MHS short on depth but long on results at GMC Relays

By: Carolyn M. Hartko
   Although not at full strength, the Monroe Township High School track teams managed to make their presence known at this past weekend’s Greater Middlesex Conference Coaches’ Relay Meet held at South Plainfield. A good number of Monroe’s track athletes were marching to a different drummer on a band trip over the weekend, but the remaining Falcons stayed busy collecting medals.
   In the girls’ competition, the Lady Falcons won both the sprint medley (4:38.5) and the distance medley (13:36.6). Meghan Farrell led off the first race with the 400 leg, handing off to Ashley Theinert and Jessica Magid who each ran 200 meters. Nova Roman ran the 800 anchor leg. In the distance medley, the baton went from Liz Segarra (1200) to Theinert (400), to Farrell (800). Roman again did anchor duty, this time running 1600 meters.
   The weather on Saturday was so cold and damp that some consideration had been given to postponing the meet. However, once the decision was made to go ahead, 42 teams from the GMC and surrounding conferences showed up. Locally, only Metuchen pulled out at the last minute.
   "The weather wasn’t really conducive to running great times," Lady Falcon head coach Lew Stonaker said. "But we won the distance medley by over 40 seconds, and we were actually two minutes ahead of the next team in our division. So, we had a nice performance, considering the weather."
   In the field events, senior Lindsay Jones and freshman Megan Boyce placed second in the javelin (149-4), and third in the discus (136-8).
   "Lindsay threw over 90 feet in the jav," Stonaker said. "She had a good day in jav, but the circles were real wet in the discus, and it was pretty muddy. It was just not a real conducive day for doing great things."
   For the boys, all the hot action was on the throwing fields. The Falcons earned three sets of silver medals in the varsity flights. Tom Kowaleski and John Luberecki combined for a total distance of 65-6. Luberecki and junior Bill Baker hit 186 in the discus, and Jim Allinder and Bob Bartocci threw 238-10 in the jav.
   "It was kind of a freak thing that we came in second (in the discus)," boys’ head coach Tom Tramaglini said. "The weather was so bad, and the conditions were so awful, that a lot of the kids just threw so poorly. It was pouring out."
   The throwers also did well in the novice flights. Baker and Allinder finished third in the shot put (65-9), and Dan Winegrad and Charles Sebban came in third in the disc (163-4).
   Both Falcon squads ran against South Plainfield in a dual meet last week. The girls demolished the Lady Tigers 80-42. South Plainfield won the high jump, long jump and shot put, while the Falcons swept everything else. Theinert tripled in the sprints, taking the 100 (13.6), 200 (28.4) and the 400 (1:06.5). Christina Vasquez won both hurdle races.
   Before the season began, Stonaker had thought that the Tigers would give his squad the biggest challenge in their new division.
   "I’m always concerned the first meet of the season, because you don’t know what to expect," Stonaker said. "You don’t have anything in the papers. You don’t know what the other team has. This team had a distance runner who came out for the first time this year who was pretty good."
   The boys’ meet went the other direction, with the Tigers beating the Falcons 97-34. Chris Sardone won the 1600 for Monroe (4:54), and Tim Payne aced the discus (127-11). Another bright spot was the 4×400 squad, which took first with a time of 3:43 (Diego Delgado, Jaryd Schick, Sardone and Rob McGowan). In fact, their time was so good, that Tramaglini is looking into taking that group down to the Penn Relays later this month.
   "We’re really young, and we took it on the chin the other day against South Plainfield, but we get better every day," the coach said. "Half of our team had personal bests against South Plainfield. We’re really making a lot of improvement. We’re going to be good in the future because we have a good group of young kids."
   The coaches expected this week’s home meet against Colonia to be postponed because of the snow still on the ground. However, the Falcons will be back in action this coming Saturday at the Huskie Relays at Matawan High School.