By: Sean Moylan Sports Writer
For Robbinsville High senior Amber Scott, the hardest part of earning a medal in this past Saturday’s NJSIAA Indoor Meet of Champions at the Bennett Athletic Center was just qualifying for the finals of the 55-meter hurdles.
“She (Scott) was the last qualifer in the finals. She made it into the finals by just one-hundredth of a second (over Azudei Duboius),” said Robbinsville head varsity winter track coach Mike Walker.
Scott recorded an 8.50 second time in the preliminaries, which barely just edged out Azudei Duboius’ 8.51 second mark. Then Scott made the most of her golden opportunity by posting an 8.40 second fifth-place time in the finals. Randolph’s Briana Felhaus won that event with an incredible 8.12 time.
After such a close call in the prelims, Walker was very grateful to see his senior star come away with any Meet of Champion hardware and he commented, “For Amber Scott to medal in the Meet of Champions is great. She (had a personal record) in the finals. There was a little bit of luck involved, but she deserved it.”
Going into Saturday’s event Scott, who was scheduled to have competed in the 55-meter dash in this past Tuesday night’s Coed Varsity Indoor Track Eastern State Championships at the New York City Armory and will later compete at Nationals, was coming off a Group I title in the 55-meter hurdles where she blew away the rest of the field. Based on her Group I final performance alone, Walker knew Scott had a decent chance of earning a medal on Saturday. But the way she earned it was both exciting and positively heroic.
Scott had also qualified for the Meet of Champions in the 55-meter dash, but Walker held her out of that event so she could focus on the hurdles, which turned out to be a great decision. Nevertheless, Scott did take second place in the 55-meter dash at last week’s Group I finals.
Robbinsville sophomore Meagan Lesniak ran a 12:11.88 time in the 3,200 meter race on Saturday. That time placed Lesniak 15th in Section I and 32nd overall.
“In the Group One finals last week she (had a personal record of 11:57.91) and placed sixth overall,” added Walker, who was very pleased with Lesniak’s overall winter season.
On the boys’ side, for three-
quarters of the 3,200 meter race, Nick Lachman looked like he would earn the Ravens their second medal of the day. But the top runners in the field exploded in the last half mile and Lachman had to settle for a very respectable 9:39.79 time and 16th place overall.
“The way he (Lachman) was moving made it was very exciting for us,” said Walker. “Nick, with 800 meters to go, was in a medal position and the guy he was running side-by-side with much of the race ended up finishing third.”
In the Group I finals the previous week, Lachman had posted a blistering 9:30.52 time to win the 3,200 meter championship.
“That was Nick’s first Group I title after all of those close (sometimes split second) calls,” noted Walker. “I was hoping he’s ride that high for the whole week (and through the Meet of Champions) and it almost worked out.”
Furthermore, Lachman has qualified for the Nationals in the 3,200 meter race and so has his Robbinsville teammate Megan Flynn.
A couple of weeks ago, Flynn earned headlines with a pair of meet record-winning times in the mile and two-mile races at the Group I Central Jersey Championships, which propelled the Robbinsville girls to a Sectional title. Unfortunately, after Sectionals, Flynn started experiencing some pain in her ankles so Walker wisely decided to shut her down for a week and she didn’t have an opportunity to compete for the Group I title in the 1,600 and 3,200. Nevertheless, she is feeling — and running — much better as of late and she should be ready for the upcoming spring season. The Ravens wouldn’t have won the team title without her.
“That Group I Sectional title was quite a surprise because some people didn’t come out for the team that should have,” added Walker.
Getting people out for winter track has always been a problem for coaches. Hopefully, Robbinsville shouldn’t have that particular problem on either side this coming spring season. With a huge group of freshmen expected to join both the boys and girls’ teams, expect Robbinsville track and field to take on a whole different look this spring. However, as long as Scott, Flynn, Lachman and Lesniak are around, Robbinsville track and field will be exciting.

