Melendez excels with two golds, 36 points
By: Rudy Brandl
The Hillsborough High female track and field athletes obviously didn’t take kindly to finishing second at the Skyland Conference Championships. With a six-year championship streak on the line, the HHS girls took care of business and rolled to their seventh straight team title at last Thursday’s Somerset County Championships.
Senior star Jenizah Melendez led the team’s quiet assault, which produced a whopping 110 points to easily outscore Franklin (81) and Montgomery (69). Franklin had defeated Hillsborough by a slim margin for the Skyland title the previous week, but there was no stopping the Raiders this time.
"We were mad about that," HHS girls’ head coach Rich Refi said after his team clinched its seventh straight county crown. "They didn’t want to be the team that loses it (the streak)."
"We all came through," Melendez added. "We were disappointed about the conference meet but sometimes you have off days. We really wanted this."
Melendez was the team’s only gold medalist, prevailing in the 100 hurdles (15.7) and triple jump (33-7). The all-purpose standout also finished second in the shot put (35-11½) and javelin (114-1). Melendez lost the shot by less than a foot and finished three inches shy of winning the javelin. That’s how close she was to a perfect 40-point day.
"It would’ve been nice to go 4-for-4, but I’m pretty happy with the way I performed," Melendez said. "I was really happy with hurdles and javelin."
Melendez dominated the 100 hurdles final, busting out of the blocks and leading all the way. Teammates Nicole Humphrey (16.3) and Sylvia Tyksinski (16.7) finished third and fourth, respectively, to give the team 20 huge points late in the meet.
"That was a surprise," Melendez said. "I thought Nicole would be there but I was really happy to see Sylvia there. She’s been on a steady improvement streak."
The HHS girls also had multiple scorers in many events, including the pole vault and triple jump. Robin Friedman produced 16 team points finishing second in the triple jump (33-5½) and third in the pole vault (9-0). Eileen Cafferty (10-0) and Humphrey (9-0) took second and fourth, respectively, to cap a 2-3-4 finish in the pole vault. Cafferty also scored 16 individual points and anchored the mile relay.
"We scored almost everywhere," Refi said. "We scored a lot more points than I thought we’d score. I thought it would be closer."
Hillsborough didn’t score in the sprints but did damage just about everywhere else. The team didn’t have a huge day in the distance events but still accumulated 22 points in those three races. Cafferty finished third in the 800 (2:23), Allison Marcsisin placed second in the 1,600 (5:23.6) and fourth in the 3,200 (12:07.5), Ashley Uniszkiewicz was fifth in the 1,600 (5:36.1) and Lauren Van Cleef chipped in with a fifth place in the 3,200 (12:18).
Other HHS points came from Humphrey in the long jump (5th, 15-9), Colleen Maloney in the discus (2nd, 100-2), Courtney Siegel in the javelin (5th, 106-1) and the 4×400 relay team of Yaneisha Warrick, Melissa Arango, Stacey Dzvileski and Cafferty, who took fourth in 4:16.3.
After scrambling around the facility to compete in all of her events, Melendez remained modest as usual after leading the team to victory.
"Some girls don’t do four events, but they score a lot in two or three events," Melendez said. "They distance girls can’t do four events. We all did really well today. Everyone was trying hard to score."
Melendez and the Raiders will return to their home facility for this weekend’s Central Jersey Group 4 Championships. HHS is the defending champ, having won last year’s sectional title on the strength of dominance in the distance events. This year’s team looks more balanced and has a chance to repeat.