LV Runners Sprint to 2nd Place at Title Meet

The Long Valley Track Club placed 2nd at the Lakeland Junior Track and Field League’s Championship Meet that took place at Randolph High School on Saturday, June, 9. Athletes, (boys/girls ages 9-15) from 18 New Jersey teams competed in this annual event, all having one goal in mind: winning.

In every event, the first 8 places score points for their team. With 48 events in total, every point counts.

In previous years, the 1st place team’s score was 275. However this year, some scores peaked above 300 points. In our division, scores over 300 haven’t appeared since 2002.

There were many highlights in this meet for Long Valley. One major highlight was 10 year-old Luke Lusskin running 800 meters in 2:34.08, beating a meet record and finishing 1st in that race with Henry Menke placing 2nd in 2:50.26. Together, they collected 18 points for Long Valley. For the girls 11-12 year old division Ava Lusskin won in 2:42.09.

Another highlight was Sierra Castaneda winning the 13-15 year old girls 800 in 2:29.72 and mile run in 5:33.35.

In most of the 48 events Long Valley was able to score at least some points which added up for a strong 2nd place finish.

Even if some runners didn’t score points, almost everyone improved their performance. The meet couldn’t have been any better for the competitors.

At the end of the day, Long Valley held second place with 302 points. Just 9 points behind us was Mountain Lakes, and ahead of us, placing first, was Madison with 388 points. The team is preparing for next year, when hopefully Long Valley can claim 1st place. 

Information and photos provided by Vincent Vuskalns. Vuskalns is a 5th grade student at Flocktown-Kossmann Elementary School. 

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