Track and field
By: Jim Green
The Hopewell Valley Central High School girls track team would have been satisfied with the experience of competing in the Penn Relays.
The Lady Bulldogs’ performance at the prestigious event, though, made that experience unforgettable.
Hopewell Valley’s squad of seniors Sarah Seiler, Jessie Pall and Kate Willever and sophomore Natalie Mapp placed sixth in a field of 15 teams in the high school girls distance medley relay Championship of America with a time of 12:12.75 last Thursday evening at the University of Pennsylvania.
The Lady Bulldogs last season finished 10th in the Penn Relays distance medley relay final at 12:29.93.
"We probably could have run little better," Hopewell Valley girls winter track coach Aaron Oldfield said. "But being sixth in a championship race is pretty good."
Oldfield believes his team benefited greatly from having been to the Penn Relays before.
"I think just being there, having the experience did wonders for us," he said. "Mentally, going in there, they (the Lady Bulldogs) felt they were ready."
Senior Dave Rout of the Hopewell Valley boys track team took eighth in the javelin final with a distance of 178-10.
The Hopewell Valley coaching staff gave some of their less experienced runners an opportunity to compete in the other two events the team qualified for, the girls 4×100-meter relay and the girls 4×400 relay.
Senior Kristen Avagliano, sophomores Rachel Hochkiss and Emily Palombo and freshman Emily Sherrard comprised the Lady Bulldogs 4×100 team, which nearly finished fifth in its heat with a time of 53.91 seconds. However, the Lady Bulldogs were disqualified from the event for an unsuccessful handoff.
The Hopewell Valley 4×400 team was made up of Sherrard, Avagliano, Palombo and senior Kristen Mapp. That group took 10th in its heat at 4:18.26.
"Those younger kids got a tremendous amount of experience," Oldfield said.
While the freshmen and sophomores will have more opportunities to compete at the Penn Relays as high school athletes, Oldfield hopes to see his outgoing seniors return to the event as collegiate track stars. Seiler is headed to Lehigh University, Willever will be attending the College of William and Mary and Pall is going to Yale University.
"Hopefully, those three seniors will be back there (at the Penn Relays)," Oldfield said.
After the Lady Bulldogs finished their races, they watched former Hopewell Valley star Laura Petrillo compete for Princeton University. Petrillo, a Hopewell Valley class of 2000 graduate, took third in the steeplechase at 10:54.10.
"It (watching Petrillo run) was very exciting," Oldfield said. "She’s a great kid. She’s done so much for our program. Words can’t describe how proud I am of her."
The track team last competed in a dual meet April 16 against West-Windsor Plainsboro North. Hopewell Valley swept the meet, with the girls winning 78-44 and the boys prevailing 81-50. Both squads improved to 3-0 on the season.
The Lady Bulldogs took first in 11 out of 14 events, with Natalie Mapp, Pall and Lauren Manley all double winners. The boys had 10 first-place finishes, with multiple victories coming from Nick Wright, Kent Long and David Rout.
The Hopewell Valley track team will split up this weekend, with the boys team and the girls team competing in different invitational meets. The girls will take part in the Ike Wills Invitational at Rowan University on Friday and Saturday, while the boys will head to the Bernards Invitational on Saturday morning at Bernards High School.
"It’s going to be a long weekend," Oldfield said. "But it’ll be fun."

