Berezansky sets school shot put mark
By: Rudy Brandl
SOMERSET Once they crossed the finish line first in the 4×100, the Hillsborough High boys knew they were well on their way to the team title at Saturday’s Somerset County Relays.
The Raiders haven’t won the meet’s shortest event very often, but when junior Anthony Visicaro completed the victory, it was a very positive omen for a team that has looked extremely impressive so far this season. It was still early in the meet, but the Raiders were feeling pretty good about themselves after Adam Mallet, Matt Bitten, Ryan Schofield and Visicaro won the 4×100 in a time of 44.8 seconds.
"After that, it kind of looked like we were going to win," Bitten said. "We may not have the speed, but technique makes up for a lot."
The Raiders worked hard on their baton exchanges all week in practice and it paid off in a big way at the county relays. While Somerville was dropping the stick and others took time passing it between runners, the Raiders were fluid and crisp in their exchanges.
"Our hand-offs were the biggest thing," Mallet said. "In a meet like this, any team can pull ahead at any time, but I felt really good after the 4×100. It was great to win that."
Hillsborough dominated a major relay meet for the second straight week. After rolling over Phillipsburg by a whopping 26-point margin to win the Skyland relay title, the Raiders scored 117 points to pound runner-up Somerville (75) by much more. The team has also defeated Phillipsburg, Franklin and North Hunterdon in dual meets and is on pace for an undefeated regular season.
The Raiders defeated the Warriors easily earlier in the week but expected a much tougher day on Franklin’s track in the relays. HHS figured Franklin was resting its big guns for a run at the county relay title, but that battle never materialized.
"They stopped running hard in our dual meet and we thought they were resting guys to pound us today," Bitten said. "They’re always strong at home but it’s nice to come in here and show them up."
Hillsborough used its typical balanced attack, scoring points in bunches on the track and in the field. The Raiders won a sprint, a jump, a hurdle and a weight event and tied for first in the pole vault.
"It comes down to knowing we can score in every event," HHS first-year head coach Seth Canata said. "Talk about a balanced attack. That’s track and field."
As if the Raiders weren’t impressive enough the previous week, they got faster, higher and longer in some areas against a smaller field of competition at the county level.
"We had a couple of bad results last week and we did better," Canata said. "We set out to do what we thought we could do but you never know what’s going to happen out there. In a relay meet, it’s anybody’s game."
One of the biggest HHS highlights of the meet came in the shot put, where senior Chris Berezansky set a new individual school record and led the Raiders to a new standard as a relay trio. Berezansky hit 56 feet, ¾ inches to break Ken Janssen’s 20-year-old mark and joined Mo Lange (48-10½) and Brian Humphrey (44-7½) to establish a new school relay record.
The Raiders also finished second in the discus (361-0) with Mike Kelderman (125-8) leading the way teaming with Berezansky and Lange and third in the javelin (392-5) with Berezansky, Kelderman and Pat Flynn.
Bitten and Mallet led the Raiders by competing on two first place teams and two runners-up. They ran together on the pivotal 4×100, while Bitten led off the shuttle hurdles team to victory in 1:06.4 and Mallet joined Steve Theroux (12-0) in the pole vault team that finished in a three-way tie for first.
The shuttle hurdles team included Bitten, Matt Frangione, Dan Millemann and Tyler Szwarc. Hillsborough’s other victory came in the triple jump, where Miles Petrock (41-10¼) and Dave Eilbacher (41-1) captured the title with a slightly longer distance than the winning mark at the conference relays.
Other HHS second-place points came in the intermediate hurdles, where Szwarc, Matt Bitten (58.4) and Mallet hit the wire in time of 3:01.3. Eilbacher and Petrock combined for second in the long jump (39-7). Mike Bitten anchored two teams to second place the 4×800 team (8:31.1) with Paul Bernardo, Fredy Irizarry and Brian Dennis and the sprint medley unit (3:46.5) with Schofield, Visicaro and Warner Jones. The Raiders also finished second in the 4×400 with Jones, Mallet, Szwarc and Matt Bitten.
"We’re pretty confident and we know we can perform," Canata said. "Depth-wise, we can cover everything pretty well in a relay meet."

