ROBBINSVILLE: Ravens perform well at Mercer track

By Justin Feil, The Packet Group
   If it wasn’t obvious enough from the competitive Mercer Twilight Invitational the week before, the Mercer County Championships on Saturday served notice that the championship portion of the season is upon the Robbinsville High School track and field teams.
   The Raven girls finished seventh with 32 points, and the Robbinsville boys were 12th with seven points. The West Windsor-Plainsboro South girls and Nottingham boys were both first-time team champions, but Robbinsville was motivated by its own showing.
   ”We were happy with the performances, with some of the things that happened with the girls medaling,” said Ravens girls coach Mike Walker. “Even with the kids that didn’t medal, we got a lot of personal bests. It was a good meet.”
   The meet came on the heels of the Twilight meet that the Ravens hosted in a championship-type of environment.
   ”That’s where I think some of the kids realized what time of the year it is,” Walker said. “They’re focused and ready to go. With any high school kid, you have prom coming up and you’re getting close to the end of the school year. The county meet, half our team is in that good position. We have two weeks to make sure everyone is on the board.
   ”The people that are really focused, they’re there and ready to go. If we had sectionals tomorrow, they’d be ready. We have so many young new girls that haven’t been there. As coaches, you kind of take it for granted, but the new kids are the ones we need to pull in and work on.”
   Just a little experience can go a long way. Noel Jancewicz placed in two events last year and one was a team event. This year, she won the high jump as the only one to clear 5-feet-6 (no one else even cleared 5-4) and captured the long jump at 16-9. She also was sixth in the javelin at 91-5.
   ”She’s so versatile. It’s great to have someone like that,” Walker said. “She’s naturally gifted, but she works her butt off. She works hard at practice. She threw the javelin a little last year. This year, that’s the one she’s beating herself up over. She won the long jump and high jump, and long jump is completely new. She tried it for the first time this spring.
   ”Just to show what kind of competitor she is, she was still talking (Monday) about the javelin and said, I need to work more on the javelin. That’s all she could focus in on – the one that didn’t go as well as she wanted.”
   Myana Morris-Bullock placed third in the 100 meters in 12.5 seconds, the same hand time as runner-up Ashleigh Delemos of WW-P South. Morris-Bullock was also fifth in the 200 meters. Both Morris-Bullock and Jancewicz are only sophomores. For Morris-Bullock, the medal-winning finishes were a big jump over last year’s 11th place finishes in the same events.
   ”For her, it’s just a matter of confidence,” Walker said. “We saw how fast she was indoors, and last year we saw glimpses of it. That’s what we’re trying to work on with every one. You can’t just go through the motions and expect it to happen. She’s been working hard and for her to medal in this county, it’s pretty big. There are some good sprinters in the county. Now she knows going into sectionals and states, she’ll be one of the top runners. It was nice to see.”
   Lisa Leszcynski placed fifth in the 1,600 in 5:21.0, and the Ravens were encouraged with that they saw from distance runner Megan Lesniak.
   ”Megan Lesniak has a pretty bad foot injury but she’s cleared to run,” Walker said. “She’s running with discomfort. Between the Twilight meet and county meet, she PR’d. She still PR’d. If she can run with that discomfort, I see her ending on a pretty high note to end her high school career.”
   For the boys, McLean Lipschutz maintained his solid showing from the Twilight meet with a throw of 162-3 for third in the javelin. Brian O’Toole continued his stellar senior campaign by placing sixth in the competitive 1,600 in 4:38.4.
   The boys and girls teams will now shift into training mode to prepare for the Central Jersey Group I championships that will be held two weeks after counties.
   ”I think we’re in a good place,” Walker said. “I don’t know if we’re exactly where we want to be as a team. There’s still some things want to work on. For the girls, we’re almost there. We’re close to where we want to be.”
   With the start of the state meets around the corner, the timing couldn’t be better for the Robbinsville track and field teams.