By: Sean Moylan
Even a wacky bar that wouldn’t behave couldn’t keep Latasha Leake and Heather Danley from grabbing fourth place in the team high jump event at Sunday’s NJSIAA Group III Relays at Princeton.
Together, the Northern Burlington County Regional High School girls’ varsity indoor track duo cleared 9 feet 8 inches, with Leake putting up the big number with a 5 foot 2 inch leap.
"She (Leake) came in at four feet 10 inches and blew right over that. She went to five feet and blew over it. Then she went to five feet two inches and blew over that," said NBC head coach Steve Alustiza.
"She cleared five feet six inches on the second attempt, but the bar was not set correctly and it just fell off (after the jump)."
Even so, Coach Alustiza was very impressed with both Leake’s, who has been coming back from an ankle injury, and Hanley’s (4 feet 4 inches) medal-winning performance.
"We’re happy with what she (Leake) did because she’s healthy," added the longtime Northern Burlington head coach.
In the DMR (the distance medley relay), Sara Grossman, Rachel Bumbera, Michelle Reed and Tawny Barin blazed their way to a 15th place finish.
Grossman, Barin and Allison Cooper all raced well for NBC in the 4×800 relay, but Reed posted the most remarkable statistic.
"She (Reed) went 2:31, which is awesome," Coach Alustiza said.
In the spirit medley relay, Cooper (400), Casey D’Aray (200), Morgan Golden (200) and Brianna Mannuccia (800) competed for NBC.
On the boys’ side, NBC’s Matt Dunaway (400), Aaron Rask (200), Sam Brown (200) and Ben Berben (800) gave a solid showing in the sprint medley relay, while David Reed, Dunaway, Berben and Dan Bowden competed in the DMR. Caleb Walton, Reed, Berben and Bowden were the NBC participants in the 4×800 relay.
"The girls (and boys) ran their hearts out, but Group III is tough," said Coach Alustiza, whose teams used to compete in Group II.
For the next few weeks NBC will be preparing for the Group III Individual championship, which will be held back at Princeton on February 15.
Leake has a good chance of going far as long as the bar learns to behave and stay put.
BRHS
Going into Saturday’s Group I Relay at Princeton, the talented Bordentown Regional High School varsity track and field team put all of its "eggs" in one basketthe Distance Medley Relayand it just missed coming home with a medal.
The Scotties’ boys DMR team came in seventh place out of 24 teams. Medals were handed out up to sixth place.
Nonetheless, Nickos Angelopoulos (a 3:45 time in 1200), Mike Steffen (a 55.2 second 400), Fred Mendenhall (a 2:12 800) and Rob Novak (a 4:45 mile) didn’t go home completely empty handed.
"We ran an 11:41. That’s a school record for winter track," said Charlie Miller, the head coach of the Scotties. "I thought we had a good shot to place, but they had good teams there (at the Group I championship)."
On the Bordentown girls’ side, Amanda Pone (a 4:33 1200), Brooke Bercari (a 73 second 400) and Justine Sulia (a 5:49 mile) all gave stellar efforts in the DMR, but Caitlin Ferrari stole the show with her 2:42 time in the third leg of the race.
"She ran a 2:42 in the 800. That’s very impressive. She doesn’t know how fast she is," noted Coach Miller of Ferrari.
But then again maybe Caitlin should be fastshe is a Ferrari.
For once the Scotties did not have to sit through hours of waiting. They came in at 8:30 a.m. and they were done an hour later. Coach Miller hopes everything goes as smoothly when his athletes compete in the Group I Individual Championship at Princeton on February 1 (Super Bowl Sunday).
