First BRHS boy to take first in two events
By: Sean Moylan
Donnell "Hercules" Hayden placed first in both the shot put and the discus to become the first Bordentown Regional High School boys’ varsity track and field athlete ever to win two events at the Burlington County Open, which was held at Maple Shade this past Saturday.
No one was close to matching Hayden’s personal best 155-foot 9 inch hurl in the discus. And his 49-foot 9 ¼ inch throw in throw in the shot was nearly 3 ½ feet better than the nearest competitor. But Hayden "usually" throws the shot in the 50’s. Sidney Tucker, Hayden’s teammate, placed fourth in the shot put event (45 feet 2 ¾ inches).
Mike "Super Sonic" Steffen placed fourth in the 100 (11.40 seconds) and sixth in the 200 (23.37 seconds). In an incredibly fast 400 meter race, Bordentown’s "Dangerous" Dan Millan placed fifth with 50.68 second time.
"Marvelous" Marvin Carter finished fifth in the 800 race with a time of 2:00.95 and the Scotties’ 4×400 team also placed fifth at the Open. As a team, the Scotties posted 35 points to place fifth overall.
On Monday Bordentown competed in the Eastern Regional Relays at Willingboro and they did very well in the small schools’ division. The Scotties’ team of Millan, Carter, Zach Bohanan and Steffen won the 4×400 relay with a meet-best time of 3:31.7. In the 4×800 race, Carter, Max Bohanan, Z. Bohanan and Chris Phipps joined forces for an 8:58.7 time and a win. And the Scotties (Steffen, Millan, Prince Kim and Carter) were also victorious in the sprint medley with a meet-best time of 3:41.90.
Bordentown placed third in both the 4×100 (Kim, Mauri Mendenhall, Jon Millan, Dan Romano) and 4×200 relay (Millan, Carter, Kim and Steffen). And in the distance medley relay, Phipps, Gregg Pontious, Z. Bohanan and M. Bohanan combined for a 12:31.20 third-place time.
On an individual level, Steffen won in the long jump (18 feet 11 inches) and Hayden won the shot (46 feet 1 ¼ inches) and placed third in the discus (129 feet 5 inches). Steve Melton placed second in the discus with a 129-9. The Scotties are scheduled to compete in the NJSIAA Group 1 Sectionals this Friday and Saturday.
BRHS GIRLS
The Bordentown High School girls’ varsity track and field team competed in two events at Monday’s Eastern Regional Relay’s at Willingboro. And all the Scotties did was set school records in both of them.
In the shuttle hurdles, Marlise Hendricks (a 17.5 second split), Erin Griffiths (20.8 seconds), Stephanie Hazlett (17:05) and Tina Della Fave (16.98) combined run a fantastic race for the Scotties.
"Their total hand time was 1:12.39. This was a new school record," noted Bordentown Coach Erica DiStefano of her shuttle hurdle relay team.
Brittany Bakeman (2:27), Megan Davis (2:38), Marie Minch (2:43) and Kiley Dougherty (2:34) also got the job done for the Scotties, who competed in the small schools division, in the 4×800 relay.
"Their combined time (in the 4×800 relay) was 10:24.0. "This was a another school record!" added DiStefano.
Because the Scotties have so many underclassmen on the team, DiStefano did not bring her kids to this past Saturday’s Burlington County Open. Instead, Bordentown competed in the Freshman/Sophomore Meet at Steinert High School and it did very well.
Hazlett had a wonderful afternoon claiming first place in the 100 high hurdles (16.79 seconds), third place in the long jump (15 feet 7 inches) and fourth place in the 400 hurdles (1:11.71) in the sophomore section. Davis, a sophomore, ran a 2:33.6 time in the 800, which placed her third. She also came in seventh in the mile with a 6:15.5 time. Bakeman, a budding star, was the runner-up in the freshmen 800 race with a 2:27.5 time.
Meanwhile, at the freshmen level, Molly Napolitano (75-10 in the discus for fifth place, 58 feet in the javelin and 22 feet in the shot), Harlee Gallo (a 68-foot, seventh-place throw in the discus, an 80-11 inch toss in the javelin and a 21-5 ½ inch throw in the shot), Erin Griffiths (20.44 in 100 high hurdles for seventh place and a 30.5 in the 200), Leah Shaw (1:07.3 in the 400 for sixth place), Ashley Jaekel (1:14.8 in the 400 and 3:06.4 in the 800), Dougherty (a 12:08.12, second-place time in the 3,200, and a 2:35.4 seventh-place time in the 800), Stephanie Minch (15.98 in the 100 and 1:13.7 in the 400) and Jill Korosec (1:14.6 in the 400 and 33.4 in the 200) all competed for the Scotties.
"It was a great day for the Bordentown Regional High School girls’ track and field team," added DiStefano, whose team will compete in the Group 1 NJSIAA Sectional meet on Friday and Saturday.
FLORENCE
Although she is no longer a one-girl gang, Anna Cook scored all 10 of the Florence Township Memorial High School girls’ varsity track and field team’s points with a 5-foot 4 inch first-place leap in the high jump event in the Burlington County Open, held at Maple Shade this past Saturday.
While the Flashes girls’ team made great strides this season, Cook was only Florence girl to compete in Saturday’s meet. Known as the best high jumper in Burlington County, Cook’s primary competition came from Lindsey Walsh, Christine Murawski and Caitlin McDonnell, who all jumped 5 feet 2 inches in the competition. Cook also narrowly missed scoring in the long jump as she bounded 14 feet 9 inches to place seventh overall in that event.
On the boys’ side, D.J. Pittinger posted the Flashes’ only point of the Open with his sixth-place finish in the 110 high hurdles (16.11). Pittinger also placed 10th in the triple jump (38-1) and 16th in the long jump (18-1 1/2). Florence’s Matt Belcher placed seventh in the high hurdles (16.3) and 12th in the 400 intermediate hurdles. Jared Schuster placed 15th in the 100 race with an 11.95 time and Shaquan Virgil placed 24th in the same race. Justin Stone placed 12th in the 400 race with a time of 53.24. In the mile, Florence’s Steve Worstall (5:00.3 for 17th place), Dave Jones (5:13.96 for 29th place) and Jim Karwacki (5:24.09 for 32nd place) all did well. Karwacki also placed 19th in the 3,200 race.
"All of our guys did okay and Jim (Karwacki) got his PR in the 3,200 (10:37.9)," said Florence boys’ varsity track coach Mike Flynn.
In the throwing events, Kevin Watts placed 12th in the shot put (41-6 1/4), Chris Salaga took 12th place in the javelin (133-2) and Jonathan Allen placed 24th in the discus (105-6).
While Florence didn’t have any superstars, it was still very competitive on the boys’ side.
"We have a nice balance this year," said Flynn, whose boys’ team posted a 6-1 record this season.
Because of the prom, Florence is likely to take a small lineup of girls to Friday and Saturday’s NJSIAA Group 1 Sectionals at Hillsboro High School. The Florence boys team will also compete in that event.
NBC
The Northern Burlington County Regional High School boys’ and girls’ varsity track and field squads both enjoyed excellent days at the Eastern Regional Relays at Willingboro on Monday.
Both NBC teams competed in the large schools division and NBC’s foursome of Brandy Price, Brianna D’Amato, Alaina Potts and Kelly Stiles took the gold medal in the girls’ 4×800 race with an 11:38.40 time. NBC was the runner-up in both the 4×100 relay (Timaura Barfield, Cheyenne Cort, T’Cara Jenkins, Ariel Woodard-Stephens) and the 4×400 race (Barfield, Cort, Woodard-Stephens and Kasey Bush) and it placed third in the 1,600 Sprint Medley (Jenkins, Bush, Dionna Jenkins and Price). Woodard-Stephens also placed third in the long jump with a 14-foot 3 ¾ inch jump and Caris Hall placed third in the discus with a 62-foot hurl.
On the boys’ side, NBC’s Chris Tomori, Saidu Mustapha, Dave Specca and Michael Bowden combined to win the 1,600 sprint medley race with a 3:51.40 time. The very same NBC foursome placed second in the 4×400 race with a stellar 3:40.9 time. NBC also won silver in the distance medley relay (Dan Bowden, Mustapha, Tomori and M.Bowden). Dan Bowden, Specca, Matt Mayo and Dan Lucy teamed up to take second in the 4x 800 race with a time of 9:46. Tomori won the high jump (5 feet 8 inches) and Frank Capra placed fifth in the discus (106 feet 9 inches). But this is just a small sampling of the success NBC enjoyed as a team this past Monday.
At Saturday’s Burlington County Open at Maple Shade, the NBC girls scored 4 points as Woodard-Stephens placed fourth in the triple jump with a 33-foot 10 inch mark.
"Ariel (Woodard-Stephens) broke the school record in the triple jump which was her own record," added NBC Coach Steve Alustiza, who only took a small group of athletes to the meet due to the prom falling on the night before.
The NBC boys’ track team tallied 16 points in the Open with Tomori leading the way with a second-place finish in the 400 hurdles. He ran a 57.3 second time. Mustapha ran a blistering 50.26 time to place third in the 400. And M. Bowden placed fifth in the 3,200 race with a time 10:04.2.
Both NBC track teams are scheduled to compete in the NJSIAA Group III Sectionals this Saturday and Sunday.

