Falcon girls track team rebounds with victory over JFK

By: Carolyn M. Hartko
   They’re ba-ack.
   Two weeks ago, the Monroe Township High School girls’ track and field team lost a dual meet to Bishop Ahr. Not only did it break a string of four division titles for Lady Falcon track, but it was the first divisional dual meet Monroe (7-1) has lost in several years. However, in Tuesday’s home meet against John F. Kennedy (3-5), the Falcons were back in top form, flattening the Lady Mustangs 85.5-36.5.
   "If we were running like this two weeks ago, we wouldn’t have lost to Bishop Ahr," Falcon coach Lew Stonaker said. "It seems like since the loss we’ve been woken up. We’ve been running really well the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately, it took a loss to get us out of our doldrums. Since then, I’ve been really pleased with the kids’ performances."
   Junior sprinter Ashley Theinert was a triple winner, taking the 100 meter dash (12.8), the 200 (27.5) and the 400 (1:01.2). Senior Meghan Farrell doubled, jumping 14-1¾ for first in the long jump, and winning the 800 with a time of 2:45.5. Christina Vasquez won the high hurdles with a personal best time of 17.5 seconds. Freshman Liz Segarra led the field in the 1600 (5:42.3), and senior Nova Roman aced the 3200 (12:23.1).
   Stonaker tried something new, putting together a 4×400 team made up of underclassmen. Debbie Stelmaszczyk, Anika Potter, Najla Williams and Diana Mazurek won that event in 4:33.6.
   It was quite a different story for Monroe’s boys’ track team. The Falcons lost at JFK 98-33, leveling its record to 4-4. JFK is 6-2.
   Monroe earned just three first place finishes. Senior Tom Kowaleski won the shot put with a toss of 43-9, and Jeff Jaworowski took the discus (115-3). Sophomore Diego Delgado clocked a 4:55 in the 1600. Although not a winner, Jake Langone beat his previous best height in the pole vault by over a foot, clearing 9-6.
   "I knew Kennedy was pretty strong," boys’ head coach Tom Tramaglini said. "But I didn’t think that they had been running real well lately. And I felt that we had been running real well. So, I thought we had a pretty good shot at making it pretty close today. Instead, we showed a little of our youth. We just didn’t perform as well as we could have. A lot of it I think had to do with the weather, but I really don’t think you can blame it all on that. Today wasn’t a good day for our program."
   The boys have one more chance to close out their dual meet season on a positive note. They host North Brunswick this coming Tuesday.
   "It’s a meet where if we stay (focused) we should do well," Tramaglini said. "I’ve got a lot of respect for a couple of the North Brunswick kids. They have a very good distance runner, and they’ve got decent jumpers. They have a kid in the weight events that throws pretty well. It’s not going to be that easy, but we’ll run as good as we can run."
   The Lady Falcons are a much stronger team than the Lady Raiders, so Stonaker is not expecting too much of a challenge at North Brunswick on Tuesday. Instead, the Monroe girls’ squad is more concerned with Saturday’s Greater Middlesex Conference individual championships which are due to be held at South Plainfield’s Frank Jost Field, starting at 9 a.m. Stonaker is expecting Roman and Segarra to do well in the long distance races. Ashley Maguire has not yet decided what events she will run, but her strengths are in the 800 and the intermediate hurdles.
   One disappointment for Stonaker is that a few of his best people will be missing on Saturday. The GMC meet is the same day as Monroe’s junior prom, and some of the girls have elected not to get their hair and nails messed up. But Stonaker, who has been coaching track for more than a decade, was philosophical about the problem.
   "Every coach deals with this," Stonaker said. "It’s a tough part of the spring season."