Jones, Dennis, throwers star
By: Nick Vaccaro
The Hillsborough High boys and girls completed an impressive sweep at last Thursday’s Somerset County Track and Field Championships.
While the HHS boys successfully defended their county title, the Raider girls started what they hope will be a new championship streak after falling short in last year’s county meet.
The Hillsborough boys annihilated the competition, scoring 124 total team points. This bested the efforts of Franklin (84), Somerville (70.5) and Watchung Hills (56). Unlike both the county and conference relay meets, this meet was decided by a lopsided margin.
"It wasn’t a nail-biter," Raider boys’ head coach Seth Canata said. "After a couple of events, I felt pretty comfortable."
Canata’s crew really turned it on. There were many solid performances from several athletes in multiple events. Points came from expected areas as well as from unexpected ones. The meet could not have gone any better for the home team.
"Everything seemed to click," Canata said.
Junior sprinter Warner Jones and senior distance runner Brian Dennis highlighted the team’s performance. Jones competed in four running events, the maximum amount of running events that any athlete is allowed to compete in. Jones lit up the track in all of the major sprinting events, taking second in both the 200 (22.9) and 400 (51.04) races while taking fourth in the 100-meter race in a time of 11.33. Jones also led off the third place 4×400-meter relay team that finished in a time of 3:28.37.
Jones has shown the drive and determination to help his team out in any way possible. He requested to be placed in all of the events that he has run in this season. Canata wasn’t sure about Jones competing in so many events, mainly due to the worry of Jones being overworked, but Jones has produced successful results due to his reliability and competitiveness.
"Him coming to me saying that he wanted to do that is a blessing," Canata said. "I’m impressed with him wanting to do that."
Jones doesn’t just compete well, but he also works hard in practice and enjoys watching his team excel as they have in the past few weeks.
"I try to set the pace with the upperclassmen (in workouts)," Jones said. "We’ve really progressed and we have a lot of juniors on the team."
Jones knows that the upcoming sectional meet will be tough, but he looks forward to the continued improvement of his team for the rest of this season and next year.
Dennis’ event schedule was equally busy. While Jones competed in the three major sprinting events, Dennis tackled the three bit distance events. Dennis took second in the 1,600 (4:27.93) and then came back to win the 800 (1:59.39) and place fifth in the 3,200 (9:57.85).
"He’s really been coming on strong lately," Canata said. "This has been the best spring he’s had by far in three years."
Jones (21.5) and Dennis (20) both contributed a considerable amount of points to their teams winning effort. The rest of the team’s points came from several different areas of the track and the field.
All three HHS high jumpers placed, scoring a combined 24 points in the event. Dave Eilbacher finished first with a height of 6-0, while teammates Anthony Visicaro (5-10) and Brandon Lane (5-8) placed second and fourth, respectively. Pole vaulters Steve Theroux and Mark Ksiezopolski tied for second, both hitting a height of 12-6. Shot putters Bryan Humphrey (47-10) and Mike Kelderman (45-6.5) placed third and fifth, respectively. Kelderman also competed in the discus, where he took fourth with a throw of 139-3.
Triple jumper Miles Petrock had an exciting day, as he not only won the triple jump, but also set a new school record with a jump of 43-1.5. This was the second time that Petrock set the new school record in the past 10 days. He first broke it in a dual meet against Watchung Hills.
"I was so happy when I did it," Petrock said. "All of a sudden I popped out a 43-foot jump. I didn’t know what to say, I was so excited."
Petrock explained how his triple jump teammate Eilbacher has been injured and limited to the high jump event, but knows that next year should be back and forth between him and Eilbacher when it comes to the school record in the triple jump.
Like Eilbacher, Tyler Szwarc’s foot injury has limited his event load. Szwarc was still solid enough to place second in the 110 high hurdles in a time of 15.02.
Other boys’ points were scored by Fredy Irizarry in the 1600 (3rd, 4:28.67), Lane in the triple jump (5th, 40-6.5), Jason Walton in the 800 (5th, 2:01.65), Alex Szela in the 400 (6th, 52.75) and Dan Millemann in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles (6th, 59.97).
The Hillsborough girls faired just as well, taking back their county title from Franklin. Hillsborough (151.5) won the meet by 72.5 points, defeating second-place Ridge (79), Montgomery (74) and Watchung Hills (66).
"Everyone did their job," girls’ head coach Rich Refi said.
Some big performances came from Allison Marcsisin, Ebony Jones and the usual clique of throwers. Marcsisin competed in the distance triple consisting of the 1,600, 3,200 and 800-meter races, just like Dennis. Marcsisin placed third in both the 1,600 (5:15.43) and 800 (2:22.34) and took fifth in the 3,200 (12:10.48). Marcsisin is excited to be competing the way that she is in her final year of high school. The success of her stellar freshman season is creeping back and building one determined and hard working runner.
"It’s real exciting going out this way," Marcsisin said. "I’m happy to be able to contribute. I like being part of it (the team’s success)."
Jones is also having a great time contributing to a championship team. She placed fifth in the 400 (62.93), second in the 400 hurdles (66.81) and led off the winning 4×400-meter relay team that finished in a time of 4:07.82.
"To keep propelling is really great," Jones said. "I think it’s great that we’re doing so well. Everyone is supporting each other."
The throwing crew substituted some members this week but the dominance continued. Colleen Maloney repeated her performance from a week ago at the conference meet by winning both the javelin and discus events. Maloney threw 116-1 in the javelin and 118-2 in the discus. Taryn O’Connor joined Maloney in the discus, placing third with a mark of 113-9.
O’Connor also won the shot put with a distance of 38-10.5. Ingrid Berrio and Angela Davia joined O’Connor in the shot put, taking second (38-3.5) and fifth (33-8), respectively. Davia also took third in the javelin, hurling 110-1. Meghan Morley was the third Hillsborough competitor in the discus as she placed fifth with a mark of 101-1 and Ellyn Griggs tacked on an extra point in the javelin placing sixth with a throw of 86-11.
Ebony Young and Lauren Watts also had solid days. Young took second in the 400 (61.2), third in the 400 hurdles (66.93) and anchored the winning 4×400 team. Watts won the triple jump (35-4), placed second in the 100-meter hurdles (15.33) and got third in the long jump (16-5.5).
Other solid performers included Melanie Gingras, who took third in both the triple jump (33-3.25) and high jump (5-0) and sixth in the long jump (16-2). Stephanie Ogrodnik took fifth in the 200 (27.44) and was a part of the 4×400-meter relay team. Melissa Arango placed third in the 100-meter hurdles (15.92), while Ali Leifer placed fifth in the 100 (13.23) and Dana Rokoszak tied for fifth in the pole vault (8-0), rounding out the rest of the team’s points.
The HHS boys and girls hope to continue their post-season success at the Central Jersey Group 4 Championships, which will be held on May 26-27 at Hillsborough.

