By Guy Kipp, Sports Writer
No consolation prize might have seemed satisfactory enough for the South Brunswick High boys’ track team after coming so excruciatingly close to winning the Greater Middlesex Conference Relays last week.
But, nonetheless, the Vikings turned in a very strong showing just days later at the Bernards Invitational.
South Brunswick’s team score of 104 was four shy of first-place Old Bridge at the GMC Relays. What made the near-miss all the more heartbreaking was the fact that South Brunswick held a 100-98 lead going into the final event, where Old Bridge won the 4×400 and the Vikings placed fourth to finish second overall.
”It was a very frustrating loss,” South Brunswick boys’ track coach Wilfredo Rivera said. “We left a ton of points on the table, and when you lose and you are the better team, it really stings.”
Rivera admitted that not even the Vikings’ impressive collective effort at Bernards took the sting away.
Three runners placed in the top five in the 100-meter dash at Bernards. Brian Oni (11.36) placed second, just ahead of Jaron Baker (11.39), while Cody Shelcusky (11.53) was fifth in the 100.
And John Liptak wrapped up a great week by winning the 800-meter run at Bernards in 2:00.97.
”Liptak’s win,” Rivera conceded, “was great to see.”
Liptak was also part of second-place finishes in the 4×800 and sprint medley in the GMCs and the third-place 4×1600 team in the county meet.
In the GMC Relays, the Vikings won the discus with Sean Lease (151-1), Dominick Padovano (121-4) and Saajan Doshi (119-6), the high jump with Lease (6-0), Khalid Weston (5-10) and Derek Forthun (5-10) and the triple jump with Weston (41-11 1/4), Mohamed Sanu (43-4 3/4) and Jordan Boulware (37-5).
The long jump team was disqualified on fouls from the GMC Relays. The shame of that was that it wasted a personal-best effort by Weston, who jumped 22-2¼ in the event.
”I know the coaching staff and most of our kids were disappointed,” Rivera said, “but we had a great meet. The end result just didn’t go our way. Hopefully, we can learn from our mistakes and go into the GMC Individual Championship Meet with something to prove.”
In all, the Vikings had six second-place finishes and three third-place showings at the GMC meet.
Pole vaulter Matt Kirbos, one of the top athletes in the county in that event, missed the GMC Relays with an injury.
Other performances of note from the Bernards Invitational were Mike Rickett’s second-place showing (50.47) in the 400, a first-place time of 44.23 in the 4×100 by Shelcusky, Oni, Baker and Justin McLendon, third—place efforts by Mohamed Sanu in the triple jump and Weston in the long jump and a fourth-place finish for Zachary Ryan in the 400 hurdles.
