By: Carolyn M. Hartko
Team scores were not kept for the Greater Middlesex Conference Coaches’ Association Relays, but if they had been, South Brunswick High School would have been in the top three in both boys’ and girls’ flights.
The meet, which was postponed from April 2 due to rain, finally went off last Saturday at South Plainfield, with each Viking squad taking home five sets of gold medals, in addition to a slew of seconds through fourths.
"A lot of teams were unable to come, because of the re-scheduled date," Viking boys’ coach Wil Rivera said. "So, it wasn’t as competitive as I would have liked. But I thought overall, everyone ran pretty well. And I was able to give an opportunity to some of the younger guys to experience a higher end invitational, and get an opportunity to run and get medals."
The Viking boys dominated the distance events, winning the 4×1600 and the distance medley. Anthony Vaverka, Teddy Polk, Greg Spinner and Steve Sample took the mile relay, while Rishi Mathur, Chris Greco, Sample and Cole Crosby combined for first in the distance med. South’s other gold medal performance on the track came from Polk, Coron Short, Vince Davidson and Spinner who won the sprint medley.
In the other sprint races, Omar Francis, Jeremy Guzman, Emanuel King and Davidson combined for fourth in the 4×100. Emery Greenfield, Greco, Kyle Wadiak and Steven Lewis picked up a fourth in the 4×400.
Out in the field, the Viking duo of Yemi Ayeni and Prescott Hill again showed that they are in a league of their own. The South Brunswick seniors combined for 264-7 in the discus, a full 52 feet better than the second place team from Piscataway. In the shot put, the Viking total was 102-7 ¾, 15 feet further than the nearest competition.
In the javelin, James Gaylord added seven feet to his previous personal best distance, throwing 134-5. Together, Gaylord and Justin DelPiano earned third place medals with a total of 268-8.
South scored three sets of silver medals in the jumps. Coron Short and Sean Lease combined for 11-2 in the high jump, and DelPiano and Wadiak posted 20-6 in the pole vault. Polk and Cortney Short went 77-2 in the triple jump.
The girls were also a little disappointed that some of the more competitive teams in the conference were unable to come due to the schedule change. But that just left more medals for everyone else.
South showed its strength on the track by winning three sets of gold medals. In the 4×100, Eve Mizerak started, passing the baton to Jessie Boynton and Danielle Hudak. Stephanie McIntyre ran the anchor leg.
In the 4×800, the baton went from Lauren White to Jessica Bellizio, then to Jade Polk and Sara McMurray. The winning 1600 squad consisted of Jessica Engel, Amy Lynch, Tanya Gidej and Amy Rhein.
"There weren’t many teams in the race, so our 4×1600 girls were basically running by themselves," Lady Viking head coach Brian Jost said. "That was hard for them to do, but they still ran some decent times."
The girls also picked up a set of fourth place medals in the 3×400 intermediate hurdles (Olivia Falcon, Falen Watson and Shani Lewis).
In the jumping events, Laura Chirico and Krista Belick combined for first in the pole vault, and Rebecca Russo and Alyssa Reinfeldt took second in the high jump. Coming back from an injury, sophomore Indira Morton hit 15-10 in the long jump, but her partner failed to land a legal jump.
In the throwing events, Noelle Johnson and Jazmen Burnett took gold in the discus (172-1) and bronze in the shot put (57-7). Johnson went on to take another third in the javelin with Stephanie Rodriguez.
"We were pleased with the performances," Jost said. "We tried to hold some people back, just having them run one event, because we had meets the previous Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and then Old Bridge this Tuesday. That’s a lot of meets in a short period of time, and we didn’t want to over-race them. So, we gave a lot of kids an opportunity to run."
In dual meet action, the South Brunswick boys (4-1) suffered their first loss of the season on Tuesday of this week, losing a squeaker to Old Bridge 73-67. That was after topping Piscataway 86-52 on Thursday of last week. Tuesday’s loss came in spite of a string of new personal records from Ayeni (195-6, discus), Coron Short (6-0, high jump) and T. Polk (40-3, triple jump).
The Lady Vikings are 2-2 in dual meets after back-to-back losses to Piscataway (84-56) and Old Bridge (82Ò to 57 Ð). Against the Lady Knights, Rhein doubled on the track, winning the 1600 and the 3200. McIntyre was another double winner, taking the long jump (15-6.5) and the triple jump (33-5). Other SB firsts went to Hudak (high hurdles), Chirico (pole vault) and Morton (javelin).
This coming Saturday, both Vikings squads will be in Hillsborough for the Raider Relays. Next Tuesday, the boys are home against Sayreville, and the girls will be away.
