The Old Bridge High School boys track team narrowly reclaimed its title on Saturday at the Greater Middlesex Conference (GMC) Track & Field Championships.
Coach Jack Campbell’s team edged neighboring East Brunswick High School 89- 88.5 in the tightly contested meet that Old Bridge last won in 2008. East Brunswick won six events to the Knights’ two, but Old Bridge’s team balance racked up the necessary points to outscore the Bears at South Plainfield High School’s Jost Field.
Dan D’Amato won the shot put with a toss of 54-5, edging EB’s Sam Mattis, who threw for 53-7. The Knights’ other win came in the javelin with a throw of 178-6 by junior Andre Davis.
Meanwhile, Old Bridge also scored with five second-place finishes and three thirdplace showings to add valuable points.
Campbell said he was pleased with the team’s solid all-around performance, noting that the Knights’ depth proved to be the determining factor in the meet.
Moheb Thomas was second at 1,600 meters, just .46 seconds off the pace, and teammate Corey O’Neill was the runner-up at 3,200 meters. Shawn Burke crossed the line second at 800 meters, .13 of a second behind Derrick Hagwood of Metuchen; and Christian Boeteng battled J.P. Stevens’Alan Broussard to the finish line in the 110-meter hurdles. Boeteng took third place in the 400- meter hurdles as well. Old Bridge also finished second in the 4×400 relay.
Davis had a strong meet for the Knights, coming in third in the discus and also taking sixth in the shot. He seemed on pace to add a few more points in the 110 hurdles before falling late in the race. That may have made Old Bridge breathe a little easier at the end, since there was a delay of more than an hour at the end before the final team scores were posted, but the Knights managed to get just enough points.
In addition, Anthony Branco was third at 800 meters and Ramy Kasad finished fourth in the shot put, Chris Thornton was fifth in the 400-meter hurdles, Shoni Downs came in fifth at 200 meters, and O’Neill was fifth in the 1,600.
The fine all-around effort by Campbell’s team overshadowed an outstanding performance by East Brunswick’s Leonard Robbins- Lockhart, who set a GMC record at 100 meters with a time of 10.72, besting the 10.73 mark set 20 years ago by Courtney Burton of John F. Kennedy. Robbins-Lockhart also won the 200-meter race and the long jump and was part of East Brunswick’s first-place 4×400 team, where he turned in a 49.6 anchor leg. Evan Walton, Kevin Mulcahey and Don Urschel also ran the 4×400 for East Brunswick.
Also for East Brunswick, Walton won at 400 meters and Sam Mattis won the discus for the Bears with a toss of 184-9 and also finished second in the shot put. Mattis has the best discus throw in the state thus far this year at 187-10.
Julian Quinton took second in the triple jump and was fifth in the 100-meter race, and Tyler Flood was second in the pole vault for the Bears.