Girls 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 girls 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.
And congratulations to the WWP North girls for winning the Central Group 3 sectional championship! Their 82 points gave them an exciting 4.5-point victory over Colts Neck.
Find the full results for Central Groups 1 and 4 here and Central Groups 2 and 3 here.
Photos by MileSplit (Tom Smith and Tom Harkins), Jason Lee, and myself.
Girls Friday Results
Girls 4x100m
Hightstown (Chloe Lewis, Jenna Ntori, Karli Kelly, and Aijah Somerselle) dipped under 50 for the second time this season and claimed the last qualification spot with a 49.98 for 6th place in Group 4.
Ewing (Faith Settles, Leah Daniels, Karis Crossland, and Angel Johnson) is headed to groups after running 50.35 for 5th place in Group 3. The Nottingham girls just barely missed qualifying despite a huge effort, running a school record of 50.83 for 7th place.
Girls 800m
Zui Chinchalkar (WWP North, Sr.) is the Group 3 sectional champion in the 800m! She chopped almost two seconds off her PR to win in 2:17.75. That’s the senior’s third sectional title in the 800m, after also winning outdoors as a sophomore and indoors as a junior. She’ll be joined at groups by Sydney Young (Hopewell Valley, So.), who ran 2:21.74 for 5th place.
Lena Murray (Princeton, So.) qualified for the Group 4 championships with a 4th-place finish in 2:21.24. She also qualified for groups indoors and has dropped her PR by 5 seconds since then.
Girls 400mH
Brie Davis-Owens (WWP North, Sr.) won her second consecutive Group 3 sectional championship in the 400mH! Her winning time was 1:04.38, which was almost 1 second ahead of 2nd place and almost two seconds faster than her winning time from last year. Haile Zimmerman (Steinert, Sr.) likewise matched her own 4th-place finish from last but with a much faster time this year, running 1:06.40.
After unleashing some fast times last week, Tomaisa Tard (Trenton, Jr.) kept the ball rolling by running 1:03.45 in the 400mH to take 2nd place in Group 4. That was a 2-second PR, and it brought her within 0.2 off the win. Two WWP South girls also qualified for groups as Anastasia Kudin took 4th in 1:05.28 and Saraiah Hoover got 5th in 1:06.06.
Girls 100m
Samya Jenkins (Lawrence, So.) and Ariana Crusoe Gaye (Nottingham, So.) are both headed to the Group 3 championships in the 100m. Jenkins ran 12.36 to match her 2nd-place result from last year’s sectionals. Crusoe Gaye followed just behind Jenkins, just like at CVCs last week, and took 3rd place in 12.59. Three others went sub-13 and were just on the cusp of qualifying: Gabriella Allen (Nottingham, So.) was 8th in 12.92, Ty’Onna Johnson (Nottingham, Jr.) was 9th in 12.96, and Anaiss Matos (Steinert, Sr.) was 10th in 12.97.
Aijah Somerselle (Hightstown, Jr.) just barely missed out on qualifying for groups after getting 7th place in Group 4 with a 12.86. She also ran a 12.76 in the prelims.
Girls 3200m
With two of the top distance girls in the state, Central Group 3 sectionals always bring out some tremendous battles between Allison Lee (WWP North, Jr.) and Liliah Gordon (Northern Burlington, Sr.). After Lee won in XC and Gordon won the indoor 3200m, Gordon narrowly outkicked Lee for the tiebreaker in the outdoor 3200m, 10:28.74 to 10:29.49. Those are fantastic times by both girls, who are currently ranked NJ #2 and NJ #4.
Izzy Meth (Lawrence, So.) continued her streak of excellent 3200m races by taking 4th place in 11:04.16. Claire Dumont (Hopewell Valley, Sr.) was just four seconds off the last qualification spot but still ran a 5-second PR of 11:13.93 for 7th place.
In Group 4, Kajol Karra (Princeton, Jr.) ran an outdoor PR of 11:01.85 to claim the 6th and final qualifying spot. Grace Hegedus (Princeton, So.) was next with a 7-second PR of 11:10.35 for 7th place.
Girls Discus
In Group 4, Sonjay Baylor-Reeves (Trenton, Sr.) threw 122-8 to finish 4th and qualify for her first group championships in the discus. In Group 3, Uchenna Obidike (Hopewell Valley, Sr.) also surpassed 120’ for the 2nd time this season with a throw of 120-4 for 2nd place. She was followed by Eva Gedrich (WWP North, So.) in 110-6 for 3rd place and Jayla Little (Ewing, So.) in 97-3 for 5th place. In Group 2, Makayla Rondinelli (Allentown, Jr.) took 2nd place with a throw of 113-3, just three feet off the win.
Girls Triple Jump
Zairra Galloway (Hamilton West, Sr.) is the Central Group 3 sectionals champion thanks to a 10-inch PR of 36-2.5! She’s the first Mercer County girl to go over 36’ this season. Anaiss Matos (Steinert, Sr.) had a season’s best of 33-8.5 to take 4th and advance to her first outdoor group championships. Alexis Johnson (Hamilton West, Jr.) jumped within an inch of her PR but wound up 8 inches short of 6th place, getting 7th in 32-4.
Girls Pole Vault
Teammates Sophie Trzaskus (Lawrence, Sr.) and Zuzanna Trzasko (Lawrence, Sr.) both matched their PRs of 9-6 to place 3rd and 4th in Group 3. Joining them at groups will be Avery Rick (Hopewell Valley, So.), who took 6th in 8-6.
Girls Saturday Results
Girls 400m
Running together in the second-to-last heat, Anastasia Kudin (WWP South, Sr.) and Claire Dumortier (WWP South, Sr.) finished 1-2 in the heat and 5-6 overall to qualify for the Group 4 championships. Kudin ran a season’s best of 59.40, while Dumortier broke 60 for the first time in the open 400m with a 59.90.
In Group 3, Ariana Crusoe Gaye (Nottingham, So.) impressively won the second-to-last heat by just 0.04 after running a 1-second PR of 59.50. After the final heat, it turned out that her battle for the heat win had also been the battle for the sixth and final qualifying spot, so her narrow win is sending her to groups.
Girls 4x800m
The Princeton girls (Lean Murray, Mila Trkov, Luna Xu, and Rachel Xin) are heading to groups in the 4x800m after running a season’s best of 10:01.13 for 5th place in Group 4. In Group 2, Robbinsville (Rithika Bodicherla, Tanvi Chandanala, Kellianne White, and Julia Meddahi) chopped 15 seconds off their season’s best to advance with a 4th-place finish in 10:16.62.
Half of the qualifiers in Group 3 came from Mercer County. WWP North (Vivian Ma, Fatima Arastu, Sara Secora, and Evelyn Yang) were 4th in 10:07.58, Hopewell Valley (Reidun Armendinger, Chelsea Cahall, Claire Dumont, and Elizabeth Eckel) were 5th in 10:16.75, and Lawrence (Slavina Dusichka, Kianna Verga, Shanaya Shroff, and Ava McKithen) took 6th in 10:43.31.
Girls 100mH
Adama Turay (WWP South, Sr.) apparently just started doing the hurdles this year, but she showed that she clearly has a talent for it after running a massive PR of 15.03 to get 4th place at Group 4 sectionals today. That’s a quarter-second faster than her prior PR from last week’s CVC Championships, despite having a slight headwind this time instead of a nice tailwind.
Just behind Turay, Tomaisa Tard (Trenton, Jr.) ran exceptionally well and took 5th in 15.16, after running 15.07 in the prelims.
In Group 3, Alicia Riggins (Lawrence, Sr.) comfortably took 2nd place with a time of 15.36. She was followed by Angel Johnson (Ewing, Fr.) in 3rd place with a PR of 15.63. Another Ewing freshman, Bryana Mason, finished just off the podium in 7th place but ran a huge PR of 16.27.
Girls 200m
Samya Jenkins (Lawrence, So.) got her second silver medal of the meet after taking 2nd place in Group 3 with a 25.59. Leah Daniels (Ewing, Jr.) equalled her result from last year in both place and time, getting 4th in 25.97 to advance to groups. Ariana Crusoe Gaye (Nottingham, So.) missed out on qualifying by just 0.06 getting 7th in 26.14.
In Group 4, Tomaisa Tard (Trenton, Jr.) returned to the track just minutes after the 100mH final to take 2nd place in the 200m with a 25.99. Anastaia Kudin (WWP South, Sr.) won her heat in a season’s best of 26.42 but came up short of qualifying for groups by just a few thousands of a second. But she’ll still be there in the 400mH and 400m.
Girls 1600m
Allison Lee (WWP North, Jr.) ran a very fast 1600m of 5:01.03 to pick up her second Group 3 silver medal, behind Liliah Gordon (Northern Burlington, Sr.). In a tight battle for 3rd place, Zui Chinchalkar (WWP North, Jr.) narrowly edged three other girls by less than a second, finishing in 5:08.51. One of those girls was Sydney Young (Hopewell Valley, So.), whose 5:09.44 was good for 6th place and a ticket to groups.
In Group 4, Kajol Karra (Princeton, Jr.) took 5th place in 5:13.54 to comfortably qualify for groups with a 7-second cushion.
Girls 4x400m
The Group 3 4x400m turned into a duel between the top two schools in the team scoring, Colts Neck and WWP North. Although the Cougars narrowly held off the Knights, WWP North (Nina Dixit, Mahima Bansal, Zui Chinchalkar, and Brie Davis-Owens) impressed with a 4-second season’s best of 4:00.72, just a half-second off their school record. WWP North also easily stayed close enough to Colts Neck to secure the team title over them.
In Group 4, Princeton (Kacey Howes, Leah O’Neill, Grace Zeng, and Lena Murray) ran a very quick season’s best of 4:06.03 out of the second-to-last heat, and that time held up to make them the 6th and final qualifier for groups.
Also in Group 3, Lawrence (Zuzanna Trzasko, Sophie Trzaskus, Sarah Conver, and Samya Jenkins) is heading to groups after running a massive season’s best of 4:10.33 to barely snag the last qualifying spot by just a half a second
Girls Shot Put
Mercer County almost swept all the medals the Group 3 shot put! Afua Apau (WWP North, Sr.) led the way with a huge throw of 37-5.25 for the win. That’s a 2-foot PR for her. Zi’Asia Williams (Nottingham, Jr.) threw a 6-inch PR of 34-8 to take the silver medal, and Uchenna Obidike (Hopewell Valley, Jr.) grabbed the bronze with a 34-3.5. Also headed to groups are 4th-placer Vanessa Bartinikowski (Hopewell Valley, Jr.) with a 10-inch PR of 32-6 and 5th-placer Jayla LIttle (Ewing, So.) in 31-3.75. Zoey DeSouza (Ewing, Fr.) was the unlucky 7th place finisher again – just like in indoor – despite having her second-best throw ever of 31-2. But the talented freshman will surely have more group championships ahead of her.
In Group 2, Makayla Rondinelli (Allentown, Jr.) threw 32-11 for a silver medal, just 3 inches away from 1st place.
Girls Javelin
Zi’Asia Williams (Nottingham, Jr.) threw over 100’ for the 3rd time this season, getting 2nd place with a new PR of 103-0. Her teammate Ti’Kayla Smith (Nottingham, So.) got 4th in 96-11, and Eva Gedrich (WWP North, So.) took 5th in 92-2. Abby Power (WWP North, Fr.) was just 3 inches away from a medal after throwing a PR of 89-0 for 7th place. In Group 4, Elizabeth Reisbord (Hightstown, Jr.) claimed 5th place with a throw of 94-5.
Girls Long Jump
Zairra Galloway (Hamilton West, Sr.) completed the horizontal jumps sweep in Group 3 with a huge leap of 17-9 for the long jump win! That was a PR by 10 inches. In Group 4, Chloe Lewis (Hightstown, Jr.) had a similarly big PR to take the silver medal with a jump of 17-4.5, which is #6 among NJ freshmen this spring. Adama Turay (WWP South, Sr.) also passed 17’ and took 4th place in 17-2.25.
Girls High Jump
Uchenna Obidike (Hopewell Valley, Jr.) took the Group 3 sectional title, winning the tiebreaker over Anamika Sertil (WWP North, Fr.) after both girls cleared 5-0. Nyviah Pacheco (Hamilton West, Sr.) cleared 4-10 to take the bronze medal, and Aditi Revuri (WWP North, So.) punched her ticket to groups with a 4-8 for 5th place. Angel Johnson (Ewing, Fr.) also looks set for a trip to groups after getting a share of 6th place with her 4-6 clearance. In Group 2, Amanda Hoglund (Allentown, Sr.) tied her season’s best of 4-10 to take 3rd place and advance to groups.