BY TIM MORRIS
Staff Writer
PHOTOS BY CHRIS KELLY staff Above, Middletown North’s Gia Rispoli competes in the high jump at the Monmouth County Track and Field Championships at Neptune High School on May 10. At left, Matawan’s Justin Jackson competes in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles. Raritan’s Rick Jaeger had a series of marks in the shot put that throwers only dream about.
“Everything was a personal best, and it came in a big meet,” said the Rocket thrower.
Jaeger came into the Monmouth County Championships, held Wednesday and Saturday at Neptune High School, with a personal best in the shot put of 53-8. He left with a pb of 55-8 and the county championship.
“It feels pretty good,” he said of his county title.
From his first throw of the competition (55-2), every toss that Jaeger made was better than his pb coming into the meet.
For Jaeger, the biggest test last Wednesday was how he was going to react to having ‘only’ throw the shot put 50 in his last meet.
“I wanted to see how I would react,” he said. “Warming up, I was sloppy, my footing was off.”
From the warm up to the competition, Jaeger was able to straighten things out and then put on a show of consistency with every toss from between 54-2 to 55-8.
Now that he has added two feet to his pb, Jaeger’s goal is to reach 57 feet before the season is over.
Jaeger was one of several area athletes to win county championships last week.
Middletown South’s Knowshon Moreno had a mixed week. He led the long jump competition through the preliminary rounds and although he improved from 21-6 to 21-9, he finished second to his Manalapan rival, Adam Hegel, who got off a winning leap of 22-5 3/4 on his last jump.
In Saturday’s 100-meter-dash final, a bad start buried Moreno back in the field and out of the medals.
But the University of Georgia-bound football star did win the triple jump. His 44-9 1/2 edged Freehold Borough’s Justin Frick, who had a 44-4 and 3/4 jump.
Brian England gave the Rockets a pair of throwing wins. He took the discus with a 157-11, almost 20 feet up on runner-up Edrick Alleyene of Monmouth Regional (138-2).
Matawan’s Chris MacCuthcheon won the javelin with a 170-8. Jaeger was fourth here with a 165-10.
On the track Saturday, Christian Brothers Academy’s Chris Horel took the 3,200 in 9:37.84. Horel broke the race open with a decisive surge on the fifth lap. A lead group of five runners went through the first 1,600 in a slow 5:00. Horel didn’t let it come down to a kicker’s race with his surge.
Middletown South’s Phil Detwiler won the pole vault at 13-6. He and Monmouth’s Andrew Brown both cleared the same height, but Detwiler won the title on fewer misses.
Turning to the girls, Matawan’s Zaykeyah Pitts won the shot put with a throw of 34-9. The javelin title went to Raritan’s Valerie Carney with a 130-11.
In the team competition’s CBA finished second to Monmouth, 77-41, with Middletown South, third (40).
Matawan’s girls, with 43 1/2 points, took fifth place. Colts Neck was first with 88 points.
This weekend, Neptune hosts the Shore Conference Championships on Friday and Saturday. Monmouth’s best will again go up against each other with Ocean County’s best tossed in the mix for what will be a preview of the state sectional championships that start next week.