MAPLs and Other League Championships
The CVC Championships were the big meet last week, but that included only 15 of the 23 Mercer County teams in action this season. Many of those other teams had their own league championships this last week! Here are some highlights from those meets and more.
MAPL Championships
While the CVC schools were battling in Robbinsville, Lawrenceville, Peddie, Pennington, and Hun were competing across the river in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, for the MAPL Championships. The Lawrenceville girls were the league champions with 182 points! The Lawrenceville boys finished in 3rd place, 24 points behind their rivals Hill.
Here are a few of the most noteworthy performances.
Boys Results
Boys Sprints. Tahmere Brown (Pennington, Fr.) joined the sub-11 club with a 10.93 in the prelims, and then he came back to win the final in 11.05. That makes him the #2 freshman in New Jersey this season!
Justin Bibeau (Hun, So.) went home with two bronze medals and two PRs after running 11.21 in the 100m and 22.57 in the 200m. Avery Radom took 5th place in both sprints, including with a 22.87 PR in the 200m.
Luke Chon (Peddie, Jr.) ran his first sub-52 open 400m with a 51.77 for 3rd place.
Boys Distance. Ayodele Joa-Griffith (Lawrenceville, Jr.) took 2nd in the 800m in 1:56.04 after a tight duel with Mercersburg’s Ryan Du Plessis. Baker Pott (Peddie, Sr.) also slipped under 2:00 with a 1:59.96 for 4th place. Luca Romanelli (Peddie, Jr.) ran a PR of 2:02.31 for 6th place.
In the boys 1600m, Arunav Sarkar (Lawrenceville, So.) dropped the rest of the field by 800m and cruised to victory in 4:31.54. In the 3200m, Owen Eldridge (Lawrenceville, Sr.) went sub-10 in his first race of the outdoor season, winning in 9:58.02 after a solid solo effort.
Boys Relays. Pennington (King Liu, Tahmere Brown, Seamus Manning, and Matthew Shapiro) won a tight boys 4x100m in a quick 43.98. According to MileSplit, that’s a school record! Lawrenceville took 3rd in a fast 4x400m where all the teams broke 3:30. Their time was 3:29.42, anchored by Ayodele Joa-Griffith in a phenomenal split of 48.80.
Boys Jumps. Ayo Britto (Lawrenceville, Sr.) matched his PR of 6-4 to take the win in a good competition where four boys cleared at least 6-0. Aslan Aksu (Lawrenceville, Jr.) won the pole vault with a first-attempt clearance of 12-0. Yoel Ajari (Peddie, Fr.), who was competing in the triple jump for the first time, had a great jump of 39-10.5 for 4th place.
Boys Throws. Ben Lahlou (Lawrenceville, Sr.) won the discus with a huge throw of 142-7, and he also threw 41-6.25 in the shot put to get 4th place. Parker Hamilton (Peddie) had the same results but in opposite events, winning the shot put in 50-10.5 and getting 4th with a 115-6 in the discus.
Girls Results
Girls Sprints. Sofia Swindell (Lawrenceville, Sr.) made it look easy with wins in the 100m, 100mH, and 400mH, but she was flying in all three events. In the dash, she ran 12.12 in the prelims and then 12.39 in the finals, giving her a half-second margin of victory. In the 100mH, she started with a 14.02 in the prelims and kicked it up a notch in the finals to go 13.91, which just about equals her NJ #3 13.90 from last week. She finished off the triple with a meet record of 1:03.11 in the 400mH.
Tessa Hughes (Peddie, Jr.) finished right behind Swindell in both hurdles races, going 14.95 in the 100mH and 1:04.49 in the 400mH. That 400mH time was a season’s best and puts her at NJ #21. Hughes also took 4th in the 200m with a 26.22, in addition to winning the high jump.
Lawrenceville girls swept the rest of the sprints. Senior Rhianna Scott won the 200m just ahead of junior teammate Jael Gaines, 25.68 to 25.78. Those were big PRs and the first time under 26 for both girls. Gaines got her own gold medal in the 400m, which she handily won in 58.40.
Girls Distance. Courtney Cane (Peddie, Sr.) had big victories in both the 800m and 1600m. Starting with the 1600m, she soloed a NJ #18 5:02.91. Then, she came back for the 800m and broke the meet record with a season’s best of 2:16.56, running a very impressive negative split. Behind her, Yasmin Willie (Lawrenceville, Fr.) and Rory Laubach (Lawrenceville, So.) both broke 2:20 for the first time in the open 800m, going 2:19.34 and 2:19.54.
Blair Bartlett (Lawrenceville, So.) saved it all for the 3200m in this meet, and the result was another historical, jaw-dropping time – 10:03.57 for the win! That’s #3 all-time in New Jersey, and it’s currently #10 in the whole United States. And she did after running an incredible 4:53 for her first 1600m. This was a gutsy, confident performance by one of the country’s top runners. Put her in a race with other national-caliber runners, and don’t be surprised if she holds that sub-5 pace for a lot longer.
Girls Relays. Lawrenceville took the win in both the 4x100m (50.39) and the 4x400m (4:07.76). Peddie finished 2nd behind Mercersburg in the 4x800m, but they ran a very solid season’s best of 10:22.41, one of their fastest times ever.
Girls Jumps. Just like last week, the Hughes sisters went 1-2 in the high jump, with Tessa Hughes (Peddie, Jr.) winning in 5-0 and Madeline Hughes (Peddie, Fr.) runner-up in 4-10. Rhianna Scott (Lawrenceville, Sr.) won the triple jump in 35-8 and took 2nd place in the long jump in 16-10, to add to her 1st-place medal in the 200m.
Girls Throws. Anna Casciano (Hun, Jr.) threw a 41-3.5 bomb on her final attempt, giving her a PR for the second straight weekend. That broke the meet record, and it moves her to #10 in New Jersey. Jesslyn Bentum (Lawrenceville, Sr.) also PR’d in 2nd place with a throw of 35-5. The discus was a closer match-up, but Casciano again got the win over Bentum, 107-5 to 106-0. Mya Smith (Hun, Jr.) completed the throwing sweep for Hun by winning the javelin with a throw of 96-7, just 4 inches ahead of Mercersburg’s Marlo Williams.
Haddonfield Distance Night
Wilberforce might’ve been the school most disadvantaged by the dissolution of the Mercer County Championships, since the Wolverines don’t have a conference or league meet to fall back on. To stay sharp in preparation for the NJSIAA groups in a few weeks, they entered a small squad in the 800m at the Haddonfield Distance Night on Monday, May 5th. Junior Laura Sallade led the way by placing 4th in 2:16.09, which trimmed a few tenths off her PR and makes her #23 in New Jersey right now. Sophomore Stella Blanchard also PR’d with a 2:22.88 for 8th place. Their top boy was senior Philip Schidlovsky, who ran a season’s best of 2:05.97.
ESDAA Championships
There are a few other small schools in Mercer County that may not get as much airtime on this website but still have track athletes that work hard and deserve recognition.
One of those teams is the Katzenbach School for the Deaf, which has been pretty active this season. After joining in with some prep schools for a tri meet in April, they traveled to Maryland last weekend for the Eastern Schools for the Deaf Athletic Association (ESDAA) Championships. The boys placed 6th place overall (out of 12 teams) and 2nd in their division, bringing home a trophy! Their girls team took 8th place overall.
Here are some notable individual results::
Zacarary Miller (So.) earned a silver medal in the 200m with a 24.48, and he also got a bronze medal in the 100m in 11.82.
Tre’Von Bulluck (So.) took on the 800m/1600m/3200m triple and did well. He earned a 4th-place certificate in the 3200m (12:52), along with getting 10th in the 1600m (6:02) and 13th in the 800m (2:54).
Alivia Williams (6th grade) placed 6th in the girls 200m with a 31.91.
In the girls distance events, Omega Priester (6th grade) earned two 6th-place certificates after running 3:26.70 in the 800m and 7:28.03 in the 1600m.
Daniela Olmos (Jr.) threw a PR of 21-5 in the girls shot put to get 6th place.
The Katzenbach girls were 5th in 4x100m (1:05.20) 7th in the 4x200m (2:25.74), and 2nd in the 4x400m (5:31.43).
BCSL Divisional Championships
Two other schools that deserve more recognition are Thrive Charter and STEM Civics. On May 3rd, the two schools both competed in the Burlington County Scholastic League Divisional Championships. Both schools were in the Independence Division, along with Palmyra and Holy Cross. Palmyra won the team competition for both boys and girls, but the Thrive boys got 2nd place, and the STEM Civics girls were 3rd, close behind Holy Cross. Here are some top individual performances.
Girls Sprints. Two freshman girls from STEM Civics, Azani Patterson and Azani Patterson, had great first track meets. Azani won the 200m in 28.86, while Azaria got 1st in the 400m in 1:09.98, 2nd in the 100m in 14.27, and 3rd in the 200m in 29.80.
Girls Throws. Emeli Hernandez (Thrive, Sr.) picked up two top-3 finishes. She was 2nd in the shot put with a 28-4 and 3rd in the discus with a 67-1.
Boys Sprints. Anthony McBride (Thrive, Fr.) had a fantastic day and got two wins, first in the 400m with a 54.36 and then in the 200m with a 24.09. Adolphus Temeh (Thrive, Jr.) completed the sprints sweep for Thrive by winning the 100m in 11.74.
Zimere Williams (STEM Civics, So.) was impressive in his difficult triple, getting 2nd in the 400mH in 1:05.27, 4th in the 400m in 56.39, and 5th in the 800m in 2:36.89. Trokon Johnson (STEM Civics, Jr.) took 3rd place in the 400m in 54.88, in addition to getting 7th in the 100m in 12.19.
Boys Distance. In the 800m, John Molinga (Thrive, Jr.) went out hard and held on for the win in 2:09.50. Jason Carias (Thrive, Jr.) and Justin Cedeno (Thrive, Jr.) went 2-3 in the 1600m with times of 5:17.97 and 5:22.41). Christian Killingsworth (STEM Civics, So.) placed 2nd in the 3200m with a 13:47.91, and he also got 4th in the 1600m in 5:39.95.
Boys Relays. Thrive ran a very strong 4x400m team (Teriyon Page, Adolphus Temeh, Anthony McBride, and John Molinga) that won in 3:38.64, a big improvement from their time at the TCNJ Invitational last month.