Viking track teams both second at GMC’s

By: Rich Fisher
   The girls slipped one spot and the boys rose one spot, meaning the Cranbury School still had one of the finest overall showings in the season’s biggest meet.
   Capping another strong track and field season, the undermanned Cranbury School boys and girls teams showed that desire more than makes up for numbers.
   Both Viking teams took second place last Wednesday at the 2nd Annual Greater Middlesex Conference Middle School Division B championship meet at Crossroads. Division B is the small-school division.
   "Even among the small schools, we’re small," coach Jay Gilligan said. "We’re by far the smallest school in the meet and they just did an outstanding job."
   It’s the second straight strong GMC showing by the Vikings, as the girls finished first last year and the boys finished third.
   This year, the Vikings took home over 25 medals and ribbons for finishing first through sixth place. There were 12 schools represented, and in Division B the boys finished behind South River while the girls were second to Carteret.
   Highlights for the boys team included a first-place finish in the mile by Matt Chester, while Marcus French and Albert Lam helped spark a second-place finish by the 4×100 relay team. Corey Marsh finished third in the 800, French was second in the 100 and Lam was third in the 400.
   For the girls, Susanne Hanson won the mile, while Olivia Johnston, Maggie Bleach and Liz O’Grady took 1-2-4 in the 800. Stephanie Grubb and Chelsea Wittman were 4-6 in the shot, Adrienne Casimir was sixth in the 200 while Zara Stasi had a top-three finish in the 400.
   "Susanne Hanson had the meet record for about two minutes before a kid from the larger division ran it and broke it," Gilligan said. "We didn’t have the discus, high jump or long jump because of the rain, and that kind if killed us. I think the high jump definitely would have been a strength."
   The meet capped another strong season by the Vikings, who will say goodbye to 8th-graders Zeke Abuhoff, Kaitlyn Battista, Steve Barbano, Katie Burke, Sarah Casey, Chester, French, Grubb, Hanson, DaQuan Hester, Jacob Irving, Emily Kotowski, Lam, Adam Lawrence, Ross McDonald, Mike Manning, Mike Mikula, Danica Presepe, Wittman.
   Seventh-graders who should return next season include Shaye Bechnia, Luke Brunskill, Kyle DeBlois, Erin Hawes, Tom Hellstern, Erin Holswade, Sam Hurt, Johnston, Nick Liu, Patrick Long, Abby Miller, Stasi, Vivian Sun, Bob Venanzi, Sam Venanzi and Kyle Walsh.
   Sixth-graders who Gilligan hopes will be back are Brigitt Boschitsch, Bleach, Ria Brij, Katie Carreno, Casimir, Nayir Chowdhury, Alexandra Coumbis, Chris Dunnett, Reva Geier, Joseph Giacalone, Patrick Hoerner, Nicholas Hughes, Rachel Hyman, Sam Kotowski, Matthew Lennon, O’Grady, Maddy O’Meara, Keith Pelcher, Dario Presepe, Dana Sahli, Anna Shea and Kelli White.
   "I thought it was a tremendous season," Gilligan said. "All the kids improved, they all did their personal best and they all worked hard."
SOFTBALL
   Despite a four-game losing streak to end the year, the Vikings completed the best season in their brief history with a 4-7 record.
   In the first two years of the program, Cranbury had a combined two wins.
   "I think overall they improved from last year," coach Leigh Zink said. "Each year they’ve gotten better and I think this was a better team defensively than I’ve had in the past.
   "They worked hard together, they worked hard for each other. It was a good season."
   A big reason for that was pitcher Dylan Zink, who pitched every game and compiled a 3.39 earned run average. Zink averaged nearly two strikeouts per inning with 137 K’s in 70 innings pitched. She walked only 23, giving her a strikeout to walk ratio of better than 6-to-1.
   "I think she had a tremendous season," Leigh Zink said. "If you compare what she did from the year before, with walks and strikeouts, she had a fabulous year."
   Dylan Zink will again play summer ball with the West Windsor Wildcats, who have already played three tournaments. Zink may also join several teammates in workouts with Princeton High coach Steve Eisenstein.
   "He has offered our eighth grade girls the chance to play in summer or fall weekends with them," Leigh Zink said. "It works to his advantage to see the girls before tryouts and it helps our girls who want to play for high school."
   Several girls have signed up for the sessions, including Zink, Katie Lindberg, Amy Jacobi, Megan Palagyi, Amanda Santa Maria and Ellie van der Veken.
   Jacobi was the team’s leading hitter this year with a .438 average. Lisa Faraci was second at .351, followed by Santa Maria (.333), Zink (.258), van der Veken (.250), Laura Mawn (.240) and Lindberg (.219). While Lindberg did not have a high average, it was not bad considering it was her first year of playing softball. Zink led in RBI with six, while Faraci and Jacobi had four each and Lindberg had two.
   While the Vikings will lose Jacobi, Lindberg, Palagyi, Santa Maria, van der Veken, Zink, Kelly Wright and Erin Hoerner, there are still some talented players returning. Mawn is the team’s lone 7th-grader, and a group of strong 6th-graders included Faraci, Kim Wright, Jessica Charwin and Chelsea Persons.
   Zink feels the program is more stable than it was when she started three years ago, and much of that has to do with the Cranbury-Plainsboro Little League.
   "There are more girls playing it now," the coach said. "I think they’re practicing harder and the league is teaching fundamentals and skills of the game at a younger age. There are some good kids coming up."