The recent performance at the Morris County Championships underscored the quality of this year's squads. The boys took a prestigious 3rd place overall in the team battle. Senior captain Aeron Gilson repeated as 300m champion, breaking the school record with a 36.40. The time is the 3rd fastest in NJ this season. He then anchored the relay home at the end of the meet, anchoring in 50.1. It was Gilson's 6th gold medal at County Championship Meets, counting indoor and outdoor, and 4th individual title. This will make Gilson First Team All County for the 4th time in his career in his last 4 seasons.
Soph Scott Rennalls, junior Dan Maya, and senior Chris Orihuela ran the first three legs before Gilson to record a team time of 3:32, a best this winter by 10 seconds!
Earlier, Maya almost pulled off an upset in the 55m, taking second and missing first by .01 in 6.73. Rennalls placed 3rd in the 1000m to continue his outstanding soph season, improving to 2:40. Another 3rd was racked up by jr. Matt Herb in the h.j. at 6'. Sr. captain Jon Weiss smashed his p.r. in running 4:34 and taking 4th in the 1600. Sr. vaulter Kevin Lepore snared a 6th place with a p.r. 10'6" in the pole vault.
On the girls' side, sr. Val Zielinski knocked 5 sec. off her best to run a gutsy 3:08 in the 1000 and place 5th. Classmates Gianna Pastena placed 4th in the high jump in 4'10" and Jacinta Ford 6th in the 55m dash. On both the boys and girls sides there were a number of top 10 finishes that were impressive as well as many personal and season bests.
At last Saturday's state Group 3 relays, the boys sprint medley team of Gilson, Dan Maya, John Johnson, and Rennalls brought home 4th place medals, running their fastest of the season in 3:44. Several outstanding performances were turned in, notably the sprint medley just mentioned, the boys shuttle hurdles (Byron Reed, Chris Duran, Matt Herb, and Johnson), the girls high jump (Gianna Pastena, Laura Goodfriend), and the boys 4 x 800 (Orihuela, Weiss, Chris Schneider, Weiss), who just missed the school record by a second.
The state sectionals are on Wed., 2/3 at Toms River. The boys will be defending their title from next year. Should be interesting.
One of the shining moments as several weeks ago was the sophomore girls' first place team finish at the County Frosh/Soph Championships. Armani Blair won both the 55 and 55 H, Laura Goodfriend the high jump, and Ashley Tomasula the pole vault. In the soph boys, Scott Rennalls won the gold in the 600m.
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