Frosh/Soph Meet Recap
The Penn Relays were the biggest meet of the week, but it weren’t the only one! On Saturday, Mercer County’s younger athletes got a chance to shine – despite the rainy weather – at the Mercer County Freshman/Sophomore Meet. These rising stars showed that there will still be plenty of big names to watch and cheer for over the next few years.
The sophomores and freshmen competed in separated divisions and mostly ran in different heats. This recap highlights the top performances of the day – which usually involved sophomores, unless noted otherwise. But check out the full results here!
Boys Highlights
Boys Sprints. The sophomore boys sprints featured some great duels between Kyle Carr (Princeton) and Adam Koszyk (Hightstown). In the 100m, Carr got the win over Koszyk in a photo finish, 11.48 to 11.49. The 200m was equally close but in reverse order, with Koszyk topping Carr 23.31 to 23.33. In both races, Jaquann Coleman (Lawrence) was just a step back in 3rd place, running 11.58 and 23.43. Those were PRs for all three boys in both races. In the 400m, Archer Seas (Hopewell Valley) dipped under 53 for the first time and won in 52.97.
Boys Distance. Sophomore Amir Mulkey (Notre Dame) is quickly developing into one of the top mid-distance runners in the county. Last week he ran a 2:01.76 at the SDA Spring Invitational, and this weekend he ran 2:00.51 to win the 800m. He had to run his best to hold off a great challenge from Silas Allevik (Hopewell Valley), who ran a 2-second PR of 2:01.74 for 2nd place – after having already run a 4:42.10 to win the sophomore 1600m earlier in the day.
The 3200m turned into an exciting 400m dash when freshman Lachlan Arnold (Princeton) and sophomore Mateo Abad-Delgado (Hightstown) both launched huge kicks on the final lap and went toe-to-toe down the homestretch. Arnold crossed the line just a hair ahead of Abad-Delgado, 10:11.11 to 10:11.12. Lachlan had never done the 3200m at a major meet, so that was an awesome debut. And Abad-Delgado also deserves credit for a great race just a few hours after getting 2nd place in the 1600m with a PR of 4:44.67.
Boys Hurdles. Yi-Tian Xiong (Princeton) ran a huge PR of 14.92 to win the sophomore 110mH. That’s about .75 better than his prior best, and it’s very fast – he’s just the fourth Mercer County sophomore to go sub-15 in the last 15 or 20 years. Alexander Nikolov (Lawrence) had a nice PR of his own to run 15.70 for 2nd place. In the 400mH, Matt Ryba (Notre Dame) broke 60 for the first time to win in 59.34. Tyson Brown (Ewing) also edged closer to that barrier with a PR of 1:00.43 for 2nd place.
Boys Jumps. Sullivan Spagnoli (Princeton) showed that he’s in great form this spring by clearing a new PR of 5-10, which was four inches higher than his best from this past winter. He won a close competition with Avery Hall (Princeton Day), who cleared 5-8. Spagnoli also won the long jump in 18-5.5. The sophomore triple jump went to Khalil Hardwick (Hamilton West) in a PR of 38-8.
Boys Throws. Jason Lee (WWP North) won the discus with a throw of 126-3, a PR by 5 feet. The shot put went to Dimiter Petrov (Princeton), who threw 38-2.25 in his first ever major shot put competition. In the javelin, Sean Chen (WWP North) won with a 20-foot PR of 137-2.
Girls Highlights
Girls Sprints. Sophomore Samya Jenkins (Lawrence) got the double sprint win in two super fast PRs. In the 100m, she won in 12.25, which is NJ #9 among reported times this spring. Then she ran even better in the 200m, winning in 25.16 – that’s NJ #4! In fact, out of all of MileSplit’s records, that 200m is #8 all-time in Mercer County. She’s certainly making her case as one of the fastest girl sprinters to come through the area in recent years.
Another sprinter who had a great day was Ariana Crusoe Gaye (Nottingham), who came home with three new PRs. She finished 2nd behind Jenkins in both the 100m (12.80) and 200m (26.35), and then she won the 400m by 2+ seconds in 1:02.45.
Girls Distance. Sydney Young (Hopewell Valley) headlined the distance events with a double win in the 800m-1600m, running 2:32.10 and 5:24.36. The runner-up in the 800m was Slavina Dusinchka (Lawrence) in 2:34.79. In the 1600m, Phoenix Roth (Princeton) narrowly outkicked Ava Donnelly (Lawrence) for 2nd place, 5:27.18 to 5:27.26. Freshman Rosemary Warren (Princeton) won the freshman 1600m in 5:42.78 and then doubled back to win the 3200m in a PR of 12:03.10. She finished the 3200m just ahead of Elsie Rey-de-Castro (Hopewell Valley), who won the sophomore division in 12:08.57.
Girls Hurdles. Freshman Angel Johnson (Ewing) had the fastest 100mH of the day, winning in 16.36. Johnson came back a few minutes later to also win the freshman 100m dash in 12.98, her first time under 13 seconds. The top 400mH runner was sophomore Della Gilligan (Princeton Day), who ran 1:10.31 to break her own school record.
Girls Jumps. Freshman Chloe Lewis (Hightstown) soared to a PR of 15-0.5 to win in the long jump by two inches over Angel Johnson (Ewing) at 14-10.5 and Katherine Williams (Hopewell Valley) at 14-10, who won the sophomore division. Jada Sands (WWP North) was the top triple jumper with a jump of 30-5. In the high jump, freshman Anamika Sertil (WWP North) was the lone girl over 4-8 to take the win in her first major track meet. Avery Rick (Hopewell Valley) cleared 8-6 for the pole vault win.
Girls Throws. Jayla Little (Ewing) won the shot put with a season’s best of 30-3.75, ahead of Jahleishai Juste (Hamilton West), who threw a nice PR of 29-6. The discus came down to a single inch, as Little edged Eva Gedrich (WWP North), 103-1 to 103-0, for her second win of the day. That was the first time beyond 100’ for both girls. Gedrich did get the win in the javelin, though, with a big PR of 95-11. That was three feet ahead of newcomer Ti’Kayla Smith (Nottingham), who threw 92-6 in her first major track meet.