Boys 2-0, girls 2-1
By: Rudy Brandl
The Manville High track and field athletes opened the 2007 season with a very busy and productive week.
Manville competed in two regular-season meets and participated in its first Skyland Conference event in school history, all within a five-day span. The Mustangs certainly earned an Easter Sunday reprieve.
The MHS boys defeated Bound Brook and Roselle Park to open the season at 2-0, while the MHS girls went 2-1 since they also competed against Mount St. Mary in the opening meet. The Manville girls lost to Bound Brook but earned a tri-meet split by defeating Mount St. Mary before completing a boy-girl sweep of Roselle Park last Thursday.
While many performances during the week impressed head coach Michelle Mongillo, nothing was sweeter than the boys’ team victory over Bound Brook. Just ask senior multi-event star Mike Knitowski, who had suffered a few disappointing losses to the Crusaders during the football and basketball seasons.
"It felt good to beat Bound Brook," Knitowski said. "That gave our team a real boost in confidence. I think we can beat just about everybody (on our schedule). We have a lot of brand-new teams and we don’t know anything about them, but we have a good team."
Manville beat Bound Brook without a dominant performance from its top athlete. Knitowski didn’t win an event, but that was largely due to the fact that neither the triple jump nor long jump was contested. Bound Brook forfeited both events because the officials ruled the runway was unsafe for competition.
"Our kids were ready to jump, but the officials deemed the runway unsafe," Mongillo said. "They had to forfeit both events because the runway was not ready for competition."
Knitowski would have loved the challenge of competing against Bound Brook’s talented jumpers. The Mustangs took the 18 free points and used them to post a 66-65 victory.
Jack Calvo was the star of the meet with a distance triple for Manville. Calvo prevailed in the 1,600 (5:00), 800 (2:21) and 3,200 (12:32) for 15 huge points. Manville’s other first places came from Leo Rodriguez in the shot put (31-3½), Matt Kita in the discus (87-10) and Chris Kocur in the javelin (121-7).
Other MHS scorers at Bound Brook included Lukasz Bogdanowicz in the 400 hurdles (2nd, 1:03.2) and 110 high hurdles (3rd, 18.4), Knitowski in the 400 (2nd, 56.3) and high jump (3rd, 5-10), Billy Demeter in the 800 (2nd, 2:21.2), Eddie Yakobchuk in the 3,200 (2nd, 12:35) and Glenn Hall in the discus (2nd, 82-3).
The Manville boys demolished Roselle Park, their old foe from the Mountain Valley Conference, by a 109-20 score in Thursday’s home opener. Manville won all but two events.
Knitowski led the way with four wins, taking first in the 400 (58.1), high jump (5-6), long jump (20-2) and triple jump (38-2). Bogdanowicz and Calvo added two victories apiece. Bogdanowicz doubled in the hurdling events, winning the 400 intermediates (1:03.7) and 110 highs (18.3), while Calvo captured the 1,600 (5:19) and 800 (2:28).
Other Manville winners included Matt Zangara in the 100 (12.8), Jason Pfoutz in the 200 (26.5), Drew Evanylo in the 3,200 (12:30), Kocur in the javelin (141-0) and Calvo, Bogdanowicz, Pfoutz and Zangara in the 4×400 relay (4:10).
Several boys chipped in with second and third places. Some youngsters scored their first varsity points, like Doug Bradley in the 200 (2nd, 27.1) and 100 (3rd, 13.0), Andrew Franko in the 3,200 (3rd, 13:54), Scott Alpizar in the 400 (3rd, 1:03.2) and David Olmsted in the 400 hurdles (3rd, 1:18.9).
Manville’s girls put on a dominant display of their own in Thursday’s 92-24 rout of Roselle Park. Six different MHS athletes won events and several others scored to power the assault.
Lucy Yakobchuk won three golds, taking first in the 400 (1:12.2), long jump (14-1) and triple jump (30-1). Marzena Brozyna doubled in the hurdles, winning the 400 low (1:17.7) and 100 high (19.3). Gabby Firak posted a distance double, prevailing in the 1,600 (6:29) and 3,200 (14:20).
Other Manville winners included Melissa Teresak in the 100 (14.2), Angelika Lazur in the high jump (4-0) and Monika Ozieblo in the 800 (3:35).
The MHS girls also received points from Amy Evanylo in the 1,600 (2nd, 6:48) and 800 (2nd, 3:37), Courtney Brisebois in the 100 (2nd, 14.2) and 200 (3rd, 30.8), Kate Harodetsky in the 3,200 (2nd, 15:52) and 1,600 (3rd, 6:49), Ashley Shields in the 200 (2nd, 30.7), 400 (2nd, 1:13.0) and triple jump (3rd, 26-7), Lazur in the 400 hurdles (2nd, 1:19.8) and 100 hurdles (2nd, 19.5), Brozyna in the long jump (2nd, 13-9), Teresak in the high jump (2nd, 4-0), triple jump (2nd, 28-8) and long jump (3rd, 13-7), Sylwia Kolodziej in the 100 hurdles (3rd, 21.8) and Marta Fabiyan in the shot put (3rd, 19-10).
Manville managed to split the opening tri-meet at Bound Brook despite numerous problems ranging from poor conditions to disorganized officiating. There was no long jump or triple jump because of the unsafe runway and the much confusion among the officials.
Shields and Firak were the only overall winners for Manville. Shields took first in the 100 (14.1) and Firak prevailed in the 3,200 (13:41). Brozyna also swept the hurdles and Ozieblo won the 800 vs. Mount St. Mary but Bound Brook runners took first place overall.
Manville’s teams were scheduled to host Hackettstown on Tuesday and travel to Jonathan Dayton Regional’s new facility in Springfield before competing in the Somerset County Relays Saturday at Ridge. It will be another busy week, and Mongillo is looking forward to more excitement.
"After the first week of meets I can see they’re hungry for wins," Mongillo said. "They want to win and they want to beat whatever they did in the last meet. I think we’ll be above .500. Both teams have done very well so far."

