Freehold Township’s boys and Colts Neck girls completed undefeated championship dual-meet seasons last week.
For Joe Lykes’ Colts Neck Cougars, it was a familiar result, as they won their seventh straight division title and extended their winning streak to 32.
Brian Golub’s Patriots finished off the inevitable Wednesday beating Manalapan, 92½-47½, and Middletown North, 101-39, in a trimeet at Middletown. The Patriots finished the season 7-0.
It was an early-season win over thenNo. 1-ranked Christian BrothersAcademy that.
“Once we beat CBA, we got to the point where we were clicking,” said jumper/sprinter Marcus Goode.
The Pats still had to negotiate their way through defending champion Colts Neck and a very solid Manalapan squad before they could claim the championship.
Freehold Township has a very unique team, one that is built for both championship meets and dual meets. It has star power in the likes of hurdler/sprinter Dan Mularz, Goode and a magnificent 4×400-relay team and plenty of depth behind them.
In the triple and long jump for instance, it was not unusual for the pats to go one-two-three in dual meets with Corey Csakai and TylerMcKinnon joining forces with Goode.All three are 20-foot-plus long jumpers, with Goode holding the school record (22-10½).
Sean Walsh and Csakai led the highjump team that often swept the top-three spots in dual meets. Combined with the jumpers, the Pats often had a 27-0 edge in these three events.
On the track, the Pats piled points up with a versatile group of sprinters/hurdlers led by Mularz, Ryan Spadola, Bobby Searby, Jeff Kole, Goode and McKinnon. Abe Hamami, Gregg Tilley, Logan Smith, James Faith and Chris Lombardi made up the distance crew.
Max Lit was the point getter in the throws for the Pats with help from Gerard Castronova, Dan Hurrey and Ben Locke. In the pole vault, the team looked to Lenny Giordano and Scott Glawon.
In other words, in 2008, the Patriots had the answer everywhere. That has led them to the Rebels Relay title, the Freehold Regional District crown,ANorth and the program’s first-ever Monmouth County championship.
The Cougars are quite simply a dualmeet powerhouse, as they polished off their 6-0 season with a 107-1/3-33 2/3 victory over Middletown South.
Lykes pointed out that his team replaced star power with depth this spring. The Cougars have a very large roster and they used the vast majority of their athletes to win A North.
Allison Linnell, this year’s star, headed a distance-running pack that included Allie Flott, Morgan Clark, Rachel Morris, Allison Donaghy, Erin Donaghy, Brittany Hinton, Casey Corley and Alex Ivanicki, who all contributed during the season.
Kathlyn Herrick and her younger sister Karissa Herrick were the standards in the hurdles and sprints with help from Julia Tomaro, Lindsey Tomaro, Lauren Knauf and Tiffany Agalaba.
Lindsey Rappleyea provided highjump, triple-jump and long-jump points as well as the hurdles. She was the team’s field standout.
Brooke Schneider, Sheila Rener, Emily Laurence, Raquel Ioia, Kristina Kantonides and Allison Lang were the throwers. Tracey Vill and Sara Scholssen are the pole-vaulters.
In dual meets, there isn’t a weakness in any event.
Besides winning A North, the Cougars won their fourth straight Freehold Regional District Championship.
The bad news for teams looking to catch the Cougars is they are a young team with many of its leading scorers coming back.