Hopewell Valley indoor track
By: Jim Green
The meet is called the Group II Individual Championships for a reason just ask the Hopewell Valley Central High School girls indoor track team. Despite having six athletes advance to the Meet of Champions with top-six finishes, the Lady Bulldogs finished third in the group team standings, behind two teams with only two point-scorers apiece Sunday at Princeton University’s Jadwin Gym.
Hopewell, which won the team title last season and captured the Group II Relays team championship last week, finished with 26 team points, while Pleasantville (42) and Rahway (33) took first and second, respectively.
"From the big picture, your first goal is to be in the top six and advance to the Meet of Champions," Hopewell coach Aaron Oldfield said. "We had six different athletes do that some did it in numerous events. That was a very nice showing. Just getting to the Meet of Champions is an accomplishment in itself. Looking at it from that standpoint, it’s a great day."
Miriam Khan and Julie Alexander finished fifth and sixth, respectively, to advance in the 200-meter dash, Alexander took fifth in the 400, Megan Fitzpatrick was fifth in the 1,600 and third in the 3,200, and Clare Buck was sixth in the 3,200. Khan was fourth in the 55 hurdles, Abby Harris-Shea was fourth in the high jump, and Kristen Volpe was fourth in the pole vault. On the boys side, Paul Wagner was fourth in the shot put, and Matt Hilderbrandt qualified for the Meet of Champions as a wild card in the 1,600.
"We got a lot of fourth-, fifth- and sixth-place finishes," Oldfield said. "To win a state championship, you have to get first, second and thirds. The two teams that beat us only had two girls, but they got first, second and thirds. All in all, it was a great day. We’re very happy."
Still, Oldfield admitted it was frustrating that his squad had the superior depth and probably was the best ‘team’ in the group.
"That’s the one bad thing about our sport at the state level," he said. "It’s not a true indicator of who is the best team. We’re a much deeper team than those teams. That’s why the relays are a better indicator of a true team championship.
"It’s frustrating, but you know that going in. We have six athletes to their two, but what can you do? That’s how they run the meet."
Because of those rules, the Lady Bulldogs realized they might be in a disadvantage at the group meet. So they didn’t make a big deal about chasing the team title this season.
"We didn’t really hype up that meet, because we knew the meet favors sprinters more than anything else," Oldfield said. "We knew that was going to be a hurdle we were going to have to get over. We knew there were four or five great sprinters in there. We didn’t play it up too much. The main point was getting as many kids as possible in the top six. Maybe it’s because we won the relay title before it wasn’t talked about that much."
The Lady Bulldogs now will prepare to make a run at the Mercer County Championships team title. The meet will be held Sunday at Widener University (Pa.).
"Trenton and Notre Dame are going to be very tough," Oldfield said. "But I think it’s definitely achievable. Any time you have that, we’re going to go after it."
The eight Hopewell athletes that advanced then will get ready for the Meet of Champions, which will take place Feb. 12 at Jadwin.
"The Meet of Champions is not a scoring meet," Oldfield said. "We’ll let the kids go out and have the best individual performances they can. It’s chance for them to go out and have fun and hopefully do the best they can."