BRHS’s sprint medley, 4×800 win Willingboro relay races

By: Sean Moylan
   A Few crackles of thunder and bolts of lightning caused officials at Willingboro to move their relay games from Saturday to Monday afternoon.
   Sometime that weekend Rob "Super" Novak had his car broken into which left the usually mild-mannered Bordentown track star in a rare bad mood.
   Seeing her son upset, Beryl Erickson told Rob to take his anger out on the track. And on Monday afternoon he did just that.
   Novak ran a tremendous 1:53 split time in the 800 to lead Bordentown’s sprint medley relay team to a victory. "Ever Ready" Freddie Mendenhall, "Marvelous" Marvin Carter and Mike "The Meter Man" Steffen were Novak’s partners in the win.
   Novak, along with Steve "Turbo" Turgyan, Mendenhall and Carter also took gold in the 4×800.
   "I took it easy in that one…I ran a 2:01," joked Novak.
   While Bordentown’s 4×400 relay team, which also featured Novak, placed third overall, it set a school record with a 3:23 time. Mendenhall, Carter and Steffen ran in the race too.
   The Bordentown relay winners all won black watches to go along with all of the gold watches they’re won over the years at the Woodbury Relays.
   On Wednesday (April 20), Holy Cross beat Bordentown going away (106-19) in a regular season meet.
   "Holy Cross is a strong team. They have very good throwers and jumpers. They were beating us at our weak spots," said Novak, who placed second in the high jump and first in the 1600.
   The Scotties even struggled in some of their strong spots as Novak felt a sharp pain in his shin and had to bow out of the 3200.
   Cinnaminson beat Bordentown, 78-53, in a meet at Bordentown on Tuesday. Nonetheless, Novak won a great battle with Steve Grebowski (4:29) to capture the top honors in the 1600. Novak’s time was a sparkling 4:27. He also won the high jump (5 feet 6 inches) and placed third in the log jump. Of course, Novak, Mendenhall, Carter and Turgyan won the 400 with a great time of 51.5 seconds. Steffen captured the 200 and Turgyan placed first in the 800.
   Novak, Turgyan, Mendenhall and Carter will compete in the 4×800 at the Penn Relays on Friday. On Saturday, Novak, Steffen, Mendenhall and Carter will run in the 4×400 at the Penn Relays.
   FLORENCE



   Both Florence Township Memorial High School varsity track and field teams rode strong field units to post decisive wins over McCorristin last Wednesday (April 20).
   Rodney Roberson’s girls’ team won a 77-39 decision to finally get in the win column.
   Anna Cook, for one, stepped up and took charge in the high jump event with a leap of 4 feet 10 inches.
   "Anna Cook…she always excels," said Roberson.
   "Overall, on that day, everybody had personal bests.
   "It (the win) was great. The girls couldn’t have been more happy."
   Meanwhile, Florence’s Katie Eells won the javelin (89 feet 1 inch), Christina Doub won the discus (72 feet 4 inches) and Justine Wychoff captured the shot put event (24 feet 9 inches).
   On the boys’ side, the Flashes had similar success jumping and throwing as they pulverized the Iron Mikes, 98-20.
   Andrew Cipriano posted a 108 foot 1 inch winning toss in the discus while Kyle Shafer was a victor in the javelin (135 feet 2 ½ inches) and Joe Fitzpatrick captured first in the shot (40 feet 6 inches). Abree Jones won the high jump (5 feet 8 inches). Roberson, who does a tremendous job coaching both throwing teams, (with help from the boys’ coach Mike Flynn) is careful not to take all the credit for the success of his throwers.
   "I had a great mentor. Ron Luyber (of Florence football fame)…he was my track coach. He taught me everything I know," said a humble Roberson.
   Of course, a team needs to be well-balanced in several areas to win a meet. And the Flashes’ distance runner on the girls’ side certainly did their job as Tiffany Salaga won the mile (7:42) and Dana Lubrano won the 3200 (15:51). The Flashes’ 4×400 relay team (Kristen Wright, Cheryl Jiras, Rebecca Wright and Christina Piechota) also was a winner.
   On the boys’ side Flynn’s kids dominated to improve their record to 3-0. In addition to the field wins, master sprinter Zach Rinaldi recorded first place finishes in the 100 (11.3 seconds) and 200 (24.1 seconds). D.J. Pittinger was the winner in the 110 hurdles (16.6 seconds) and the 400 hurdles (1:11). Meanwhile Joe Laureti won the 1600 (6:08) and Jim Karwacki took the 3200 (13:06). The Florence 4×400 relay team also won.
   While Florence always seems to have great throwers, this year it has depth in other areas. The boys’ are well-balanced and strong while the girls are developing great athletes like Cook and Salaga.
   Florence will be off this week because of the Senior Class Trip.