Depth is key for Cougars
By: Bob Nuse
Everything fell into place for the Montgomery High girls’ track team on Saturday. And the end result was the Cougars securing their first Somerset County Relays title.
"It was tremendous," Montgomery coach Jim Goodfriend said. "We just had a real good day. We did everything right. The girls performed great. We had moved some people around and everyone responded."
The Cougars won championships in the 4×100 relay, distance medley, triple jump relay, javelin relay and high jump relay on their way to finishing with 101 points, which was 16 more than Hillsborough, which had won seven straight SCT Relays.
"We had so many different people do well, it was awesome," Goodfriend said. "Montgomery doesn’t win many county championships. I know this is our first for girls’ track. It was a real good day for us.
"(Deanna) Repollet was in three events, (Casey) Hartnett was in four and won a couple, Amy Lum won two events. There were a lot of kids who did great. After the Skyland Relays we decided we had to fix some things. We changed up the 4×100 a little. We put a couple different kids in the sprint medley. And Coach (Zoran) Milich did a real nice job with the shot, discus and javelin people."
Montgomery picked up a win in the 4×100 relay from Lum, Hartnett, Ashley Lubas and Kandy Givner. The distance medley team of Eleanora Spinazzi, Sharon Tompa, Tara Gorka and Amanda Herrmann won as well. The other wins came from the triple jump team of Lum and Hartnett; the javelin team of Repollet, Adjoa Quansah and Melissa Lupos; and the high jump team of Jen Carson and Brittni Saleski.
"It wasn’t just the kids who won," Goodfriend said. "We did well in every event. Our pole vaulters (Erica Gutman and Bridget O’Brien) came in second. We got second in the shot put (Repollet and Quansah). We came in third in five other events. The whole team did well. We had a great meet.
"The kids came through. To win a meet like this, you have to be good and also a little bit lucky. It worked out well for us. It worked out well."
And it worked out because the Cougars were willing to go the extra mile. Three members of the team were on a band trip to Baltimore, but got up early Saturday and made the drive back for them meet before returning to Baltimore later in the day.
"Gorka, Lupos and Manock were all on the trip," Goodfriend said. "They got up at 5 a.m., came back here and then went right back to Baltimore. That was great that they were able to do that."
It was all part of a special day for Montgomery track. One that the Cougar girls won’t forget anytime soon.
The Montgomery boys finished sixth in the SCT on Saturday with 35 points. The Cougars picked up a win from the sprint medley team of Matt Myers, Andrew Chun, Dupree Wade and Ryan Warner. The Cougars also were tied for second in the high jump relay, third in the shuttle hurdles and discus relays, and fourth in the 3×400 hurdles and shot put.