOUND BROOK The Hillsborough High girls’ track and field team enjoyed another day of dominance at last week’s Somerset County Championships.
Hillsborough opened the meet with a quick 24 points by going 1-2-3 in the 400 hurdles and coasted to the team title for the fifth straight year. Erin Crawford and Ebony Foster led the assault with two individual titles apiece and Crawford finished up by anchoring the 4×400 team to a victory that put an exclamation point on the triumph.
While Crawford has grown accustomed to winning big races and making headlines this school year, Foster had a breakout day in her final county meet. The versatile HHS senior captured her first major meet gold medals by taking first place in the high jump (5-4) and long jump (16-4). Foster also placed fourth in the 100 hurdles (15.6) to finish the meet with 24 team points.
"It feels really good to actually get a title before I leave," Foster said. "It’s an extremely happy feeling."
Foster has quietly developed into a talented multi-purpose athlete. If she’s not jumping, throwing the shot or running over hurdles, she’s usually on her way between events. Foster’s ability to excel in several different events has not gone unnoticed by boys’ head coach Jim O’Connor, who works closely with the jumpers in the HHS program.
"She’s had a very good senior year," O’Connor said. "She throws, she jumps and she runs. That’s the epitome of a true track athlete. She does everything well."
While Foster admitted that the county meet wasn’t her best from a performance standpoint, it represented her best effort in the points department. She matched her personal-best in the high jump but came up a few inches shy of her best leap in the long jump. Nevertheless, Foster went high enough and far enough to win two county golds.
"I’m very pleased to be in this position," Foster said. "I like being in the position where the coach can decide where to put me. It’s a good feeling to contribute points in multiple events. I feel important to the team."
Foster’s versatility and attention to several events has actually helped her performance in the high jump. She first hit the 5-4 mark at the Skyland Conference Championships, but it was only good for second place that day. A week later, Foster nearly cleared the 5-6 barrier. Oddly, Foster attributed her recent high jump progress to less work in the event.
"I don’t even practice it at school," she said. "That’s better for me. I wasn’t that good my freshman and sophomore year and when I practice too much, I go back to those old bad habits."
"She jumps better when she doesn’t jump a whole lot," O’Connor added. "She’s so busy with everything else that she doesn’t get a lot of time to work on the high jump. In the past two weeks, she’s stayed away from the high jump and I’ve stayed away from her. She’s coming around at the right time of year."
While Foster was starting to high jump and juggle her multiple events, her teammates provided an immediate lead in the team standings. Crawford won her second 400 hurdles title in as many weeks, completing the course in 1:04.4 ahead of teammates Jaci Pfeiffer (1:06.7) and Lauren Kloss (1:07.4).
"When we run the 400 hurdles, we always want to go 1-2-3," said Crawford, who came back later to win the 800 in 2:20.0. "We don’t really care who wins and we all try to do the best we can."
Hillsborough didn’t pile up as many points but three different girls scored in the 100 hurdles. Pfeiffer had to settle for another second despite breaking Franklin star Tamara McGill’s meet record. Mount St. Mary’s standout Allison Nesbitt ran a sizzling 14.2 in the trials and edged Pfeiffer in the finals in 14.5. Foster (15.6) and Kloss (16.7) finished fourth and sixth, respectively, for 13 total team points.
The Raiders also boasted multiple scorers in the events Foster won. Versatile sophomore Jenizah Melendez, who chipped in a third place in the javelin (102-8) and sixth place in the shot put (30-10¾), finished fourth in the long jump (15-10¾) for 11 team points. Allison Kutch tied for sixth in the high jump (4-10).
Other HHS scorers included Pfeiffer in the 200 (4th, 25.5), Jess Tsai in the 800 (5th, 2:30.0) and Ashley Uniszkiewicz in the 3,200 (2nd, 11:40.1). Freshman Eileen Cafferty won the non-scoring pole vault (8-0) and Caitlin Kosec, Katie King, Kloss and Crawford combined to beat Ridge in the relay with a time of 4:07.2.
Hillsborough finished with 102.5 points, comfortably ahead of Franklin (59), Bridgewater-Raritan (47) and North Plainfield (34). For the seniors like Foster and Pfeiffer, it was a great way to finish their county careers.
"All the hard work we’ve done all these years has paid off," Foster said. "We knew what we needed to do and we did it. To go unbeaten for four years is special. Not a lot of teams can do that."