Collective effort puts Rams over the top
By: Neil Hay
Going into the season, the Hightstown girls’ track team had to find a way to replace two leading point-scorers. If the Rams were to win a third consecutive CVC Valley Division flag, somehow a collective effort would be necessary to overcome these two key departures and put the Rams over the top.
Somehow they did, and Tuesday at home Hightstown made it an improbable Valley three-peat when the Rams defeated visiting Hamilton, 89-51.
The win improved the Rams’ record to 3-0 in the Valley (5-3 overall), and made irrelevant the team’s 7th place showing in the Mercer County Meet Saturday at Steinert.
Hightstown scored 10 first places, including four sweeps, in zapping the Hornets. Tara Miluszewski was a one-girl wrecking crew when she won three events, the shot (34-2), discus (110-10) and javelin (110-8).
Yaa Genfi, Jessica Haughton and Cory Davis all doubled. Genfi won the triple jump at 32-0 and the 100 in 13.3. Haughton’s wins were in the high jump (5-2) and 100 hurdles (16.3). She also placed second in the 400 hurdles (71.8) and third in the long jump (14 10-1/2). Davis was best in the 200 (27.9) and long jump (15-2), and added a third in the triple jump (31-8). The other Hightstown winner was Karina Martinez (1600, 5:55.4).
In other results, Alyssa Trulby (13.5) was third in the 100, Alysha Obst (6:00.9) and Michelle Yaeggy (6:06) two-three in the 1600, Kristin Bircsak (62.2) and Chrissy Demko (62.8) went two-three in the 400, Kayla Reddington’s 18.0 was third in the 100 hurdles, Bircsak (2:30.8) and Martinez (2:42.1) went two-three in the 800, and Martinez (12:50.2) and Yaeggy (13:59.5) were two-three in the 3200.
Also, Jackie Jack was third in the shot (30 2-1/4) and second in the discus (102-3), Jack (67-6) and Stephanie Vazquez (65-6) second and third, respectively, in the javelin, Morgan Woroniecki (4-10) and Reddington (4-8) placed two-three in the high jump, Genfi (15-1) was second in the long jump, and Woroniecki pole-vaulted 7-6 to second place.
Afterwards Coach Don Hess was thrilled by the girls’ achievement. Having to replace Amanda Marshall (graduated) and Megan Wiseman (transferred), two 100-plus point-scorers, looked like a daunting task. Instead, responding to senior leadership, everyone just dug a little deeper and reached back a little farther to make 2006 a most memorable year for Hightstown girls’ spring track.
"It was a great season. Now we get ready for states (CJ III at Monmouth Regional May 26-27). I didn’t expect to win the Valley again. Everything belongs to our seniors, Morgan Woroniecki, Karina Martinez, Kristin Bircsak and Rachel Simpson. They set the direction of the team, and did a tremendous job keeping them in line. It was the greatest accomplishment, I think, after losing Marshall and Wiseman."
In the county meet Saturday at Steinert, Hopewell Valley placed first with 97.25 points, ahead of Trenton’s 93. The Rams finished with 32 points.
Individually, Bircsak came within two seconds of Linda Sweeney’s 20-year old school record in the 800 when she ran 2:23 for fifth. Haughton high-jumped 5-4 to second place, Jack (107-4, a personal best) and Miluszewski (104-8) were two-three in the discus, Miluszewski’s 114-10 took second in the javelin, and Reddington (17.4, personal best) and Woroniecki (17.9) placed two-three in the 100 hurdles.
There were a number of personal bests recorded at the county meet: Davis’ 13.0 in the 100, 15-5 long jump, and 32-3 triple jump; Obst’s 6:06.3 1600; Yaeggy’s 6:09.9 1600; Hannah Cullen’s 65.6 400; and Martinez’ 12:00 3200.
"We had a good day," said Hess. I was pleased.
He had more reason to be pleased on Tuesday.
BOYS
The Hightstown boys track team completed the regular season Tuesday with a 97-43 loss to visiting Hamilton. The defeat dropped the Rams to 5-4 overall, 1-2 in the CVC Valley Division.
On Saturday Hightstown placed eighth overall with 21 points in the Mercer County championships at Steinert. West Windsor-South placed first, followed by Trenton and Hamilton. On May 26 and 27 the Rams will compete at Monmouth Regional in the Central Jersey Group III sectionals.
In the county meet the Rams were unable to boast an individual champion. Mike Demko had a third in the 100 (10.88) and a second in the 200 (22.2) as the team’s top point scorer. Ryan Donelan came in third in the 400 (50.7), and Donelan, Keen Delacruz, Pat Ryan and Robert Kearn placed sixth in the 4X400 relay (3:35.4).
Several personal bests were rung up, including a 4:57 1600 by the freshman Brendan Walsh, Tom Apgar’s 40-6 triple jump, Tim Trivisonno’s 10-6 pole vault, and the 134-6 in the discus by Alat Amhed.
"Considering what we had, we did well," said Coach Jim Firtek. "There were lots of personal bests. It was a good day overall."
Hamilton followed up on its impressive showing at the county meet with a comfortable dual meet win over the Rams. Donelan won the 100 in 11.1, and Simon Gordonov, who was ill and did not compete in the county meet, won the 1600 (4:48) and 3200 (9:59). That was it for first places.
In the 400 hurdles Ryan had a personal best 60.8 to take second, Ashwin Ananatharaman was second in the 1600 (4:55) and 3200 (10:42), Kearn was third in the 400 (55.1), and Walsh’s 2:13 took second in the 800.
Also in the 800 Trevor Evans’ 2:15 was third best, Ryan (23.9) and Delacruz (24.0) went two-three in the 200, Apgar (38-2) and Sean McEvenie (34-0) triple-jumped to second- and third-place, respectively, Patrick Gray’s 10-0 was second in the pole vault with McEvenie’s 9-6 third, Zack Ahmed took third in the shot (41-7), and Joe Medici had a 139-6 personal best (3rd place) in the javelin.
"I was not disappointed," said Firtek of the result. "We knew Hamilton was good coming in. We are not as deep as we had been in the past and Hamilton got really deep."