By: Carolyn M. Hartko
Two individual athletes and the boys’ 4×400 relay squad, placed high enough in last weekend’s NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III Championship to advance to the All-Group III Championships, which will be held this Friday evening and Saturday at Egg Harbor Township. This was Monroe’s first year competing as a Group III school, and athletes from both teams found the competition much stiffer than it had been in Group II.
Senior Tim Payne finished fifth in the discus with a toss of 144-5, just slightly below his personal best of 145 feet. Ashley Theinert ran a personal best time of 59.92 which placed her sixth in the open 400. The boys’ relay squad came in fifth with a time of 3:33.98. Senior Jaryd Schick led off in that race, handing off to freshman Billy Phillips. Freshman Adam Modzelewski ran the third leg, and junior Rob McGowan took the anchor.
Payne was not in the top flight of the discus competition, but the next one down. It was his last throw in the preliminary round that not only got him into the finals, but stood up for the fifth place medal. Payne was one person who noticed the difference in the competition between Groups II and III.
"I thought especially our group and section had really good competition," Payne said. "Last year, I advanced with 129. I was sixth. And this year, 140 was sixth. So, the competition was pretty good."
In order to advance from this coming weekend’s meet to the Meet of Champions, track and field athletes have to again score in the top six in their events. Payne will go into the Group Championship seeded 10th. That’s within striking distance of a bid to the MOC, but Payne isn’t staking his hopes on advancing.
"I’d just like to throw a personal best, and whatever I place is all right," the Falcon senior said. "As long as I do good, and get a personal best, I’ll be happy."
Overall, Payne has been pleased with this entire season. He achieved personal records in both the discus and shot put (48-6). Now he has one more chance to improve in the discus.
"It was tough competition, but I got some experience for my young kids," Lady Falcon Lew Stonaker said of his squad’s first battle as a Group III school. "And I was happy to see Ashley move on in her last competition. She’s worked really hard this year, so it was good to see her have a good meet. This was her first time under 60 (in the 400), and that was automatic timed, which is always a little slower (than hand-held), so it was a good run for her. And she came in eighth in the intermediate hurdles and just missed moving on in that by 3/10ths of a second."
Although none of the other girls will be moving on, the atmosphere at these big meets pushes many of the athletes to do their best times and distances. Among the Lady Falcons who set new personal records were sophomore Christina Leili (82 feet, discus), junior Debbie Stelmaszczyk (1:03.7, 400), freshman Katie Mazzio (65.1, 400) and freshman Kelly Grinzo (2:34.5, 800). Sophomore Sasha Potter ran her best split in a 400 relay, a 1:02.
"Central Jersey Group III is probably the toughest group in the state," Stonaker said. "Even the Group IV people were telling me that. We had to go against Willingboro, Hopewell Valley and Ocean which are three of the top teams in the area. It was difficult for us, moving up to III, especially with such a young team. For instance, even though our 4×400 team ran a personal best, we weren’t anywhere near the top six teams. They had to run almost four minutes flat to move on."
For the majority of the members on both Falcon track and field teams, the season is over. But Payne, Theinert and the boys’ relay squad have one more shot at glory.
