By Ken Weingartner, Special Writer
Semei Mitchell might jump up and surprise some people, but his Lawrence High School coaches and teammates will not be among them.
Only a freshman, Mitchell finished second in the long jump at last weekend’s Central Jersey Group III track-and-field championships at Monmouth Regional High. His performance earned him a trip to this weekend’s Group III meet, which will be held at South Plainfield.
Mitchell jumped 20-10.25, not far behind Nottingham’s Robert Wiggs of Nottingham, who won with 21-4.5.
”Twenty-one feet is definitely a solid expectation,” Cardinals boys track coach Nate Jones said.”We know he’s got a lot more in there. We’re excited he’s only a freshman. The sky is the limit for this guy.”
Mitchell was the only freshman among the top 17 finishers at the CJ Group III meet, from which the top six qualified for the Group III championships. The top six finishers this weekend advance to the Meet of Champions.
Jones does not expect Mitchell to be overwhelmed at the next level.
”It’s a big stage to be on when you’re 14, but he hasn’t been intimidated once this year,” Jones said. “He’s handled everything like a veteran. We hope he’s in the [Group III] finals and fighting to be in the top six. We’re very proud of him.”
Mitchell was not alone in qualifying for the Group III meet for the Cardinals.
Ed Carrington finished third in the shot put, Shurman Riggins was fourth in the triple jump, Donovan Morris was fourth in the discus and Tommy O’Rourke was fourth in the 800.
The 4×400 relay team of Eric Wallace, Jacinth Ebron, Zach Allen and O’Rourke was seventh, just one spot shy of advancing.
On the girls’ side, Emily Irizarry was fifth in the discus.
Rebecca Scardelletti nearly joined her by qualifying in the 800. She ran a personal-record time by three seconds, but finished seventh. She was less than a second from sixth place.
Even closer was the 4×400 team of Carissa Rea, Scardelletti, Stacey Adamcik and Marta Trzcinska, who ran a season-best time and missed qualifying for Group III by one-tenth of a second.
For Carrington, a junior, he advanced in the shot put a year after missing by two feet.
”It made me want to work harder,” Carrington said. “This feels good; it feels nice. I’ll hit the weight room (this week) and do some running and work on getting my technique down. Head up, chest up all that stuff.”
O’Rourke, the Mercer County champ in the 800, was pleased with his 1:57.6 time at the sectional championships, but was thinking of ways to improve within minutes of finishing.
”It was really hot [Saturday] and as long as I move on, I’m happy,” he said. “If I had the race to run over again, I probably wouldn’t have gone out as fast on the second lap. With 250 meters left I shouldn’t be kicking it as hard as I did, especially with the weather. I probably would have saved it a little more to have a stronger finish. But I don’t have a problem with the way it turned out in the end.
”The ultimate goal is just to survive and advance. Anything better than that is a plus.”
O’Rourke wants to lower his personal-record of 1:56.1 in this weekend’s meet.
”If I hit (1):55, I’ll be very happy; it would be a PR and school record,” O’Rourke said. “If I could somehow get down to (1):54, which is where I was hoping to get down to by the end of the season, I’ll be extremely happy.”
Of course, a runner ultimately needs to go only as fast as necessary to win.”If you win in (1):57,” O’Rourke said with a grin, “it’s still a glorious day.”
