Sophomore aids MHS girls’ track
By: Justin Feil
Wherever Stefanie Barron was positioned on the softball field, it was to take advantage of her powerful arm. She pitched, she played outfield and she played third base.
When Barron decided not to play softball for Montgomery High, she took her powerful arm to the Cougar girls’ track and field team. They immediately found an event for Barron that best utilizes her arm strength the javelin.
"Last year was her first time doing it," said MHS girls’ coach Jim Goodfriend. "She was learning how to throw it. She spent lot of time with Coach (Zoran) Milich, just learning how to throw it. She got better and better. Now, she’s starting to worry about how far she can throw it. She’s a hard worker and a good athlete."
This season, the Cougars have bigger expectations for Barron. She’s a year older and that arm is a year stronger. It showed as she delivered a personal best throw of 98 feet, 10 inches to win the javelin and help MHS sweep Ridge, 93-47, and Somerville, 108½-31½, Tuesday. With the win MHS improved to 3-0-1 and took a step toward sealing the Skyland Conference Delaware Raritan Division.
"I’ve never come even close to throwing it that far," said Barron, whose previous best was 93-3. "It was my second throw. It was like the perfect throw."
The throw topped everyone’s best Tuesday. Deanna Repollet, the MHS senior who won the shot put and discus Tuesday, is also usually the top javelin thrower. But on this day, Barron was best.
"I was really excited," Barron said. "Deana always pulls us through. I wanted to help the team."
Tuesday was a good day for bests. Both Amanda Herrmann and Eleanora Spinazzi broke the former two-mile school record. Herrmann was credited with the win by officials after the two crossed the finish line together in 11:36.
In the field events, the team is thrilled to see the progress that Barron has made in a year’s time. She was warmly received when she chose to come out for track, and she’s bound to be more popular with every 100-foot throw. Tuesday’s best was just a start.
"That’s her best," Goodfriend said. "It was a really good throw because Deanna did not have her best day. To beat the girl from Somerville, (Barron) had to do well."
Barron has become part of a powerful team of javelin throwers at MHS. She, Repollet and Katie Wiseman were crowned champions at the Skyland Conference Relays on Saturday. They broke the school record with a combined throw of 278-2, almost 10 feet farther than second-place Voorhees. It helped the Cougars team to second place overall.
"We broke the school record by a lot," Barron said. "It was really exciting. I never got to go on one of those important relay teams before.
"Last year was more like learning exactly what it was and trying to do it right, perfecting technique and adding more things on to throw it farther," she added. "This year, there’s more pressure. I have to go to bigger meets and help out for relays."
Goodfriend sees a tremendous upside to Barron, who’s younger than both Repollet and Wiseman. She holds the future for the MHS javelin.
"She’s only a sophomore," he said. "I can’t see her doing anything but getting better and better."
Barron is more receptive to that sort of expectation than when she began. Barron, who also played junior varsity basketball for the Cougars, used to live for softball. Now she’s debating how to spend more time on developing in the javelin and shot put.
"I really like track and I want to be able to do more throwing events," she said. "I’d like to be able to work on it. Maybe I’ll try winter track to get better."
She’s come along quickly in the javelin after learning how to adapt her softball-strong arm to the closest track event. But it’s not that close.
"Throwing the javelin is not like throwing softball or baseball at all," Goodfriend said. "Some people can do it naturally. Repollet just went over and said let me try this. Barron, I knew she had ability. It was just a matter of picking up the technique. She got really serious with it. She throws with more confidence now."
"It’s really different," Barron agreed. "I think it helped me to play softball. My arm was strong coming in. I can throw farther than most people. It was a lot easier for me to get it down, especially since I’m athletic."
That’s why there’s also hope that Barron can adjust to throwing the shot put as well. She hasn’t been able to put as much time into that event, and she’s still learning with the hope of being one of the team leaders in that event in the coming two years. For now, she’s focusing on finding that magic that made for Tuesday’s best-ever throw.
"It seems like every meet, if I can add a couple inches I could do well," she said. "It’d be nice to match this throw or be close to it next meet. By the end of the season I’ll be throwing farther hopefully. I’m hoping to be able to be in the 100s by next season.
"Deanna can throw over 100 feet. She’s part of my motivation. She helps me out on how to throw it farther."
Barron is developing into the javelin thrower that Montgomery always thought she could be. After taking one big step with Tuesday’s best, she’s looking to do all that she can for the track and field team that embraced her from the outset in adding another weapon to an already deep squad.
"They made it really comfortable," Barron said. "It was good. I was able to do it right off the bat. I picked it up right away. That made it easy to transition."
And having a rifle of an arm, as Goodfriend calls it, didn’t hurt Stefanie Barron’s potential either.

