North wins Group III relays, South boys win DMR
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Christina LiPuma didn’t have the chance to enjoy the sort of success she expected in the fall’s cross country season, but she’s enjoyed a terrific start to the winter track and field season.
The West Windsor-Plainsboro North senior shared in two points winning events as the Knight girls track and field team won the Group III state relays Sunday at the Bennett Center in Toms River. The Knights tied Mendham and Irvington with 26 points for top honors. It’s WW-P North’s first team title.
”In my four years, we’ve never done anything like this,” LiPuma said. “It was so exciting. Going into the meet, we were thinking, we actually have a chance. We were pumped. A lot of people PR’d. It’s the first time we’ve gone for it. It means so much to me.”
LiPuma anchored the sprint medley relay in a personal-record 2:23, a second better than her old best for the 800 meters. She combined with Sara Hayduchok, Patrycja Dziekonska and Olivia Harpel to finish third in 4:21.55, just half a second off their school record. The Knights were also second in the 55-meter hurdles as Harpel, LiPuma, Hayduchok and Dziekonska ran a school-record 33.36.
The Knights were second in the distance medley relay in 12:58.76 with Simone Counts, Christine Nicoforo, Bryn Gorberg and Manolya Altan. Alton’s anchor leg for the 1,600 was 5:19, a seven-second season best to captured second by three-hundredths of a second. Those hundredths of a second are one of the things that made the difference in helping them tie for the team title. Gorberg, Altan, Wendy He and Counts took fourth place in the 4×800.
”They did really well,” said WW-P North coach Brian Gould. “The youngest girls, too. In the events that scored, we only had two seniors — Christine Nicoforo and Christina LiPuma.
”We talked about it a lot in the weeks leading up to it,” Gould added. “It’s a really talented and competitive and driven group. They’re tremendously excited. With where the program is, (winning) is the goal every season. They stepped up and got it done.”
Princeton High and West Windsor-Plainsboro South tied for 19th overall with four points apiece. PHS placed fourth in the DMR, while South took fourth in the team shot put. Montgomery High placed 15th in Group IV with four points Saturday. The Cougars placed fourth in pole vault.
On the boys side, WW-P South was fourth in Group III with 20 points. The Pirates’ finish was highlighted by a win in the distance medley, the lone Packet-area team to win an event. Eddison Gulama, A.J. Chavez, Donyell Reid and Alex Maeda won in 10:50.08.
”The guys did great,” said Pirates distance coach Kurt Wayton. “Alex Maeda, a senior, never had a chance to run in it. He’s been just outside of our top lineup for the last two years. He’s been a solid 4:30 guy. He got the baton in a very scary situation with a five-yard lead. He controlled it the whole way and ran away from the guy on the last lap.
”He ran a 4:34 leg and controlled the lead. It went out fairly slow. He’s probably in 4:27-4:28 shape. He ensured we’d win. A lot of guys had never been in there. Donyell Reid, who did the 400, Eddison Gulama went up to do the 1200, and A.J. Chavez ran the 800. The kids were all over the place, but they responded.”
The Pirates were also happy to take silver in the 4×800 in 8:22.86 with a relatively inexperienced championship team of Karthik and Prathik Chandrasekaran, George Hamilton and Dan Sheldon.
”They had never run a championship race and they were in position to win,” said Wayton who also saw the sprint medley run fifth. “Karthik is the only one in there that’s a real 800 runner. They all raced really tough. We were in position to win with two laps to go.
”It’s been a long time since I’ve been this proud of the guys. I was really proud of them.”
The WW-P North boys finished 10th with nine points. The Knights were third in the DMR, fifth in the 4×800 and sixth in the sprint medley.
PHS tied for 15th with six points. The Little Tigers were fourth in the 4×800 and fifth in the DMR.
The Montgomery boys were 13th in the Group IV relays with eight points. Rob Heebner cleared 12-feet-6 and Nicholas Hespe jumped 11-6 as the Cougars took second in the pole vault.
LiPuma was happy to prove again that she’s back from the stress fracture in her foot that cost her all but the final two races of the cross country season.
”For me, that was a really big blow,” LiPuma said. “I had these really big goals for counties and sectionals. That’s something I’m never going to be able to get back. That’s one of the things that woke me up. I thought, we need to accomplish these goals. We need to get going.”
LiPuma’s return to good form helped the Knights pick up an historic win.
”She’s come back strong,” said Knight hurdles coach Monica Biro, who works closely with LiPuma. “She finished off cross country a little disappointed. She always wants to run her best and do it for the team.
”She’s one of the reasons this team bonded well together. She’s doing a great job of leading the team. To be a state champion team, you need that.”
LiPuma also competed in the 4×200 meters, a rare distance for her. Her main focus is the hurdles and 800.
”I’m pretty happy with my races,” LiPuma said. “I PR’d in the 800. I felt like I was really competitive, and that’s something I’ve been working on lately. I felt fast.”
LiPuma missed that feeling in cross country where she ran just the county and sectional meets. She’s opened the winter season faster than usual, the only blessing in disguise that she can find in her injury-plagued fall.
”Coming into the season, I’ve felt stronger than I was before,” LiPuma said. “Usually I get injured coming into the winter track season. This just pushed up that.”
LiPuma took her time off in the fall while healing. She’s come back focused on having a big finish to her career before she hopes to compete in college. She has been thrilled with the start to her final scholastic track year. WW-P North has bonded its young crew over pasta parties and team building events. They’ve kept it fun, but worked hard to get where they are.
”As a team in general, we’re a lot faster,” LiPuma said. “We have the depth this year. We used to have one or two or three girls that could make it out of sectionals. Now we have a lot of people.
”We’re still an extremely young team, which is really great. It’s going to be even better next year. I’m sad I won’t be there.”
LiPuma is focusing on the 55 hurdles, 400 and 800 in the indoor season. In practice, she’s seen the Knights run workouts faster than they did at the end of last spring. Even more promising is the relays win.
”I really think it means we can do really great things,” LiPuma said. “I look in past years, and last year we scored a total of eight points, and the year before we scored zero. My first year, sophomore year, we didn’t score. If we can do this well this early in the season, there’s no telling what we can do.”
Said Gould: “The great thing is they keep improving. We had a lot of PRs, but they’re never satisfied. They’re always trying to improve. There’s a great attitude on the team.”