Week 5 Recap: Tsai Relays, Officials HOF Invitational, and Millrose Games Trials
The winter track season continues heating up! Here are the highlights from across Mercer County for January 5 through January 11.
Millrose Games Trials
On Wednesday, January 7, Lawrenceville brought a small but mighty squad up to the Armory to race at the Millrose Games Trials.
Lawrenceville’s Jael Gaines locks in on 1st place as she gets the baton in the private school 4×400m at the Millrose Games Trials. | Laurel Wassner (@exl.sportsmedia) for MileSplit
Their girls 4x400m team (Yasmin Willie, Blake Hatwood, Rory Laubach, and Jael Gaines) won the private school division by just over a second in 4:08.32, which is #1 in Mercer County and #9 in New Jersey this year. That win also qualified them for the actual Millrose Games on February 1.
The Big Red also stacked a boys 4x800m team (Arunav Sarkar, Ayodele Joa-Griffith, Bastian Bocklage, and Mohamed Mohamed), and they finished 5th out of 25 teams in a 8:06.07. That’s #4 in the state right now.
Blake Hatwood also competed individually in the 55m and made the most of the opportunity by crushing her PR with a county-leading 7.34 for 9th place.
Officials Hall of Fame Invitational
On Saturday, January 10, Princeton and Hun brought representatives up to the Armory for the Officials Hall of Fame Invitational — officially named the Refuel with Chocolate Milk Officials HOF Invitational 2026.
Hun’s Anna Casciano not only won the shot put but set a meet record of 42-4. In fact, she broke the old meet record of 41-2.25 on almost all of her throws! She’s still at #2 in the state rankings this winter.
Princeton’s Kajol Karra and Grace Hegedus both pulled off a tough and impressive double, racing the invitational 2 Mile in the morning and then the invitational 1 Mile in the afternoon. In the opener, Karra ran 11:06.77 to take 3rd place in a very quick race where five girls ran 11:08 or faster. Hegedus followed closely in 11:14.04 for 6th place, which was a new 3200m/2-Mile PR for her. Those are excellent results that put Karra and Hegedus at #3 and #7 on the state 3200m leaderboard. A few hours later, they both ran season’s bests in the 1 Mile, with Karra taking 8th in 5:15.01 and Hegedus finishing 11th in 5:18.03.
Two other Princeton girls earned top-20 finishes in the 2-Mile. Eowyn Deess took 17th in 11:56.27, and sophomore Emma Dweck had a breakthrough race to finish 3rd in her heat and 18th overall in 11.59.14.
In the sprints, Princeton’s Johanna Kraft introduced herself as a name to watch out for in the coming years: The freshman hurdler just ran 9.09 to place 12th in the 55mH in her very first high school meet. Not only does that time put her at #2 in Mercer County right now, but it’s #2 among all freshman girls in New Jersey this year.
In other sprints, Lena Murray competed in the invitational 500m and placed 7th in 1:21.69, while Simone Henriques ran a 55m PR of 7.68 to place 17th in the highest varsity division. Both girls doubled back in the 300m, with Henriques running a 44.31 and Murray going 44.54.
On the boys side, junior hurdler Yi-Tian Xiong claimed 2nd place in the 55mH final with a huge race, dropping his PR from 7.87 to 7.74, which is #18 in the state this winter. Fletcher Harrison competed in the invitational 500m and finished in the top 10 with a 1:08.64 for 9th place. Thrower Eddie Del Cid placed 17th in the shot put with a toss of 41-4.5.
Here are some great photos of the Princeton athletes in action, as taken by @ro_bo_pics_:
Tsai Relays
Also on January 10, Allentown, Lawrence, Notre Dame, Nottingham, Peddie, and Pennington all made the short trip to Lawrenceville for the Tsai Relays, the largest indoor competition hosted in Mercer County. It was a fast and competitive meet that also attracted strong programs like Hunterdon Central, Passaic Tech, and more.
Below are Mercer County’s top finishers, but see full results here. You can also catch photos of most local competitors in the photo album linked below.
Notre Dame’s Matt Ryba clears the final hurdles on the second leg of the SHR at the Tsai Relays. | Track Mercer
Boys SHR. Notre Dame’s quartet of Aldric Crawford, Matt Ryba, Bryce Marsh, and Zamir Jones blasted a NJ #6 31.44 to win the shuttle hurdles relay by just 0.1 over CBA. And that was even with leadoff man Crawford have to race twice in a five-minute span — Notre Dame originally went off in heat 1, but they had to stop on the second leg because the runner in a neighboring lane took out one of Notre Dame’s hurdles on the first leg. But the Crawford and his Irish teammates lined up again in heat 2 and got it done.
Allentown’s hurdlers also had a good day: Kamran Raval, Andre Cooper, Dylan Voehl, and Dominic Rodriquez teamed up to set an Allentown school record of 35.47 for 4th place.
Boys DMR and 4x1600m. The Lawrenceville boys took 2nd in a close DMR that came down to the wire after 4000m. Their time of 10:59.62 was less than a second back from Passaic Tech, as the two schools ran NJ #12 and NJ #13 DMR times this winter. Those two teams finished in the same order in the 4x1600m, with Lawrenceville running a 20:20.21 for the 32-lap race.
Boys SMR. Notre Dame finished 2nd in the SMR with a time of 3:43.36, and Lawrence followed in 4th place with a season’s best of 3:53.38.
Boys 4x200m. Peddie was Mercer County’s top school in the 4x200m, with the Falcons running a season’s best of 1:35.80 for 4th place. That’s #4 in the county this winter.
Boys 4x800m. Peddie’s strong mid-distance core of Elie Meyer, Theo Stalalatas, Dayser Bullock, and Luca Romanelli won the 4x800m with a nice performance of 8:37.50, which is #2 in Mercer County and #28 in New Jersey this winter. Notable splits include Meyer and Romanelli both going 2:01 on their legs. Allentown also dipped under 9 minutes with a 8:57.45 for 2nd place.
Boys 4x400m. Notre Dame was the top Mercer County school in the 4x400m, running 3:36.38 for 4th place. Nottingham also had a great day and finished close behind the Irish, with a season’s best of 3:38.58 to win heat 2 and place 5th overall.
Boys Long Jump. Lawrence’s Isaiah Grier, a senior doing track for the first time, crushed his long jump debut and placed 1st at the Tsai Relays with a soaring second attempt of 20-1.25. That puts him at #4 in Mercer County this winter. Allentown’s Braxton Rondinelli also had a nice jump of 19-4, just an inch off his PR, to take 5th place.
Boys High Jump. Allentown’s Dylan Voehl claimed his second win of the season with a clearance of 6-2, beating out a trio of competitors from CBA and Hill who topped out at 6-0. Voehl has been remarkably consistent this winter, clearing 6-0 in all five meets and going 6-2 at three of them.
Lawrenceville’s Aslan Aksu just narrowly knocks the bar while attempting a new pole vault PR of 13-6. | Track Mercer
Boys Pole Vault. Lawrenceville senior Aslan Aksu tied for 1st place in the pole vault after clearing 13-0 on his second attempt. That was a season’s best and matched his PR.
Boys Shot Put. Lawrenceville’s throwers had a big day, with seniors Jabralyn Jones and Joshua Witherspoon both setting PRs to place 2nd and 3rd overall (and 1st in the overall relay). Jones threw a 3-inch PR of 50-10.5 — just a quarter-inch off the individual win — to improve on his county-leading mark. Witherspoon crushed his old PR by 3.5 feet, throwing 48-7.25 in his first meet of the year.
Girls SHR. Notre Dame finished 3rd in the shuttle hurdles relay, outleaning Mount Saint Mary by a mere 0.05 seconds.
Girls DMR. Lawrenceville finished 3rd in the DMR in 13:44.56, one place of ahead of Allentown in 14:06.44.
Girls SMR. Lawrenceville loaded their SMR team with Blake Hatwood, Aurielle Ellington-McIntosh, Jael Gaines, and Yasmin Willie, and the quartet came away with the big win in a NJ #8 4:21.02. They held off a strong challenge from Mount Saint Mary, who finished 3 seconds back in a NJ #15 4:24.54. Peddie (6th in 4:32.64) and Lawrence (7th in 4:34.39) also ran season’s bests and broke into the top 40 in the state.
Girls 4x200m. Lawrenceville’s whole SMR team doubled back in the 4x200m and, although they didn’t quite get the win this time, they dropped a very strong runner-up time of 1:47.75, which puts them at #18 in New Jersey.
Also impressive were the Peddie girls: running all alone in heat 4, the quartet of Mya Griffith, Foluke Oladeji, Madeline Hughes, and Tessa Hughes still produced a NJ #24 time of 1:49.27 to take 4th overall. Nottingham delivered a season’s best of 1:51.51 for 7th place.
Girls 4x800m. Allentown was Mercer County’s top team in the 4x800m, with Addison Meyers, Maura Goddeyne, Olivia Rodriquez, and Addison Frascella earning 2nd place in 10:40.00, which is #2 in Mercer County this winter. Also breaking 11:00 were the Lawrence girls, who finished 5th in a season’s best of 10:58.98.
Notre Dame’s Gabriella Mandell leads the field on the first lap of the 4×400m at the Tsai Relays. | Track Mercer
Girls 4x400m. The last event of the day was a fast one, with four girls teams running 4:15 or faster. That included Notre Dame, whose quartet of Gabriella Mandell, Ava Fallon, Abby Lobis, and D’Njah Tatum ran a season’s best of 4:15.83, which is #2 in Mercer County and #25 in New Jersey.
Girls Jumps. Lawrenceville’s Aurielle Ellington-McIntosh matched her PRs in both the long jump (8th in 15-7) and high jump (6th in 4-8). Nottingham’s Gabriella Allen also cleared 4-8 in the high jump — which was a new PR for her — to finish in 7th place.
Girls Shot Put. Lawrenceville sophomore Madison Boone took 2nd place with a throw of 30-5, and her teammate Olivia Allison followed in 6th place with a season’s best of 28-10.5.