Sleeper, Wu lead boys to third
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
HAMILTON — Three local boys’ track and field teams did not have the depth and dazzle in the sprints, jumps and hurdles of overall winner Trenton High, but they did make their mark in other areas at the Mercer County Championships on Saturday.
West Windsor-Plainsboro North proved early it would be a contender. The Knights opened the scoring in the running events by taking four of the top five spots in the 1,600 meters. Ryan Sleeper, Jim Rosa and John LiPuma went 1-2-3, while Tyler Corkedale was fifth.
The 26 points was more than one-third of the Knights’ 67 points that had them finishing third overall, 12 points behind runner-up Ewing.
”We were really excited going into this race,” said Sleeper, who finished in a personal best of 4:21.83. “We knew we could take a lot of those top spots and we really wanted to make that race our highest scoring one of the day. Luckily, all of us pulled through.”
Joe Rosa was third and Jim Rosa fourth in the 3,200 meters as all five of the Knights’ entrants finished under 10 minutes. Evan Mitos scored in three events — the 200, 400 and long jump. Kieran Jones was fourth in the pole vault. Sleeper was fourth and Steve Au-Yeung was sixth in the 800. Sleeper finished his day with a leg in the fifth-place 4×400 relay, but the highlight was his first career county gold medal.
”I felt surprisingly fine going into the last lap,” Sleeper said of the mile. “I have to give Jim a lot of credit for taking the last 400 as fast as he did. I wouldn’t have been able to run that fast by myself. I latched onto him and the last 100 I had a little more left.
”It felt pretty good. I never really expected myself to win, especially the mile. I never expected to be running 4:21 by this time. It’s a good feeling.”
Barnett Wu was the only other winner for the Knights. The senior defended his discus title with a throw of 163-feet-3, almost three feet farther than runner-up A.J. Dowers of Princeton High School.
”I didn’t do as well as I wanted, but I was happy I was able to defend my discus title,” said the Cornell-bound Wu, who also placed fourth in the shot put. “I was hoping to do better in the shot, but that happens.”
With counties done, the Knights begin to shift their focus to the sectional meets that begin a week from Friday.
”This raises our morale knowing that we can do much better than this, Wu said. “I think we’ll be good for sectionals. We’ll be prepared by then.”
Dowers was one in the field events that helped PHS take sixth place with 31 points. John McCormack led the Little Tigers when he earned 10 points by winning the javelin. He was second last year.
”Going in, I just really wanted to get the county championship,” said the senior, who will continue his career at one of the top Division III programs, Whitworth University in Spokane, Wash. “I thought there was a really good chance for me doing it today. My goal was just to get all the pieces of my form into it. I’m trying to get all the pieces of my form together. I did for the most part today, but there’s still a lot of room to improve. I’m really happy there’s that much room to work around. I think I can throw a lot farther.”
McCormack’s winning throw of 174-8 was a three-foot personal record.
”I’ve been prevented from going beyond counties in both of the last two years by injuries so this year is good,” McCormack said. “It’s great. I qualified for nationals and I have a little over a month to train. There’s so much time to train. It’s nice. It’s a lot of time to develop it.”
Josh Gordon came up with one of the biggest surprises when he placed second in the triple jump with a two-foot personal record of 41-6½. He eclipsed the school record that had been set earlier this season by Senyo Agawu. Agawu was sixth Saturday.
Rashad Bullock of PHS, a senior in his first year with the team, made a dent in the sprints. He reached the 100 and 200 finals. He produced a new top automatic-timed finish of 11.35 seconds for fourth in the 100 meters.
”Tuesday, we played Nottingham and I got a new PR of 11-flat hand held,” said Bullock, who is thinking of competing at the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore next year. “That gave me a boost. I just said, Saturday is counties and I knew I had to step it up. I got in the weight room a little bit to try to get my legs ready for it.”
West Windsor-Plainsboro South finished seventh with 28 points. Joe Brown finished third in the 400 meters and Keith Griffith finished third in the 800 meters. Both were a part of the 4×400 relay that got third place, despite being placed in the slow heat. Matt Foster was fourth in the high jump
”I was nervous today, to be honest,” said Brown, who is a senior and the only member left from the Pirates’ 4×400 relay that won the county title two years ago. “I didn’t know what was going to happen. I was hoping I could at least get in the top five for the 400 and maybe even take my time down below 50 seconds. I felt really good. I thought I was dying halfway through. I got my second wind and kind of took off.”
The Pirates ran without defending mile and two-mile champion Brian Leung, who is out for the season as he recovers from a calf injury.
”As a team, I think we did pretty well with what we had this year,” Brown said. “We had a lot of guys graduate. We had underclassmen step up and that played a big part in our season this year. As long as they keep working, they should be pretty good.
”I’m hoping I get pushed hard enough during my races that I can get 48 this year by the end of the season, then go to college and get the time down even more. I know I can get 48 if I work; I know Keith can get 48 if he works and we’ll both be good for the season.”