Norris record aids Cougars
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Erin Norris helped the Montgomery High School girls track and field team get off to a fast start on its way to a third straight Somerset County Championship on Tuesday.
The junior delivered a personal best in the first field event of the day, the javelin, to combine with Carlee Rosenthal for a 2-3 finish that pushed the Cougars into an early lead they would not relent. MHS finished 19½ points ahead of its nearest challenger, Hillsborough.
”I think it’s an extra boost of confidence,” Norris said. “Going into (the Skyland Conference Championships on Tuesday) right after a win is a good feeling. To finally beat Hillsborough again is good too.”
Norris threw 116-feet-3 to break her own school record that she set earlier this season in a dual meet with Hunterdon Central. Before Norris this year, it was Rosenthal that set the standard. They push each other in practice and at every meet. Only Somerville’s Alexis Appezzato had a better throw in the county meet.
”I’m very pleased with how I did today,” Norris said. “Second place is respectable, especially behind Alexis. I’ll take that any day. The weather was crummy, so I was really happy to reset my school record.”
The Cougars, too, were happy to see the promising beginning that their javelin throwers gave them.
”That was big to start the meet off going second and third,” said MHS girls coach Jim Goodfriend. “Hillsborough was fifth in it.”
The Cougar girls got big performances the rest of the meet. Jillian Prentice won the 1,600 and the 3,200 in spite of a foot injury that has kept her out of impact training.
”She’s been on the bike for the last two weeks,” Goodfriend said. “We were going to run her in one race. She ran a 5:08.
”I didn’t want to run her in the 32, but at the particular time, I wasn’t going to score in the shot and discus. Franklin was reasonably close. She said she was hurt, but she would run.”
Prentice promptly crushed her own meet record from a year ago by almost 10 seconds when she ran 10:50.98. Fellow senior Lara Shegoski also topped the old standard for big points as the Cougars went 1-2.Fiona Paladino also competed at less than 100 percent with a sore hamstring, but the junior didn’t let it affect her as she scored in three events. Paladino won the high jump at 5-foot-6, finished second by one-hundredth of a second in the 100 hurdles and was fifth in the 100 meters.
”They’re really good athletes,” Norris said. “They always pull it out regardless of how they are.”
Another meet record fell when Adefunke Sonaike won the triple jump in 38-¾. The sophomore was second in the long jump and second in the 100.
Montgomery scored in 11 of the 16 events, many times with multiple scorers. Ama Quansah was fourth and Danny Sciotto was fifth in the 100 hurdles behind Paladino. Sciotto was second in the 400 hurdles. Jennifer Vieth had a three-second personal best to finish a surprise fourth in the 800 meters. Laura Ng continued her road back from injury with a second-place finish in the pole vault at 10-6.
”We’re not 100 percent healthy, and they really came through,” Goodfriend said. “We lost to Hillsborough twice in the relay meets. Part of that was we didn’t have Laura Ng and now she’s back. We finished the regular season 6-0 and won the division.
”I have a good team. We have solid people all over the place. We can score in every event. If we’re going to do that, we’re tough. Hopefully, we’ll keep on going.”
The Cougars boys placed fourth in the county meet. Pete Trubetskoy was MHS’ lone event winner when he captured the discus with a throw of 130-5.
”He put it all together,” said MHS boys coach Zoran Milich, “especially on the last throw and walked away with a gold medal.”
The Cougars were seven points behind third-place Hillsborough. Franklin won the team title easily. Montgomery’s Robbie Robinson was second in the 100 and third in the 200. Carl John Keri was third and Roland Lu was fifth in the 100 in the Cougars’ best event of the day. Keri was sixth in the 200. Tyler Bobal was second at 13-feet and Brandon Smith was fourth at 12-feet in the pole vault. Dan Sgammato was fifth in the 400, Connor Andres was third in the long jump, Jared Lawrence was sixth in the shot put and the Cougars’ 4×400 was sixth.
”Our kids competed,” Milich said. “A lot of kids ran well. We just didn’t get enough points. Last year, we finished second in the county. We weren’t even in the top 3 this year so I’m disappointed. We have higher standards. Overall, we had a lot of good times. I’m just disappointed with the overall scoring results.
”I’m looking forward to the conference. It’s a chance to get better. We scored a bunch of points, and had hoped to score some points in other events.”
Norris goes into the conferences looking to continue to raise her school record. She credits her improvement this year to electing not to play basketball in the winter to focus on preparing for the spring track and field season.
”This is my first season not playing basketball,” Norris said. “It was a tough decision, but I think it was a good one. I’m pleased with my decision.”
Norris didn’t take up throwing the javelin until she was a freshman. She has developed quickly into one of the best in the county in quite a technical event, and proved how serious she was about the sport that she hopes to pursue in college by foregoing basketball. In addition to using an extra winter to prepare, Norris has used the regular season meets that are oftentimes downplayed to progress.
”I think they’re all pretty important,” Norris said. “It’s those meets that prepare you for the counties, and conferences and states. I think it’s all important.”
All of Erin Norris’s practice and preparation paid off in the biggest meet to date when she helped to propel the Cougars to another county championship.
”I’m overjoyed,” Goodfriend said. “This is a big deal. This is the third year in a row that we won. We wanted to keep it going.”