By: Sean Moylan
The Bordentown Regional High School boys’ varsity track and field team’s Donnell Hayden and Sid Tucker combined to win the shot put event at Saturday’s Hall of Fame Relays at Maple Shade.
While much of the meet was cancelled due to horrendous weather conditions, Hayden and Tucker stayed just long enough to become champs in the shot put with a combined throw of over 84 feet.
"They were the last ones to throw," added Bordentown Coach Tony Haneman.
Hayden also won the shot put event (45-8) to pace the Scotties to a 76-44 win over Burlington City in Tuesday’s home meet.
Mike Steffen won both the 100 and the 200. His 52.2 second time enabled him to just beat out teammate Dan Millan (52.4 seconds) for the victory in the 400. Millan placed second in the 200 and won the long jump (19-8).
"That was his best official jump," noted Haneman, who has seen Millan jump over 20 feet in practice.
Bordentown’s Chris Phipps had a successful day as well with wins in the 1,600 (5:15.1) and the 3,200 (12:01). Marvin Carter was not tested in the 800, which he won with a time of 2:09.5. He also ran a 51.8 second anchor leg in the 4×400 relay, which Bordentown won going away.
"He (Carter) was all by himself out there," said Haneman, who also used Maurice Mendenhall, Prince Kim and Zach Bohanan in the relay.
Steve Melton was the winner in the discus (120-11).
"We basically controlled the track (events)," said Haneman.
Bordentown knew that Steffen, Carter, Millan and Phipps would be good, but Tucker, Hayden and Melton give them an added dimension it has not had in recent years. Now the Scotties just need to find a few pole vaulters.
FLORENCE
Sophomore Justin Stone was on Florence boys’ varsity track and field coach Mike Flynn’s short list of impact athletes going into this season. Well, on Tuesday afternoon, Stone more than lived up to expectations as he delivered wins in the 400 and the 800 meter races in the Flashes’ 75-56 road win over Palmyra.
Stone ran 54.6 winning time in the 400 and his 2:16.4 time in the 800 was also good enough for first place. Stone also ran with Matt Belcher, D. J. Pittinger and Kevin Reeder in the 4×400 relay, which the Flashes won with a 3:43 time. Reeder also won the high jump (5-4). Florence’s Steve Worstall won the 1,600 with a time of 5:11.3 while Dave Jones was victorious in the 3,200 with an 11:34.5 time.
In the throwing events, Florence’s Chris Salaga was a winner in the javelin (146-4), Jonathan Allen won the discus (103-7) and Adam Pernice captured the shot put event (37-10).
While the Florence boys’ team was unable to get much done before the heavy rains came and washed away most of the Hall of Fame Relays, Florence’s Anna Cook and Arianna Williams won the high jump relay on the girls’ side on Saturday.

