It’s been a record-breaking season for Colts Neck runners, and the records kept falling Saturday.
The Cougars set three Freehold District relay records at the Hall of Fame Classic held at the Armory in New York City Saturday.
The highlight of the day for the Cougars was the boys 4×800 team, which ran the fourth fastest time in the nation this year — 7:57.61. The foursome of Ryan Jagielski, Zach Tedoff, Craig Forys and Jose Melendez became the first area team to average less than 2:00 per runner indoors and broke their own previous mark of 8:02 in the process.
Jagielski started it all off for the Cougars with a fast 1:58.9.
"I told Ryan to run aggressively," said Cougar coach Jim Schlentz. "If it’s a question of should you pass the guy or not, choose yes."
By choosing yes, Jagielski put the Cougars on target for the first indoor sub-8:00, and set the tone for everyone else.
"Ryan had everyone all fired up," noted Schlentz. "Everyone was feeding off each other."
Tedoff followed with a 2:00.2 and Forys, fresh off his freshman national record for the 3,200, ran his first sub-2:00 800 with 1:59.9.
It was up to Melendez to finish it off, and he did with a scorching 1:58.6, a time that was five seconds faster than he had run this winter.
All of the Cougars, following Jagielski’s lead, ran their first 400 hard leading to their best 800s this year.
The quartet came back later in the day to take the 4×400 record down to 3:36.04. Jagielski led the effort with a 52.0 lead-off split.
Colts Neck’s girls also got into the record-setting action setting a District mark in the 4×800, taking it down to 9:50.31. They are the first area team to run under 10:00 indoors.
Kristen O’Dowd started the record relay with a 2:24.8. She was followed by Danielle Plenzo’s 2:29.5. Ashley Higginson ran the fastest split, 2:21.6, and Kim Lang polished it off with her 2:34.4. All four runners recorded personal bests.