By Justin Feil, The Packet Group
One year after Craig Hunter used the Mercer County Championship to make a huge improvement in the pole vault, he was at it again.
The Robbinsville High School senior cleared 16-feet for the first time in his career to win the boys pole vault at the county meet easily. At last year’s county meet, he hit 15-feet for the first time and Sunday’s clearance of 16-feet was just as significant.
”Doing that in high school is unheard of in New Jersey,” Hunter said. “The last person was (Adam) Sarafian in 2004. Everything was right today.”
Sarafian pole vaulted 16-3¼ in 2004, and the state indoor record is Bill Lange’s 17-feet clearance from 1980. Those are targets for Hunter, who has gained confidence after Sunday’s new Mercer County record.
”I never say, 16-feet, I could die now and be happy,” Hunter said. “Every day I’m going to push myself to see what I can do. I’m not stopping at 16-feet.”
Hunter scored 10 of the Robbinsville boys’ 11 points. Graham Rousseau ran 8.24 seconds for sixth in the boys 55-meter hurdles.
”Graham Russo had a big PR in the hurdles,” said Robbinsville boys coach Jon Hutchinson. “He got the school record and a big PR for him. Last year, he didn’t even make the finals. It was nice to have him make the finals.”
The girls made a strong showing, their best in school history, as they finished third overall behind West Windsor-Plainsboro North and WW-P South.
”The meet was always scheduled two days before our sectional meet,” said Robbinsville girls coach Mike Walker. “We didn’t want to put our kids through two championships in a three-day period. We lobbied and were very convincing, and they moved it this year. Then it was fair. Last year, we would have been pretty decent too.”
Led by Noel Jancewicz, who was named the meet Most Valuable Performer, the Ravens posted 57 points. Jancewicz, a senior who is heading to the University of Pennsylvania as a multi-event athlete, won the high jump at 5-feet-6, won 55-meter dash in 7.41 seconds and 200 meters in 26.08 seconds, was second in the shot put. She walked off the finish line from winning the 200 to clear 5-4, then 5-6 to win the high jump shortly after.
”Noel doing what she did, that’s a pretty amazing thing to score in different events like that all together,” Walker said. “She’s used to at this point, but it’s tough.”
Kaitlyn Koss won the 400 meters in 1:00.73, a full second ahead of the runner-up. Paris Hughes was fourth in the 800. Annalise Celano was sixth in the 3,200 meters. Andin Rosam was fourth in shot put. The Ravens will turn their sights to the sectionals next week.
”We’re about as healthy as we can be, and we always try to peak for this time of year,” Walker said. “We’re pleased with what we got today, but we hope we get a little better for sectionals. Now that we’re Group 2, we have Matawan. They’re pretty good. We hope to be in the meet and close to them. Our goal is the team title, and whatever happens at states, we have to get through the first round first. It helps to have someone like Noel who can place high in multiple events.”
Allentown’s boys scored eight points and their girls scored four. Mike Fritskey was third in the boys pole vault at 11-feet, and William Herzer was fifth at 10-6 to account for the boys points. Carly DuBrosky picked up the girls’ points with a fourth-place finish in the 55 hurdles.
Hunter has the top jump in the state after Sunday, and tied for No. 5 in the country. For Hunter, the sectionals could be the next meet to test how high he can go.
”I’m going to try to get into the Poreda Invitational first,” Hunter said of Wednesday’s scheduled meet back at Lawrenceville. “If not, I’ll try to do it for sectionals. I can’t even enjoy it. I want to see what I can do to get to 16-6. We know this isn’t the zenith. We have longer poles, we have heavier poles. I watched a video of my jump, and it could have a little heavier and a little longer and it could have been a 16-3, or 16-6 day. I was jumping great.
”The crazy part is I’m watching it and I still see so much I can fix. There’s still so much stuff I see that I could fix and get that little much more out of it.”
Hunter is the top threat for the Ravens who are looking for a strong showing at the sectionals.
”We’re looking for personal bests out of guys,” Hutchinson said. “We got a bunch of personal bests (Sunday). I told them on the bus, we’re a lot farther along than in the beginning of the season in terms of how we’re going to compete. It’s nice to see these guys compete as we get towards the end of the season.
”Our goals don’t change. We’ve had a bunch of seniors graduate, but we want to try to get top three and get as many kids to medal and move on to states. The last couple of days have been encouraging to see the guys’ attitude come out and I’m excited to see how they do.”
Hunter has been preparing over the last months to launch his senior year. He’d been using a five-step, not his usual seven-step approach on the run-up to fine tune his technique.
”There are not a ton of opportunities for the winter season,” Hutchinson said. “We came up with an idea that he’s going to do some of these meets and not do his full approach and work on technique. And we were going to save the full approach for counties.”
Hunter used his full approach for the first time in a tri-meet Saturday at Lawrenceville under the watchful eye of his outside pole vaulting coach.
”He couldn’t make it (Sunday), but said, ‘If you do everything right and everything you did today, you’ll have a good day,’” Hunter said. “I jumped on a pole I never touched before today. It’s been in my bag for a week or two. It’s no longer, just heavier so I got more push off it.
”In my first meet of the season, I did five-step. Last weekend, I did six-step. The reason I worked on shorter steps was my pole vault coach wanted me to peak at the end of the season. If he’s right and I haven’t peaked yet, I have a lot to look forward to. I got more reps and got to work on technique issues I was having in the past. Working with those short steps, it as easier to go back and jump on a long step for me.”
The shorter run saved his legs from the tiring repetition of blasting down the runway to build speed quickly for a jump. In hindsight, he could have saved some energy for his 16-3 attempts if he had had skipped his 13-6 opening height that he came in at — already two feet higher than anyone else had jumped in the county meet. He progressed to 14-6, then 15, 15-6, and took three attempts to clear 15-9 before making 16 on his first attempt.
”I used three jumps at 15-9, but I needed it,” Hunter said. “I don’t think I would have cleared 16 if I didn’t get it. It was more confidence building. I got the feel of jumping a bar relatively close to 16-feet. The 15-9 was pretty much all mental. Now that I have the 16, going from 15-6 to 16 shouldn’t be a problem.
”The biggest thing is that the bar is set higher than you’ve ever jumped before. If you let it get to you mentally, it can kill you. It was an incredible thing to actually experience.”
Hunter is solely focused on the pole vault this year. He will run the 4×400 to help the team, but he is no longer working on triple jump or high jump so he can work on pole vault, which will be his focus at UConn next year. His county meet once again propelled him to a new level and boosted his confidence for a big year.
”It’s a good way to kick off the championship season,” Hunter said. “It’s a high stakes meet, but at the same time, it’s not. I’m relaxed and comfortable. I’m around people I’ve been around my whole career. I can relax. I had that going for me.
”Now I have a long break until my next championship meet,” he added. “I need to step back and say, what do I do to make this a consistent thing when I come back for another championship?”

