By: Carolyn M. Hartko
For the second time in as many years, the South Brunswick High School boys’ track team is heading into a new season with a new head coach. The Vikings welcomed Wagner Marsielle as a business teacher and assistant soccer coach in the fall, and the former two-time all American and Olympic hurdler will now be in charge of the SBHS boys’ track program.
Marsielle inherits a well-established program. For years, the Vikings dominated the Greater Middlesex Conference’s White Division. They faltered a bit after moving up into the Red Division, but bounced back to post a 5-2 dual meet record in 2002.
South graduated eight seniors from that team, including the team’s top pole vaulter (Rob Cioffi), four top distance runners, and the team’s iron man Steve Folkes who led the sprint and hurdle squads. In spite of the losses, Marsielle is enthusiastic about the outlook for the 2003 squad.
"I think we’re really balanced this year," the coach said. "We’re really strong across the board. We have an outstanding distance squad, and they should be able to step up to the plate and bring home the points."
Senior co-captain Ankush Patel and junior Ryan O’Laughlin head up the distance squad, and sophomores Axel Persaud and Greg Spinner are expected to contribute.
The sprint squad has a lot of depth, starting with senior Tyrel Thompson. Senior co-captain James Promise will concentrate on the 400 and high jump, while his brother Antony combines sprints with hurdles.
Junior Nana Ampin is new to track, but his background as a soccer player makes him a natural for sprinting. Steve Guadeloupe and Emanuel King are two sophomore sprinters coming off a successful winter season.
Other sprinters to keep an eye on include senior Albert Young (also intermediate hurdles), juniors Antonio Richardson and Dee-mar-kee Aytche and Kinjal Shah (400), sophomore Abdul Taylor, and freshmen Christopher Greco and Emery Greenfield. With that kind of talent, Marseille is looking to build an impressive 4×400 relay squad
The coach is also expecting big things from the throwing squad, partly due to the influence of the new Viking weight coach, Anthony Grayson. Seniors Grant Hackworth, Luke Steepy and Miguel Benitez are the most experienced, and sophomore Prescott Hill medaled in the shot put at the GMC championships this past winter. Junior Chris Williams and sophomore Yemi Ayeni looked good in preseason.
The Vikings have just one jump specialist this year. Junior James Ivey will handle the long jump and high jump.
"We do have a young squad, and that can be a good thing or a bad thing," Marsielle said. "But I think it’s going to work well for us. Our junior and sophomore athletes are going to score a lot of points for us. In fact, we have a large number of athletes who can bring in a large number of points."
FOOTPRINTS: Before taking the teaching job at SBHS, Marsielle coached track at Princeton High School. During his high school career, Marsielle was a nationally ranked hurdler (110 high hurdles), and he attended Fairleigh Dickinson University on a full track scholarship. Born in Haiti, Marsielle competed for his native land in the 1996 Olympics, and he competed on the professional track circuit in Europe for three years.

