Knights junior among area athletes to advance to group track meets
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Simone Counts felt pretty good going into the Central Jersey Group IV girls track and field championships.
That stage had been the scene of a big breakout for the West Windsor-Plainsboro North mid-distance star, and she was looking for more of the same in her junior year.
”I would say coming in I had more confidence than anyone normally would because I did succeed last year,” Counts said. “I always get jitters before big races, but having such success in the past was helpful.”
Counts enjoyed more success when she was able to repeat as champions of the 1600 meters in 5:06.82, barely two-tenths of a second ahead of Freehold Township’s Ciara Roche.
”Winning that gave me a lot more confidence for my other races,” Counts said. “It gave me more confidence to go out and try to do well in my other races.”
Counts didn’t repeat in the 800 meters, but her fourth-place finish sends her into next weekend’s Group IV state meet. The top six finishers in each event as sectionals advance to the state group meets. Counts will also go in the 4×800 where she combined with Bryn Gorberg, Wendy He and Manolya Altan for sixth place.
”Definitely the competition, it was great,” Counts said. “Nothing is better going in than knowing you have competition. You know you other people to push you to do well.”
Counts expects to see more tough competition next week at groups, and this year she won’t be pulling the tough double of going to the prom and trying to run at her best the next day. WW-P North’s prom isn’t until June 7, after the Meet of Champions — the conclusion of the track and field season in-state. Counts advanced to the Meet of Champions last year in the 800, but not in the 1600.
”Our kids won’t be affected by prom this year or next year,” said Knights head coach Monica Biro. “It’s hard to make choices like that. It’s not necessarily that one isn’t better than another. They’re both big things.”
Counts will be going into groups looking to do better than she did last year, and even better than she did at the sectional meet.
”The 800, I was a little disappointed,” Counts said. “I wanted to win it. I ended up coming in fourth. These races teach me what I have to do to do what I want. At groups, I’ll definitely push myself to do better.
”I’m really glad that I don’t have anything conflicting with groups,” she added. “This year is really important. I really want to do better and improve. My focus is completely on groups and doing better and achieving what I want to. It also gives me a little more confidence. I know I can just focus on groups and do better hopefully.”
Counts would like to again run all three events that she has advanced in. It’s hard for the Knights to talk her out of doing a lot of events, even though her effort in the mile made it tough to come back with her best split for the 4×800, and she will face the same challenge at groups.
”We have to look at what she’s up against,” Biro said. “I think she’s the fourth seed for the 1600. We really like to look ahead to where we want the team to be at the Meet of Champs. If the 4×8 is in contention, that would be one thing. We have to look at a lot of factors.”
Counts isn’t the only athlete who will have to juggle multiple events at groups. Area teams will be well represented overall after advancing large contingents to the group meets.
Pati Dziekonska had a huge day at sectionals for the Knights. The junior won the 100 hurdles, won the long jump, was second in the 400 hurdles and third in the triple jump. Rebecca Jin was third in the pole vault. The defending sectional champion North girls were fourth in the team standings.
”Pati had a great weekend,” Biro said. “After the county meet, she was disappointed and disheveled. She was disappointed, the biggest thing was to not score for the team. You could come in nervous and think it’s going to happen again, but she didn’t let that happen. She showed why she’s such a good athlete.”
West Windsor-Plainsboro South’s Paige Brown won the girls high jump, was second in the 100 hurdles, fourth in the triple jump and fifth in long jump. Deirdre Casey was third in the 1600 and sixth in the 3200. Sarah Moxham, Casey, Edlyn Gulama and Christina Rancan were third in the 4×800. Susie Kardaras was tied for fifth in the pole vault. The Pirates took fifth in the team standings.
Montgomery’s Jessica Lee won the girls 100 meters, was third in the 200 and was sixth in the 100 hurdles. Alyssa Schwarz, Alexandra Van Hook, Gabrielle Louis-Charles and Allie Mannheimer were fifth in the 4×100. Hannah Taylor was fourth in the high jump. The Cougars were ninth among teams.
In Central Jersey Group III, Michelle Bazile won the shot put and discus to lead the Princeton High School girls to ninth place. Paige Metzheiser, Lou Mialhe, Julie Bond and Amelia Whaley took fifth in the 4×800. Maia Hauschild was fourth in the long jump.
West Windsor-Plainsboro South’s Dan Riff won the boys 1600 with Jake Riff fourth. Dan Riff also won the 3200 with Tom Vinci placing fifth. Eddison Gulama won the 800. Zabih Kotecha, Jake Riff, George Hamilton and Gulama placed third in the 4×800. The Pirates placed fourth in the team standings.
Antony Zeng was second and Jerrick Zhang was third in the boys shot put to pace West Windsor-Plainsboro North to ninth. Eddie Cunningham was sixth in the 3200. Dhruv Patel was sixth in the high jump. Jack Schilder was sixth in the javelin. Sam Praveen, Arvind Arikatla, Praneeth Gottipatti and Kevin Maa were fifth in the 4×800.
Montgomery’s Ross Baginsky won the javelin to help the Cougars place sixth as a team. Vlad Castillo was second in the discus. John Keller, Gavin Columbia, Greg Gottfried and Andy Arenciba were fifth in the 4×100. Kyle Merz was fifth and Cooper Schembor was sixth in the shot put. Gottfried took fifth in the long jump. Nick Hespe was third and Nick Youmans was sixth in the pole vault.
In CJ III, Princeton High School’s Tim Brennan won the discus and was fourth in the shot put. Anders Berg, Matt Wong, Conor Donahue and Jacob Rist combined to win the 4×800. Conor Donahue was second in the 1600 meters and fourth in the 800 meters. Jacob Rist was sixth in the 3200. Sabar Dasgupta was sixth in the 400 hurdles. The Little Tiger boys finished fifth. The top six, plus next best six finishers from all groups move on to the Meet of Champions the following week.
”Last year, I ran a little faster times,” Counts said. “This year, I’m kind of bummed about that. I wanted to PR at sectionals. Because I have other opportunities at groups, I know I can go in ready to compete and do well at groups.
”This year, I haven’t PR’d. I just want to do good and do well at groups. I’ve been there before and I have experience and I know what my competition is and what I have to do to beat my competition.”