Princeton Packet Athlete of the Week

Lum stands out for deep MHS track team

By: Justin Feil
   Amy Lum doesn’t stand out on first glance of the Montgomery High girls’ track and field team, and that’s not just because she’s only 5-feet tall.
   "I’m not really the best at anything on the team," Lum said. "I just add depth. We have Sharon Tompa in the hurdles and Brittni Faleski. We have Kandi (Givner) and Casey (Harntett) in sprints. I’m good for relays that way. I’m able to show our depth."
   Lum, who is currently the top long jumper for the team and back and forth with Hartnett in the triple jump, defines Montgomery’s depth this year. She’s good enough to post the points that have pushed the Cougars to newfound levels of success though she may be the third-best high hurdler and third-best sprinter on the team.
   Last Tuesday, Lum won the triple jump at 31-feet-8 and was second in the long jump with a then-personal best of 16-3 and finished third in the high hurdles as the Cougars defeated Somerville handily, 108½-31½, and gave Ridge a rare dual meet loss in convincing fashion, 93-47. It was even more fun for Lum as she was on the winning 4×100 and triple jump relays as well as the third-place relays in the long jump and high hurdles as the Cougars unseated 14-time champion Hillsborough at the Somerset County Relays.
   Amy Lum is the Princeton Packet Athlete of the Week.
   "She was the school record holder in the triple jump until last year," said MHS head coach Jim Goodfriend. "Hartnett broke it last year. Amy’s my third sprinter. Our first sprinter is Givner and Hartnett. They go back and forth. She’s our third high hurdler with Tompa and Faleski. She’s a really good long jumper and she’s only 5-feet tall. She’s pretty good at everything."
   Lum found she had talent in a number of events from her first introduction to the sport in middle school. With each season, she’s become a better competitor and bigger force for the Cougars. This year, she’s made her biggest strides in her favorite event, the long jump. Tuesday, she soared a new personal best 16-6 to win as MHS dominated Warren Hills to improve to 4-0-1.
   "We’ve been doing these hurdle hop things with Coach (Mike) Harnett and I think that’s helped," Lum said. "I’ve been doing well in long jump. I had only been jumping 15-6 in long jump last year, so it’s kind of cool. Now I’m jumping 16-6."
   Lum also has established a personal best of 32-7 in the triple jump. Of course, it’s helped to remain healthy this year. Last spring was a bit of a bump in the road in an otherwise steady year-by-year improvement, but only because of some bad luck.
   "I had a really bad season last season," Lum said. "I sprained my ankle in the winter. I came back in the spring and turned my ankle in the beginning of the season. So I missed the Skylands and counties and all the fun stuff."
   Lum calls it the fun stuff because it’s in the relay meets where she feels she can show her abilities best.
   "I love the relay meets so much more," she said, "because I think our team is so deep. It’s more fun when I’m running with friends. We all encourage each other."
   It took plenty of encouragement to push the Cougars past Hillsborough, a team that had not lost a county championship since 1998. Just a week before, MHS had been runner-up to the powerhouse at the Skyland Conference Relays.
   "Our coach said he thought if we all performed our best, we could win," Lum said. "We were all nervous. I think we did our best. That was good.
   "I don’t think everyone did their best at Skylands," she added. "We changed some relays up so we could score in all the relays, which we did. Once we moved some people around, we were confident we could win. It was really exciting."
   Lum, one of the few who stayed in the same events from Skylands to counties, continued to step up her performances as she has all season.
   "She’s really come through for us," Goodfriend said. "She’s one a really good job. She did really good this weekend in the counties. She does everything. She does highs, 100s, triple jumps and long jumps. She does four events all the time."
   Lum, a junior, isn’t necessarily the most noticeable or the biggest name on the Cougars squad, but she’s one of the reasons they’re doing so well this season. She’s hoping it’s something that will continue as the Cougars prove they’re the team to beat this year.
   "All last year, Goody was telling us we were going to be so good and going to win everything," Lum said. "Then we got a good freshmen class and then Eleanora (Spinazzi) moved from Princeton and she’s awesome. He told us it was going to be our best year.
   "We want to win the individual county and conference meets this year," she added. "Next year, we’ll be losing Deanna Repollet, who’s a really good thrower. I guess we have young people, but it’s going to be hard without her. We also lose Tara Gorka and Jenn Carson so it’ll be harder. Definitely this season, we’re going to try to win a bunch of stuff. We’re going Saturday to try to win the Rebel Relays."
   Another relays, another chance for Lum to shine. She may not be the biggest, fastest or strongest, but she’s undoubtedly a huge part of why the Cougar girls are Somerset County Relays champions for the first time ever.
   "To win the county, it’s incredible," Goodfriend said. "Only one girls’ team has won, the girls’ tennis team like 10 years ago. To go from a small Group I school, where our depth wasn’t good enough to defeat them, then to Group II and get bigger. And then to beat Hillsborough, to get up on their level, they’ve just dominated. It’s a big deal. It’s big for the girls."
   Even the smallest of them.