Young, Arango come through in clutch
By: Rudy Brandl
FLEMINGTON Hillsborough High triple jumpers Melissa Arango and Ebony Young knew what they had to do. With the Skyland Conference Relays team championship hanging in the balance, they got the job done.
Arango and Young expected to win the event, but they probably didn’t think those 10 points awarded for first place would make the difference for their team. Neither HHS standout athlete was nervous when head coach Rich Refi came over to the triple jump area and gave his instructions. Refi never hesitated about letting his girls know about the situation in the team race and they responded with a meet record performance.
"They can handle it," Refi said. "Look at what they jumped."
Young set a new personal record with a huge effort of 36 feet, 3¾ inches. Arango was right there at 36-1¼ to make a combined distance of 72-5, which shattered the old mark by over 4 feet.
"We knew it was an important event to decide the meet," Arango said. "It was definitely a challenge to stay loose. You have to cool down, warm up, and stretch. We had to be prepared for this."
Young fouled on her first attempt but assistant coach Tierra Hicks was right there to provide instructions. Right after taking some advice from Hicks, Young soared to her best jump ever.
"She told me to move back and look at the board," Young said. "Then I ended up with a p-r (personal record)."
Although she’s just a sophomore, Young enjoyed the challenge issued by Refi prior to the event.
"We were down by two so we needed to get first place," Young said. "We knew we were the two best triple jumpers, but we just had to do it. It gave me more motivation. It made me really want to do it."
"They showed a lot of character," Refi said.
Young and Arango also scored lots of points. They competed together to produce 30 points, adding first places in the shuttle hurdles and 4×200. Stephanie Ogrodnik and Ebony Jones joined them in the 4×200 (1:48.5), while Erica Reiss and Jones followed Arango and Young in the shuttle hurdles (1:04.1), which broke a seven-year-old meet record.
"We did well," Arango said. "We got out and kept our place."
Young was part of another team that tied for first place. The HHS 3×400 hurdles unit of Jones, Young and Julia Bergen tied with Ridge in 3:31.2.
The HHS girls tacked on points in the 4×100 (4th, 53.1), 4×400 (4th, 4:18.5), sprint medley (2nd, 4:33.7), distance medley (3rd, 13:15.4), long jump (2nd, 45-8¼), high jump (5th, 9-2) and pole vault (6th, 7-6).
Hillsborough also collected 24 points from the weight events. Meet of Champions medalist Taryn O’Connor (41-1½), Angela Davia and Brittany Bennett produced a 15-foot victory over Franklin in the shot put (101-0). O’Connor uncorked a 120-6 in the discus but the Raiders finished second (269-3). Hillsborough finished third in the javelin (232-5).
The HHS girls scored 99 points, eight more than runner-up Ridge. Hillsborough scored in all but one event and rallied to its ninth straight Skyland relay title.
"We were off in some things, but it was a pretty good meet, especially in his weather," Refi said. "We scored more points than I thought we would, but Ridge just had a really good meet, too."
Hillsborough and Ridge will square off again Saturday in the Somerset County Relays at Ridge.