Reed’s addition helps Knights capture crown
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Sean Reed ran the quarter-mile for Rutland High in Vermont two years ago, but does not remember it fondly.
”I ran the 400 once and I hated it,” Reed said. “I just did long jump and the 200.”
After a year away from the sport, Reed decided to give track it another chance. The junior won the 400 meters in a new school record 51.28 seconds, finished second in the 200 and anchored the winning 4×400 relay to help the West Windsor-Plainsboro North boys team win the Mercer County Championship on Sunday. The Knights topped runner-up Trenton, 100-73.
”I felt good about the team’s chances,” said Reed, who just missed returning to the finals in the 55-meter dash as well. “I knew that Trenton was usually the favorite and usually won this meet, but I thought we could win this year. Everyone came together today and did their job. That was good.”
WW-P South finished fourth with 25 points while Princeton High tied Notre Dame and Nottingham for fifth. On the girls side, WW-P South was second behind Hopewell Valley. WW-P North was fourth and PHS tied Robbinsville for ninth.
”These guys have been working very, very hard all year,” said Knights coach Brian Gould. “That was the goal. Everyone wants to win. We thought if we had a great day, we had a chance. These guys performed above and beyond the expectations I had. It’s great to have these championships go along with the great work that led up to it.”
Jim Rosa was the day’s outstanding performer. The Knights sophomore won the 800, 1600 and 3200 and ran a leg of the 4×400. His four gold medals came with four school records.
”We knew as team we’d have to challenge ourselves,” Gould said. “Jim’s a strong kid. He’s having a strong season. We just put (running four events) out there, and he really wanted to do it. Going into the 4×4, we gave him a couple opportunities to get out and he was going to have no part of it. He did a great job of taking it one race at a time. He just ran four great races.”
Corey Abernathy won the shot put for the Knights. They went 1-2 in the 800 with Jim Rosa and Ryan Sleeper and 1-2-4 in the 1600 with Jim Rosa, Joe Rosa and Sleeper. The Rosas were 1-2 in the 3200 as well with Anthony Lee fifth. Trevor DeFraitas was fifth in the high jump, a new event for him.
”Even guys that didn’t score, ran bests and competed well,” Gould said. “Everyone competed well. It wasn’t just one group of guys.”
Sam Macaluso was third and Kevin Foy fourth in the 1600 and Jeff Reiman was fourth in the 200 and fifth in the 400 for WW-P South. PHS’ Drew Reifinger was third in the shot put and the Little Tigers were fifth in the relay.
On the girls side, the Pirates’ Ashleigh Delemos won the 55 meters and was third in the 200 and the 55 hurdles. Caroline Kellner was second in the 3200. WW-P North’s Trish Reilly was second in the 1600 and Emily Scott was fifth after finishing third in a school-record time in the 3200. Tamara Curtis was sixth in the shot put for PHS.
Reed surprised everyone with his four-event performance. He never expected that he’d be a record-setter Sunday. He just wanted to get through his first big meet for the Knights.
”I was a little questionable at first,” Reed said. “After it was done, I felt good. “I’ve always run two events tops. Today I ran four events, and two of them were 400s. It was my first time running two 400s in one day. I was questioning my body. And I was sick.”
Reed didn’t show any ill effects as he helped the Knights claim their first indoor county title since 2005, when Trenton did not compete with a full team. His addition helped North vault over Trenton by giving them a strong sprinter.
”Everybody knows about the distance kids,” Gould said. “This kid is an inexperienced runner getting through it on hard work and guts.
”He’s been training very hard,” he added. “He’s been racing well. He’s still learning that event. He’s learning how to get out hard and be able to hold it.”
His top performances set him up for the state sectional meets that comes next weekend. Reed will try to enable the Knights to defend their Central Jersey Group III crown. Another 400 like Sunday’s would help.
”I PR’d by like two seconds,” Reed said. “I think I just got the timing down a lot. Gould was saying I was relaxing too much in part of my race.”
Reed had to first get over the mental hurdle that went up after his experience in Vermont. It was still in the back of his mind when he was talked into joining the team by Gould.
”At first, thought I was a 200 runner tops,” Reed said. “I started running the 400 and it was hard at first. I got used to it. The hardest part was knowing when to speed up or relax a little bit, knowing when to go my hardest.
”I was surprised,” he added. “I knew I could get those times, but I didn’t know they’d come today.”

