By Warren Rappleyea
Sayreville War Memorial High School’s boys track and field coach, Joe Slazik, has been encouraged by his team’s performance this spring.
The Bombers are particularly strong in the spring events and have a solid 4×100-meter relay team with Benjamin Aidoo, Jordan Patterson, Abdullahi Adeyemo and either Coray Williams or Michael Liberti, who are both football players who came out for the first time.
“I’m really looking for them to do well in the invitational meets,” the Sayreville coach said. “Benjamin will come in around 10.7 or so, and the others are all between 11.0 and 11.2 seconds and getting better.”
Aidoo also competes in the 200 dash, as does Liberti. Williams, who is learning from junior Sam Morris, is already hitting the 42-foot mark in the shot put. Morris, a junior, is approaching the 40-foot mark.
“I really like the work ethic that Williams and Liberti bring from football,” Slazik said. “That has been a positive for the rest of the team. And Sam Morris stepping up to help a newcomer has been tremendous. That epitomizes the kind of team we have.”
David Harrison is regularly below the five-minute mark at 1,600 meters, and junior Mike Marquez has a time of 2:10 to his credit in the 800-meter race. Josh Garrett is solid in the pole vault and can help out in the throwing events when needed.
Garrett has also tutored rapidly improving freshman Josh Nieratko on pole vault technique. Nieratko is also working on the javelin, where he surpassed the 100-foot mark. Zuriel Wright, another freshman, is working on the jump events. He has hit 21 feet in the long jump, 5-4 in the high jump and 39-4 in the triple jump. The versatile Wright doubles as a sprinter.
“We’ve had some high points, but we’ve struggled a bit in the dual meets,” the Bombers’ coach said. “We’re still in the [Greater Middlesex Conference] Red Division, and we go up against big schools with a lot of athletes.”
Next spring, the Blue and Gray will move into the White Division, where Slazik thinks his athletes will more than hold their own.
“We don’t have a big team numbers-wise, but we do have 28 guys and they have a lot of talent,” he said. “We’re going to get better and better.”