Boys Recap from NJSIAA Sectionals Central
Sectionals is the biggest meet of the year for most track & field athletes in New Jersey, and Mercer County’s competitors were ready for it! Every single team will have multiple representatives at the group championships later this month.
Check out this list of all the Mercer County boys who qualified for groups by finishing in the top six of their events, and scroll down for a write up with even more highlights, including some athletes who didn’t qualify but who still produced some remarkable efforts to come very close.
Find full results for Central Groups 1 and 4 here and Central Groups 2 and 3 here.
Photos by Tom Smith and Tom Harkins for MileSplit
Boys Friday Results
Boys 4x100m
The Allentown boys (Cedric Mbachu, Matthew Woode, Scott Jordan, and Gavin Alvarez) started off a successful meet by putting together another excellent 4x100m relay, winning the Group 2 sectional in 42.77. That’s just off their school record of 42.47 from earlier this year. Their time was #12 among all schools in all sections on Friday, and they’ll be the #1 seed at the Group 2 championships.
Robbinsville was a big surprise when they took 3rd place in Group 2 with a 43.57. They came into the meet seeded 13th with a season’s best of 45.60, but Friday’s squad (Noah Blackman, Will Strickland, Yaw Appiah, and Mitchell Shapiro) vastly exceeded those expectations and won their heat by almost a full second.
In Group 4, WWP South (Aydun Hines, Eihiko Okamoto, Julius Kinsler, and Josiah Cureton) ran a season’s best of 43.36, the #2 time in Mercer County this season. They needed every bit of that improvement to secure the 6th and final qualification spot, just 0.09 ahead of 7th.
Just as Robbinsville did in Group 2, Hamilton West (Jamel Cheeseborough-Williams, Brandon Boswell, Brian Boswell, and Marcus Fortune) surprised everyone with a massive season’s best of 43.50 to take 5th place and advance to groups, despite coming into this race as the 10th seed. That makes the Hornets #3 in Mercer County this spring.
Boys 800m
Subomi Allison (WWP North, Sr.) ran a season’s best of 1:56.27 to place 3rd in the Group 3 800m and qualify for groups. Just like at the Mercer Coaches Classic, he was followed very closely by Tyler Hurst (Steinert, Jr.), who took 4th in 1:56.66. Mohamed Toure (Nottingham, Sr.) closed the gap on both those boys by running a season’s best of 1:57.08 for 5th place.
Boys 400mH
Tyson Brown (Ewing, So.) is headed to the Group 3 championship after running 59.93 for 3rd place. In heat 2 of 4, Wilhelm Teuchert-Lewis (Hamilton West) and Xavier Mays (Steinert) pushed each other to massive PRs of 1:00.51 and 1:00.65, respectively, as both boys came within a quarter-second of qualifying.
In a very competitive Group 4, Yi-Tian Xiong (Princeton, So.) didn’t qualify for groups but he did break 58 for the first time, going 57.93 for 12th place.
Boys 100m
Allentown is sending three boys to groups in the 100m thanks to impressive performances from Gavin Alvarez, Matthew Woode, and Cedric Mbachu. The three seniors doubled back from the 4x100m to each win their prelim heats and advance to the final, where they went 2-3-5. Alvarez led the way in 10.92, just 0.02 off the win. Woode was a solid 3rd place in 11.04, and then Mbachu grabbed 5th in 11.24.
Boys 3200m
Agrim Jha (WWP North, Fr.) impressed with a 9:28.29 for 2nd place in Group 3, just a second back from one of the top two-milers in the state, Colts Neck’s Jay Adimala. His teammate Paul Wittenberg (WWP North, So.) PR’d in his third straight meet with a 9:52.66 for sixth place. Finnegan Curley (Hopewell Valley, So.) booked his second trip to groups in the 3200m by running a 10:04.42 for 5th place.
In Group 4, Burke Thompson (Hightstown, Sr.) comfortably qualified for groups by getting 3rd place in 9:34.48, just a second off his PR.
The Allentown distance boys timed their peak just right, with all of them running PRs in the Group 2 3200m. They were led by Landon Kent (Allentown, Sr.) who prolonged his final high school season by dropping a huge PR of 9:49.40 for 5th place – that was 23 seconds faster than the PR that he had run just last week. John O’Leary (Allentown, Jr.) actually PR’d by even more, and although he just missed out on qualifying for groups, he barely joined the sub-10 club with his 9:59.96 for 8th place.
Boys Shot Put
Sean Wilton (Princeton, Sr.) won his first outdoor Group 4 sectional title with a throw of 58-0, his second-farthest ever outdoors. In Group 3, Ernest Gaykai (Nottingham, Sr.) earned his spot at groups with a throw of 49-7 for 3rd place. In Group 2, Brandon Zambrio (Allentown, Sr.) had a PR of 45-3 that put him just off the podium in 7th place.
Boys Javelin
Evan Miller (Allentown, Jr.) took 2nd place at the Group 2 sectionals with a big throw of 160-3. That’s a PR by almost 8 feet. Mason Marcantonio (Allentown, Sr.) also booked his spot at groups with a throw of 154-8 for 5th place. In Group 3, Dan Pszczolkowski (Hopewell Valley, Sr.) came through with a throw of 149-1 to get the last qualifying spot.
Boys Long Jump
Ishaq Inayat (Princeton, Sr.) had a very solid jump of 20-5.25 to grab the 6th and final qualifying spot for the Group 4 championships by just an inch.
Thrive Charter will have two long jumpers represent them at the Group 1 championships in the school’s first year. Teriyon Page (Thrive, Jr.) PR’d by over 10 inches to take 2nd place in 20-4.25, three inches off the win. Johnny Hammock Jr. (Thrive, Sr.) PR’d by over a foot to take 4th in 19-11.5. Another Titan, Kim Ross (Thrive, Jr.) was just an inch away from joining them at groups after jumping 19-1.5 for 8th place.
In Group 3, Ege Kanadli (Nottingham, Sr.) jumped a 1-inch PR of 19-10 to place 5th and qualify for groups. William Carrick (Lawrence, Sr.) missed out on 6th place by an agonizing 0.25, but he deserves credit for jumping a big PR of 19-6.75 to get that close.
Boys High Jump
Tyson Brown (Ewing, So.) qualified for groups in his second event of the day with a clearance of 5-8 in the high jump, which got him 4th place in Group 3. Roman Roberts (Lawrence, Jr.) and Joshua Wilson (Lawrence, So.) will also get a trip to groups after they were part of a five-way tie for 5th place at 5-6.
Boys Saturday Results
Boys 400m
Julius Kinsler (WWP South, Jr.) got his first sectional title with a spectacular 48.62 to win the Group 4 400m! He won not only his heat but also the race against the clock after Manalapan’s Crue Brown posted a 48.70 in the prior heat, That’s half-second PR for Kinsler, and it puts him at #10 in New Jersey.
In Group 2, Gavin Alvarez (Allentown, Sr.) opened his Saturday with another nice race, running 49.45 to take 3rd place, just 0.06 behind 1st place. Behind Alvarez, Will Strickland (Robbinsville, Jr.) booked his first trip to a group championship by placing 6th in 50.18.
Dasan Jones (Ewing, Jr.), who last week got 2nd in both the 100m and 200m at the CVC Championship, stepped up to the 400m here and earned a spot at the Group 3 Championship with a 4th place finish in an outdoor PR of 50.08.
Boys 110mH
Yi-Tian Xiong (Princeton, So.) is headed to his first Group 4 Championships after taking the 6th and final qualifier spot in the 110mH. He ran a quick 14.97, despite his finals heat facing a much stiffer headwind than the other heat.
In Group 3, Calvin Kallie (Ewing, Sr.) is timing his peak just right and ran a PR of 15.22 to take 2nd place. Alexander Nikolov (Lawrence, So.) also had a huge race in the finals and dropped a massive PR to take 5th place in 15.44. Two other boys who ran nice PRs but just missed the top six were Tyson Brown (Ewing, So.), who was 7th in 15.84, and Mekhi Edwards (Lawrence, So.), who was 9th in 16.08.
Boys 4x800m
Coming into sectionals, Hightstown was the only 4x800m team that had broken 8:25 this season. But five more did it on Saturday!
WWP North led the way by getting 2nd place in Group 3. Their squad of Subomi Allison, Jordan Andrade, Luke Ferrer, and Agrim Jha ran an excellent time of 8:09.96. Also in Group 3, Ewing (Jayden Studivant, Ibrahim Songu, Shazad Singh, and Landyn Loesch) just barely edged Steinert (Maximilian Kostin, Adam Szpakowski, Nathanial Bigger, and Nihar Kolachalama) for 4th place, 8:22.30 to 8:22.75, and the two teams will get a rematch at groups.
In Group 4, Hightstown (Mateo Abad-Delgado, Matt DeAngelo, Mason Johnson, Adisa Stewart) ran a great time of 8:17.10, just a second off their school record from earlier this year, to place 5th and qualify for groups. Princeton ran a big season’s best of 8:19.45 but came up just 2 seconds short of 6th place.
In Group 2, the Allentown boys (Aiden Schwartz, John O’Leary, Ethan Urig, Amrit Moehringer) qualified for groups by placing 5th in a close race with a season’s best of 8:24.41.
Boys 200m
Julius Kinsler (WWP South, Jr.) took 4th place in the Group 4 200m with a 22.44, which was the fastest time of the day among Mercer County runners.
In Group 2, Gavin Alvarez (Allentown, Sr.) finished top-3 in his fourth event of the meet by running a 22.83 for 2nd place. He’ll be joined at groups by his classmate Scott Jordan (Allentown, Sr.), who took 6th in 23.31. With Jordan’s qualification in the 200m, that means every member of the Redbirds’ champion 4x100m team will also get to compete in individual events at groups.
Dasan Jones (Ewing, Jr.), who had already qualified in the 400m yesterday, came back today and claimed the final qualifier spot in the 200m with a 22.85 for 6th place in Group 3.
Boys 1600m
Burke Thompson (Hightstown, Sr.) finally had the big breakthrough race we knew was coming. After running between 4:26 and 4:33 more than a dozen times in the last two years, he dropped a massive 4:18.17 for 2nd place at the Group 4 sectionals! That bumps him up to #15 in New Jersey.
Shravan Pradeep (WWP South, Sr.), who ended up not racing the 3200m – where he had lots of success indoors – is still headed to groups aftering putting together a fantastic 1600m and getting 6th place in Group 4 with a 2-second PR of 4:22.73.
In Group 3, Mercer County is sending two boys after Tyler Hurst (Steinert, Jr.) and Silas Allevik (Hopewell Valley, So.) comfortably qualified, 10 seconds ahead of 7th place. Hurst finished 4th in 4:31.07, and Allevik took 6th in 4:32.11.
Boys 4x400m
Nottingham (Mohamed Toure, Liam Cox, Mathias Doliet, and Nkemakolam Uduma) had a phenomenal race to place 2nd in Group 3 with a time of 3:25.41. Not only did that knock 5 seconds off their season’s best, but it’s the second-fastest 4x400m time by any Mercer County team all school year.
WWP North (Sid Hamsala, Luke Ferrer, Subomi Allison, and Madhav Hadagali) edged out Ewing for the last qualifying spot in Group 3, 3:31.68 to 3:32.85. Those were season’s bests for both schools.
Boys Discus
After winning the shot put on Friday, Sean Wilton (Princeton, Sr.) came back and took 2nd place in the Group 4 discus with a throw of 148-2. In Group 3, JaQuaye Barnes (Hamilton West, Sr.) qualified for his first groups with a throw of 132-10 for 3rd place.
Boys Triple Jump
In Group 4, Syvester Somerselle (Hightstown, Sr.) uncorked a 10-inch PR of 43-11 to take 4th place and advance to groups. In Group 3, Wenyan Kermah (Ewing, Sr.) matched his PR of 41-1 to qualify in 5th place.
Boys Pole Vault
Aaron Mason (Lawrence, Sr.) had a clutch clearance of 11-6 to set a new PR and qualify for groups with a 5th-place finish. Herbert Addo (Nottingham, Jr.) and Will Flannery (Hopewell Valley, So.) also jumped great and PR’d at 10-6, but they ended up just missing out on a share of 6th place due to the tiebreaker on attempts.