By: Rich Fisher
The Cranbury School girls track team made history.
Maybe not earth shattering history, like inventing a live-saving serum or something like that.
But history in that they were one of the winners of the first-ever Greater Middlesex Conference Middle School Track and Field Championships.
Held at Crossroads Middle School in South Brunswick, the GMC meet was broken up into the A and B divisions. There were 600 athletes in attendance and up to 36 competitors were in each event.
The Vikings were in the B Division along with Carteret, Dunellen, Highland Park, Metuchen and South Plainfield, and took first place overall. The boys finished in third place in the B Division.
"I’m very impressed with their wins and what they did," said coach Jay Gilligan, whose team completed an outstanding season with their effort at Crossroads. "The whole program deserves congratulations for their great efforts."
Jillian Callichio won the high jump with a school record jump of 4-feet, 10 inches, while Emily Buckley finished fourth in the 800 meters with a school-record time of 2:44.9.
Sue Hanson took second in the two-mile in 6:02, while third-place finishes came from Katrina Lennon in the discus (66 feet, 4 inches) and Kim DeBlois in the hurdles (10.4). DeBlois also took eighth in the discus (62.1).
Rebecca Brunskill finished fourth in the high jump at 4-6, while the girls 4×100 relay team was fifth in 60.24. Jackie Young took sixth in the shot put with a throw of 24-10½.
For the boys team, Jon Merrill took sixth in the 100 meters (12.7) and 10th in the long jump (14-5¾). Other high finishers included Adam Lawrence (fifth in the shot put, 35-1½), Jon Hong (seventh in the high jump, 4-8) and the 4×100 relay team (sixth, 52.2).
BASEBALLû
The Vikings split a pair of games last week, dropping a 6-5 decision to Millstone in a Tri-County Conference game Friday, one day after taking a 17-11 win over non-conference foe Hun.
Against Millstone, Cranbury coughed up a 4-1 lead as coach Frank Silva said "We were winning almost the whole game, when our pitching just self-destructed on us."
Offensively, John Petrucelli had two doubles and three RBI, Clint O’Brien had a single, double and RBI, Colin Sarafin had two hits and an RBI, John Gordy had a hit and RBI, and Tyler DiStasio and Chris Fiorentini were both 2-for-3. Against Hun, Cranbury trailed 8-6 entering the fourth inning and exploded for 11 runs as the inning took nearly an hour to play.
Sarafin went 3-for-3 with two RBI, Petrucelli, Joe D’Eramo and Frank Giacalone each had two hits and two RBI, Justin Faulkner had a hit and two RBI, Gordy had a hit and an RBI and Mario Fiorentini, who Silva says "has been solid at shortstop as of late," had a double.
The catalyst of the rally was Curtis Smith, who reached base with a bunt single to open the fourth inning. D’Eramo also provided a pleasant surprise with two solid innings of pitching.
Cranbury carried a 6-5-1 record into Wednesday’s game with Milltown, and completed the season Thursday at Milltown.
TENNISû
The Vikings season ended last Thursday with a shutout loss to West Windsor Grover, as Cranbury finished the season with two wins.
"We play these schools because they have tennis teams and a lot of other schools don’t have teams," coach Lynn Totten said. "But they’re all so much bigger than us we really have no business competing against them."
The Vikings will graduate 8th-graders Charlie Leson, Ross Zebuhr, Michael Tessler, Keith Vincellette, Jill Westerberg, Youvarj Sing, Anthony Borek, Blaze Mazur, Dan Stewart, Emery Long and Justin Hughes.
Totten felt Vincellette was one of the most improved players on the team this season.
"He was toward the bottom of the order in doubles, and hadn’t had much experience," the coach said. "But he worked on his strokes and his doubles strategy, and he improved the most of anyone on the team."
The returnees include a solid nucleus of 7th-graders, with Miheer Mhatre, Rohit Gawande, Ram Yamarthy, Rahool Padhye, Greg Bredariole, Arjun Vikuntam, Sandeep Tummula, Cristobelle Chen and Drew Mazur. The Vikings will not have two 7th-graders back next year, as Lauren Passannante will attend Peddie and Mike Mansfield’s family is moving.
The 6th-graders returning will be Andrew Paterson, Desiree Young and Shabeg Singh.
"The doubles team of Greg Bredariole and Andrew Paterson were very good this year, they always played very close matches and had tie-breakers in almost every set," Totten said. "We’ll have a good future with those two.
"And two of my singles players (Mhatre and Gawande) will also be back. They got a lot of experience this year and they’ll be that much stronger. They’ll be more mentally mature and they’ll be a lot tougher."
Totten is also counting on some JV players to come back stronger.
"(JV coach) Susan Paterson does a good job of teaching them and working on their strokes," Totten said. "Some of them should be ready to play on the varsity next year. Chen, Young and Mazur should all be ready to make the jump."
