Howell’s Dawson Jones was one of nine golfers to qualify for the 114th Met Amateur Open Golf Championship at the qualifying tournament held at the Raritan Valley Country Club in Bridgewater July 5. Jones, representing MGA eClub-New Jersey, carded a 2-under-par 70 to tie for second and easily qualify for the Met Amateur, which will be held Aug. 4-7 at the Country Club of Fairfield in Fairfield, Connecticut. The top eight scorers, including ties, advanced to the Met Amateur.
Jones is a a graduate of Howell High School and recently completed his first year at the University of Rhode Island, where he had a 75.2 scoring average on the golf team. At Howell, Jones won a pair of NJSIAA Central Jersey championships and was a Group IV runner-up. He also won Monmouth County, Shore Conference and Wall Invitational tournament championships during his standout career.
Colts Neck’s Casey Wall of Lebanon Valley College was named to the Middle Atlantic Conference’s (MAC) Winter and Spring Academic Honor Roll.
Wall, a graduate of Colts Neck High School, is a member of the baseball team and is pursuing a bachelor of science in psychology at Lebanon Valley.
The academic honor roll is comprised of student-athletes who compete in a varsity level sport and registered a term/semester GPA of 3.20 (on a 4.00 scale) or higher. In 2015-16, the MAC allowed freshmen to be eligible for the conference academic honor roll for the first time.
Kutztown University student Rachel Rodriguez of Freehold was named a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Scholar-Athlete for the 2015-16 academic year.
In order to earn scholar-athlete recognition, a student-athlete must have compiled a cumulative grade-point average of 3.25 or above.
Rodriguez, a Freehold Township High School graduate, was a member of Kutztown’s women’s soccer team.
A trio of bowlers from Howell High School who are members of the Felician University women’s team were named to the 2015-16 National Tenpin Coaches Association All-Academic Team. The bowlers were sophomores Michelle Gulino and Kristin Natoli and freshman Kaitlyn Buck.
The trio helped Felician finish third at the East Coast Conference Championship Tournament in March.
At Howell, Gulino, Natoli and Buck helped the Rebels win multiple Monmouth County and NJSIAA state sectional tournament championships and rank each year in the top 10 in the state.
The Manalapan Parks and Recreation’s Youth Running Camp will be held July 18-21 from 6-8 p.m. at the Manalapan Recreation Center’s Kuschick Pavilion.
The camp is open to boys and girls entering grades 2-12 in the fall. They will be instructed by USA Track and Field coaches Bob Andrews, Kristin Andrews and Willie Cicoria.
Participants will learn proper running form, dynamic flexibility warm-up, nutrition tips, plyometrics, core and circuit training, racing strategies and psychology of running — plus they get to run a race.
The fee for the week-long camp is $100. Campers must bring shoes, a towel and water.
For registration forms, go to www.mtnj.org or call 732-446-8355.
American Taekwondo Association (ATA) students representing McInerney Black Belt Academies in Jackson and Marlboro have earned the title of 2016 District Champion and the right to compete in the ATA World Championship, which were held June 27 to July 3 in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Marlboro instructors Cody Coleman, Josh Eugenio and Anjelica Orsini; Marlboro students Jason Lewis, Robert Sands, Michelle Steele and Laura Wagner; and Jackson students Jakob Morales and Alexis Stamoutsos all achieved first-place victories at the Northeast District Championships June 4.
Of these 10 students and instructors, three were eligible to compete for the title of ATA World Champion. In a rare feat, Lewis participated in all eight ATA World Championship events: Traditional Forms, Traditional Weapons, Traditional Sparring, Combat Weapons Sparring, Extreme Forms, Extreme Weapons, Creative Forms and Creative Weapons.
“While it is typical for martial arts schools to have one or two students qualify for world title competition, our Marlboro ATA Martial Arts Academy will send seven of our members to Little Rock and the opportunity to wear red World Champion letters on the back of their taekwondo uniforms,” Senior Master Jack McInerney, a seventh-degree black belt, said prior to the world championship. “Our schools, instructors and fellow students congratulate each of these students for their success during the 2015-16 tournament year and wish them all the best of luck — may they bring the World Champion title back to New Jersey.”
Al Ochsner takes on a new role with the Standardbred Breeders and Owners Association of New Jersey (SBOANJ) as the interim executive administrator. A director since 2005, Ochsner recently served as treasurer and first vice president of the association. He was appointed to replace the late Leo McNamara.
After receiving a bachelor of arts degree in marketing and economics, Ochsner operated his own multi-phase market research company, Schrader Research, for over 50 years.
He has been involved in the standardbred racing industry for over 45 years, having the distinct pleasure own and breed a number of champion racehorses. Ochsner accepted the breeder of the year award for “Horse of the Year” Precious Bunny, who was foaled and raised at his Windhaven Farm in Monroe Township.
As an SBOANJ director, Ochsner served on many committees. He also played a key role in establishing “Baby Races” at both Gaitway Farms and Showplace Farms. He established the New Owners Seminars held at the Meadowlands and Freehold Racetrack and was co-chairman of the N.J. Horse Alliance Symposium held at Monmouth Park Racetrack.