Vikings look good out of the blocks

By: Carolyn M. Hartko
   From invitationals to dual meets, it’s been a very good week for both South Brunswick High School track teams. On Tuesday of this week, the Lady Vikings (2-0) rolled over Perth Amboy 104-27 in an away meet, and the boys’ (3-0) picked up two wins in a double-dual meet at home.
   But it was at the Huskie Relays in Matawan on Saturday that the Viking weight squad made the most noise. Seniors Yemi Ayeni and Prescott Hill teamed up to win both the shot put and discus relays at the annual meet. Ayeni, the defending discus champion from last year’s NJSIAA Meet of Champions, threw 173-9, and Hill hit 151-6 to set a new meet record of 325-3. The old record of 312-0 had been set by Toms River East in 2000. In the shot, Ayeni’s best of the day was 56-1 and Hill added 49-11.5 for a total of 106.5.
   Back home, Ayeni threw a personal best 181-6 in Tuesday’s meet, taking first place against St. Joseph’s and Perth Amboy. The boys blew out the Panthers (129-9), but the Falcons made things a bit more interesting (94-46). Several of the Vikings recorded pb’s along with winning their events. Freshman Omar Francis jumped 19-4.5 in the long jump, and junior Joe Johnson threw 154-5 in the javelin. On the track, the record setting winners were Jeremy Guzman (10.8, 100 meter dash), Coron Short (51.1, open 400), Greg Spinner (2:02.5, 800) and Steve Sample (10:09.7, 3200).
   "I was very pleased (Tuesday)," Viking boys’ head coach Wil Rivera said. "After our first meet, we worked out some of the kinks, and I challenged the guys telling them that this was a crucial week. We had St. Joe’s, along with Perth Amboy, and Thursday we have Piscataway at home. And Saturday we have the Coaches’ Relays. I thought we took a great step in the right direction (Tuesday) in regards to having numerous winners along with personal bests. I was really proud of them."
   In the girls’ meet on Tuesday, the Lady Vikings won everything except the 400 intermediate hurdles and the shot put. Knowing ahead of time that they were going against a weak opponent, head coach Brian Jost juggled his roster, allowing girls to try different events, and he also had most of the girls entered in just one thing. For example, long distance runner Amy Rhein was successful in the 800 (2:26), and Amy Lynch won the 3200 on her first try.
   Newcomers Jasmynn Mayfield, Jade Wolk, Sara MacMurray and Basola Baoku won the 4×400. Freshman Danielle Hudak doubled, winning the 100 dash and the 100 high hurdles. Other track winners were Stephanie McIntyre (400), Patrice Hendricksen (1600) and Jessie Boynton (200).
   Out in the field, senior Noelle Johnson aced the discus, and classmate Tyler Miller threw a personal best 93-8 in the javelin. Rebecca Russo led a Viking sweep in the high jump, tying her personal best of 4-8. In second place, Krista Belick cleared 4-8 for the first time, and Alyssa Reinfeldt, whose previous best had been 4-2, made 4-6. Laura Chirico had her best pole vault of the spring (nine feet), and Indira Morton won the long jump.
   While the first two dual meets have been easy for the Vikings, both squads were expecting to be tested today (Thursday) against Piscataway. This meet has been moved forward from the end of May, and SB is hosting boys and girls. Jost was particularly concerned because he will be missing four key people due to a combination of injury and other commitments, and Johnson and Morton are both easing back into the lineup after injuries suffered during basketball season.
   "We’re missing some key people and we hope that we can still represent ourselves well, which I’m sure we will," Jost said. "We just have to try to figure out who we can move around so we have people step up and see what they can do."
   While the throwers were at the Huskie Relays this past weekend, the rest of the track teams were at a different meet, the 15th Annual King’s Relays held on Randall’s Island in New York harbor. A new facility, Icahn Stadium may be used as a practice track if New York City is successful in its bid to hold the 2012 Summer Olympics.
   "It’s a beautiful track, a great facility," Rivera said. "I thought the meet was run extremely well, and we got a chance to run a lot of our guys, and just get some different competition."
   While the boys had a few relay teams place fifth and sixth, the times were not great. However, the girls came in second in the 4×1600 (Jess Engel, Megan Behrend, Tanya Gidej and Rhein), and fourth in the distance medley (Engel, Boynton, Jess Bellizio and Rhein). In individual competition, Belick placed fifth in the pole vault (7-0).
   The next invitational for the Vikings is the re-schedule of the Greater Middlesex Conference Coaches’ Relays at South Plainfield Saturday.
   FOOTPRINTS: Other personal bests in Tuesday’s meet were scored by Engel (2:30, 800), Shani Lewis (1:13.9, 400 hurdles), Jazmen Burnett (86-1, discus) and Megan Rodriguez (79-4, discus).