Maloney, O’Connor star in throws
By: Rudy Brandl
Fans who sat in the bleachers and watched the running events at last Thursday’s Skyland Conference Track and Field Championships had no idea what was really happening in the girls’ competition.
It looked like Ridge, Montgomery and Franklin were putting on a show. While the three Somerset County schools combined to win all but one event on the track, none could disrupt Hillsborough’s dominance in the weight events.
The HHS girls entered the meet looking to avenge an unexpected loss to Montgomery at the Somerset County Relays in April and a runner-up finish to Franklin in last year’s conference meet. Thanks to a clean sweep of first places in the weight events, the Raiders captured the Skyland title.
Hillsborough trailed virtually the entire meet but piled up points in bunches with some big-time performances in the field. With the three throwing areas located on the outskirts of the stadium field, very few fans actually witnessed the brilliance of the Raider throwers.
"We know what we have to do," said HHS junior Colleen Maloney, who led the team with two gold medals. "People don’t watch us a lot, but field events are our strongest area. We know we have to do our best."
There was a little extra attention in the discus area at the end of the meet. The HHS girls, fresh off a big victory in the 4×400 relay, needed six points to overtake Montgomery for first place. All other events had been tabulated, so the outcome of the meet was decided in the discus.
HHS head coach Rich Refi smiled as he walked over and received word that all three of his athletes had qualified for the finals. Maloney remained in first place and actually improved upon her personal-best throw to hit 121-3 in the second attempt of the finals. Taryn O’Connor (102-1) missed completing a 1-2 finish by eight inches but settled for third.
Those 16 team points were more than enough to propel the HHS girls to the Skyland Conference title with 88½ points. Montgomery (78) and Ridge (76) fell just short but will come after Hillsborough again at today’s Somerset County Championships.
"After we lost the county relays, it got our team morale down," Maloney said. "We lost this meet last year to Franklin. It’s a good feeling to be conference champs again."
Maloney and O’Connor led the way back to the winner’s circle. Each Raider threw a personal-best to win their events. Maloney tied a meet record with a monster 126-8 heave to win the javelin, while O’Connor continued her pursuit of the 40-foot mark with a winning shot put throw of 39-2¼.
"It’s an awesome feeling," Maloney said. "I wanted to get first in the discus and the javelin."
O’Connor hit her personal-best shot put mark on her second attempt of the first round. That distance stood up for first place, while teammate Ingrid Berrio finished second (38-7¾) almost five feet in front of anyone else in the field.
"It feels good," O’Connor said. "It’s nice to get the recognition, but it’s a team victory. We just wanted to do our best. We put our hearts into it."
O’Connor’s looking forward to hitting 40 feet and beyond. She knows she’s capable of longer distances.
"I still can improve on a few faults," she said. "We have a great group of coaches that spend a lot of 1-on-1 time with the throwers."
Maloney and O’Connor praised the work of longtime weights coach Gene Kruczek and fellow assistant Chris Guglielmo, who watched in delight as their pupils set personal-bests in a big meet.
"It’s a good time for them to be peaking," Kruczek said. "We haven’t had a competition in over two weeks, but they came out and they were ready to perform. They’re a very focused, hard-working group of kids."
Hillsborough’s only win on the track came in the 4×400, where Stephanie Ogrodnick, Eileen Cafferty, Yeneisha Warrick and Ebony Jones combined to beat Franklin in 4:06.83. That helped ease the pressure on the discus throwers.
Warrick had a productive day on the track, placing fourth in the 100 (12.04), sixth in the 200 (26.58) and second in the 400 (58.06). Other HHS scorers were Jones in the 100 hurdles (3rd, 16.26) and 400 hurdles (5th, 1:07.49), Cafferty in the 800 (4th, 2:24.10) and pole vault (tie 6th, 8-6) and Robin Friedman in the pole vault (2nd, 11-0) and Maloney in the shot put (6th, 32-9½).

