Manville senior pushed to personal-bests
By: Rudy Brandl
HILLSBOROUGH The thrill of competition was enough to motivate Armand Fodorean to a championship performance in last weekend’s Central Jersey Group 1 Championships at Hillsborough High.
Manville High’s senior weight man showed no signs of fatigue from the school prom the previous night. Instead, Fodorean spent the entire competition on a bright Saturday afternoon setting new personal standards in his signature event.
It helped that he was being pushed by Metuchen’s Andy Draina, who twice during the finals moved into first place with throws longer than Fodorean’s best mark.
Fodorean answered each time, including once on the final throw of the competition. Fodorean, who had been trading leads with Draina by a foot or two, suddenly uncorked a monster heave of 141 feet, 2 inches to capture the gold medal in dramatic style.
"It’s about time I got first place," Fodorean said after winning his first major meet title. "It’s nice. He beat my first throw, then he beat my second throw. Then I just went all-out on the last throw. It was adrenaline and the competition was nice. It kind of pushes you to get better and better."
Fodorean earned his second straight trip to the State Group 1 Championships. This year’s event will be held in Egg Harbor, where qualifiers in the top six will land a spot in the NJISAA Meet of Champions in South Plainfield on June 8.
First-year head coach Michelle Mongillo enjoyed watching Fodorean compete. A former sectional shot put champ in her high school days at Bridgewater-Raritan West, Mongillo was proud to see one of her athletes win at such a big event.
"I have goose bumps," Mongillo said. "I’m so excited. I love that type of competition when someone beats you and then you come right back. It’s great."
Fodorean showed determination in the finals. A pair of Metuchen throwers were within range of beating him, but Fodorean always regained the lead with his next throw. Draina hit 129-1 to move ahead, but Fodorean answered with 130-0, marking the third time he set a new personal-best in the competition. Draina came up with a 132-10 on his final attempt, but Fodorean unleashed his winning throw on the very next attempt.
"It’s better that way," said Fodorean, who qualified for last year’s state meet with a much less impressive 111-foot mark. "You keep the adrenaline going and you focus more."
Fodorean would love to make it to the Meet of Champs, something a Manville High male athlete hasn’t accomplished in a very long time. Amy Cutler qualified in the long jump the past two years but she has since graduated it could be Fodorean’s turn.
"This is pretty big; I just hope it doesn’t end here," Fodorean said. "It’s exciting and I feel proud. I hope to do even better (in Egg Harbor)."
MHS weights coach George Zevan plans another solid week of preparation for the big event. Whatever he and Fodorean did last week worked pretty well.
"We mapped out getting to today," Zevan said. "We tried to build up with a lot of repetition early in the week and tone it down later in the week. He was rested but he had thrown a lot with repetition."
Fodorean will be the only Mustang in the state field this weekend. Several teammates saw their seasons end at the sectional level, including senior Mike Andreyko and long jumpers Mike Knitowski, Leo Rodriguez, Lucy Yakobchuk and Ashley Shields.
Andreyko was hoping to make it to his first State Group 1 meet after falling just short as a cross country runner in the fall the past two years. Andreyko finished third in his flight in the javelin (121-1) but did not make the finals. Later, he missed his 800-meter race, a strange ending to a fine career.
"I just got mixed up," said Andreyko, who admitted feeling tired on the day after the prom. "There was all these heats and I just missed it. In the javelin, I was practicing all week and I hit 140 a couple times. I just couldn’t do it today."
Yakobchuk was hoping to make a splash in her first CJ 1 meet. Matching her personal-best in the 15-foot range would have given her a shot at qualifying for the states, but Yakobchuk fell about a foot short of that standard (13-10½).
"I couldn’t get my steps down," the MHS freshman said. "I don’t know what was wrong today. I still think I did pretty good as a freshman."
Shields (12-3½) also competed Saturday, while Knitowski (18-2) and Rodriguez (16-7) battled in Friday’s boys’ long jump.
Knitowski could have made the finals if he had matched his 19-foot best. He also likely would have made an impact in Saturday’s triple jump but did not attend the second day of competition.
Andreyko missed the Friday portion of the event, which may have cost him in the 400 intermediate hurdles. He had produced his best time (59.8) in the season’s final dual meet and was improving his times each time out. Another sub-minute performance would have placed him second in CJ 1.
"After seeing those hurdle times, I realized I could have made it," Andreyko said. "I was kind of upset, but the prom was worth it."
Fodorean enjoyed the best of both worlds a night at the prom and a gold medal afternoon in the discus competition. He’ll take his title to Egg Harbor in hopes of advancing to the state’s most prestigious track and field meet.