RAIDER ROUNDUP
By: Rudy Brandl
Hillsborough High’s track and field teams completed perfect 6-0 regular seasons with three more victories last week. The HHS boys and girls swept Bridgewater-Raritan and Hunterdon Central in a tri-meet and clinched the division titles with wins at Watchung Hills last week.
The Raider girls ran their eight-year win streak to 57 consecutive dual meets, while the HHS boys still haven’t lost any meet in 2005 after also capturing titles at the Skyland Conference and Somerset County relay championship meets.
Yeneisha Warrick and Colleen Maloney won two events apiece to fuel the HHS girls to an 82-58 victory at Watchung. Warrick doubled in the 100 (12.7) and 200 (27.0), while Maloney did her damage in the throws by winning the discus (103-4) and javelin (121-0).
Taryn O’Connor completed the Hillsborough sweep of first places in the weights with gold in the shot put (38-8¾). Other HHS winners were Allison Marcsisin in the 1,600 (5:40), Ingrid Mellor in the 3,200 (12:42.3), Ebony Jones in the 100 hurdles (16.6), Melanie Gingras in the long jump (15-1½) and the 4×400 relay team (4:07.6) of Stephanie Ogrodnick, Eileen Cafferty, Warrick and Jones.
Warrick completed a golden sprint triple in the team’s 92-48 romp over B-R. She won the 100 in 13.0, the 200 in 27.0 and 400 in 60.6. Gingras and Maloney doubled to help the Raiders pile up points. Gingras won the long jump (15-5) and high jump (5-0) and Maloney took first in the discus (117-6) and javelin (109-0).
Other winners vs. B-R included Mellor in the 3,200 (12:39), Jones in the 400 hurdles (68.6), Robin Friedman in the pole vault (11-6), O’Connor in the shot (37-8¾) and Warrick, Ogrodnick, Jones and Cafferty in the 4×400 (4:14.0).
The HHS boys averaged well over 100 points in their three victories last week. Hillsborough destroyed B-R (121-19) and Central (106-34) and dominated Watchung (95-45) to run the table on a very impressive regular season.
As usual, the Raiders spread the wealth around many talented performers. Tyler Szwarc posted a hurdle double in the win over B-R, running 15.7 in the 110 highs and 57.4 in the 400 intermediates. Seven other Raiders won at least one individual event.
That list of golden boys included Chris Berezansky in the shot (50-1½), Ryan Schofield in the 100 (11.4), Matt Bitten in the pole vault (13-0), Mike Perrone in the 400 (51.9), Miles Petrock in the long jump (19-4¼), Mike Kelderman in the discus (127-10) and the 4×400 team of Warner Jones, Perrone, Adam Mallet (52.2) and Bitten (52.5) that finished in 3:32.2. Mallet and Bitten ran their best splits, while Perrone posted his fastest quarter in the 400 dash.
Mallet, Berezansky, Perrone, Szwarc and Bitten accomplished the same scoring in the victory over Central. Other highlights of the tri-meet included an Eseosa Ewere victory over Central in the 200 (23.5) and an overall sweep of the distance events by Brian Dennis in the 800 in a personal-best 1:59.4, Charles Miller in the 1,600 (4:44) and Paul Bernardo in the 3,200 (10:37). Dave Eilbacher added a victory in the triple jump (41-7¼) and Brandon Lane (high jump, 5-8) and Pat Flynn (javelin, 135-7) notched first places vs. Bridgewater.
The Raiders didn’t even compete in the high jump or pole vault at Watchung and still won the meet by 50 points. More personal-bests led the Raiders in the dual meet finale.
Ewere led the charge with a sprint double and victory in the long jump (20-2¼) for three golds. He also swept the 100 (11.2) and 200 (personal-best 23.5).
The Raiders were impressive in going 1-2 in the javelin, with Berezansky (155-8) and Flynn (151-6) each setting new personal standards. Szwarc set a new personal record (56.7) in winning the 400 hurdles and Mike Bitten posted a 51.5 split in the 4×400 that ranks as tops on the team so far this season.
Mike Lunemann, a freshman, won the 1,600 with a personal-best time of 4:53. Other HHS winners included Perrone in the 400 (51.9), Mike Bitten in the 800 (2:08). Bernardo in the 3,200 (10:27), Eilbacher in the triple jump (41-0½) and Kelderman in the discus (121-0).
Saturday’s second annual Raider Relays were postponed a day before the event due to a terrible forecast for the following day that never materialized. The meet will be made up this weekend at Hillsborough but won’t attract as much competition with the prestigious Penn Relays also on tap for this week.
Netmen battle
brutal schedule
The HHS boys should be ready for this weekend’s Somerset County Tennis Tournament after facing a series of very challenging competition in the past few weeks.
Hillsborough split two matches in last week’s ultra-competitive Delbarton Tournament, which included many of the state’s top teams. The Raiders also split two regular season matches last week, blanking North Hunterdon but dropping a tough 3-2 decision to Pingry. All this came after the team’s April 15-17 weekend trip to South Carolina for the Champions Challenge.
The Raiders have taken their share of lumps, but head coach Larry Johnson firmly believes it will make them better for the bigger matches in May.
HHS opened the Delbarton Tournament with a 4-1 victory over Chatham but was eliminated by Millburn by the same margin later in the day. Chris Plaskon and Piotr Mankowski, switching doubles partners, were the only Raiders to win twice.
First singles player Thomas Kinrade and third singles player Will Daly each won in straight sets over Chatham. HHS also swept the doubles matches, with Plaskon and Mark Apostolos playing first doubles and Mankowski and Adam Mamawala teaming up at second doubles. Both matches ended in 6-1, 6-2 results.
Plaskon joined Mankowski at second doubles vs. Millburn and they came away with a tough 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 victory to help the Raiders avoid a shutout. Millburn won two of the remaining four matches in three sets, so the Raiders certainly weren’t out of this match.
Kinrade and the first doubles team of Daly and Apostolos lost in three sets. Daly and Apostolos won the first set 6-1 but lost two tough ones after that. Kinrade rallied to win the second set to even his match but dropped a grueling 7-5 set to Brian Nalitt in the decisive frame.
John Wu, who also lost in straight sets against Chatham, dropped his match to Millburn at second singles. Mamawala played third singles in that match and was defeated in straight sets.
In regular season action, the match vs. Pingry is one the Raiders would love to have back. Three of the five matches went the distance, with HHS winning two of them.
Kinrade defeated Ben Rosenthal 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, while Mankowski and Mamawala came from behind in their 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 triumph. Wu and Daly, at second and third singles, were knocked off in straight sets.
The decisive match came at first doubles, where Pingry’s Alex Gumport and Max Gumport outlasted Plaskon and Apostolos 6-1, 3-6, 6-4.
As expected, the Raiders dumped North Hunterdon rather easily. The only close match came at second singles, where Wu posted a 7-5, 6-2 victory.
Kinrade and Plaskon (third singles) dropped one game apiece, along with Mamawala and Tom Gross at second doubles. Mankowski and Apostolos swept through all 12 games in their first doubles victory.
Hillsborough (6-4) was set to host Westfield and play on the road at Phillipsburg and Immaculata this week before competing in the county tournament at Pingry. The preliminary rounds are set for Thursday with action continuing over the weekend.
Same team score,
one golf victory
The Raider golf team fired identical team scores of 205 in consecutive matches on two different layouts. One day, it was good enough for a victory. The next time out, the score fell three strokes short.
Hillsborough (7-2) defeated Franklin by 28 strokes at Quail Brook Golf Club. Andrew Borsuk shot an even-par round of 36 to lead the rest of the field by five strokes. That’s a pretty sizeable margin over nine holes.
The rest of the HHS lineup was balanced, with Steve Cannon and Craig Durrant each firing 41 and Logan Cecchine and Nick Grappone shooting 43.
Montgomery played just a little bit better in a tight 202-205 match at Hillsborough Country Club. Landon Boger was the medallist with a one-over par round of 37, just one stroke ahead of Cannon and Cecchine. In fact, the Cougars beat the Raiders by one stroke at three spots and tied at the other two positions in the top five.
Other HHS scores in this competitive match were posted by Aaron Schiffman (41), Matt Simonik (44) and Borsuk (44).
The Raiders were slated to play two rivals on the road this week, traveling to Green Knoll to face Bridgewater-Raritan and nearby Roycebrook to take on Immaculata.