Track Teams Running Through Championship Season

A school record time in the girls 3200, multiple gold medal winners and an assortment of personal records were the highlights in recent meets for the boys and girls track and field teams of West Morris Central High School.

In what seems to be an annual event, the West Morris Central girls’ high jumpers proved to be the class of the field en route to a gold medal at the Morris County Relay Championships, marking the third consecutive year that WMC girls have won the event.

The high jump victory, along with a first place finish in the discus highlighted a strong showing for the Central girls track team, which finished in fifth place overall after two days of competition at Morris Knolls High School in Denville.

Girls head coach Jay Herrigel was justifiably proud of his team, which continues to exceed expectations this season. "The girls had their best performance at the County Relays in over 20 years. It was so nice to see the high jump girls win the gold for a third year in a row. Also, winning discus was quite a nice surprise! I'm very proud of the girls and our success is shared with the whole coaching staff at WMC (Coach Lawrence, Coach Hennelly, Coach Sima, Coach Bailey, Coach Copen, and Coach Frayne).”

In the high jump, Kendall Ballotti and Meggie LaGueux joined four other girls with the best jump of the day, at 5 feet. With Kelsey Cronin contributing a jump of 4-10, the team’s total of 14 feet, 10 inches was six inches ahead of second place Whippany Park. Ballotti has been on the winning high jump relay team all three years, while LaGueux has been a contributor on the last two winners.

Coach Herrigel always seems to have a deep roster of capable high jumpers, as the WMC girls are also the two-year reigning champs in the high jump at the Morris County Indoor Relay Championships (that’s five County Relay Championships in a row).

In the other winning event for the West Morris girls, Carli Thurber finished fourth overall in the discus with a throw of 107-3 and teamed with Brielle Kelly (86-9) and Christen Cooper (81-2) for a combined total of 275-2, beating second place Montville by over 4 feet. 

The throwers also gained second place points in the shot put as Thurber finished third overall with a throw of 38-1 followed by Cooper (30-5) and Christina Egan (27-10.5) to trail only Jefferson.

On the track, the girls scored points in five events, led by two third place finishes in the 4x1600 and Distance Medley Relays. 

The 4x1600 meter team got off to a good start thanks to a personal best opening leg from Sierra Castaneda (5:18). Lauren Toth (5:31), Brennan Sharkey (5:20) and anchor Kylene Cochrane (5:02) followed for an overall season best time of 21:11. 

Coach Herrigel was thrilled with the performance of his relay team in this loaded field, saying, “if you look back 20 years at the results of the 4x1600, not a single team has come close to beating 22 minutes. This year, there were five teams under 22 minutes and two of those teams were under 21 minutes. These are the best times in the State of New Jersey this year. West Morris has never had a team of four girls who can run an average 1600 meters in 5:17. This is an amazing time." 

Central’s Distance Medley team of Sharkey (3:59 for 1,200 meters), Katie Sabatino (1:01 for 400), Toth (2:23 for 800) and Cochrane (5:00 for 1,600) held off Mount Olive for third place in a time of 12:26.

In the Sprint Medley, Cochrane ran a strong (2:16) 800 meter anchor leg to rally Central from the middle of the pack to a fourth place finish.   Charlotte Hauser (29:37 for 200 meters), Tanna Holzworth (27:5 for 200) and Castaneda (1:02 for 400) had opened the relay for WMC, which finished the race in 4:17:29.

And to round out the scoring for Central, the hurdlers finished fifth in both of their events.  In the 400 hurdles contested on Friday, the team of Katie Sabatino (1:08:82 – 6th overall), Brigitte Rec (1:10:26) and Sondra Iozzia (1:12:08) all performed well in a very competitive field.  Rec (16:99), Sabatino (17:25), Iozzia (17:35) were joined by Kelsey Cronin (16:65) to gain a fifth place finish in the 100 hurdles in a time of 1:09:05.

On the boys’ side, the top finishes for West Morris were in the 4x1600 and the high jump relays.

In the 4x1600, Teddy Meiners (5:05), Nick Kontos (4:43), Michael Carberry (4:59 – a personal best) and David Reed (4:37) combined for a time of 19:23:11. Reed passed a number of runners on his anchor leg, but had too much ground to make up to catch sixth place Madison and earn team points.

And, in the high jump, Reed (5-6) teamed with Brian Degen (5-3) and Patrick Goodhand (5-0) to combine for a height of 15-9, three inches shy of sixth place Morris Hills. 

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the West Morris boys and girls teams traveled to Morris Hills High School to compete in the Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference Championships for large schools. 

The highlight of day one for WMC was senior Carli Thurber’s victory in the shot put with a throw of 37-4, almost three feet better than her next competitor.  Thurber will take her considerable throwing skills to Kutztown University in the fall.

The most anticipated race on day one was the girls 1600, featuring five state champions in the same race.  West Morris’ Kylene Cochrane was more than up to the task and was one of four girls to go under 5 minutes, finishing fourth in a season best time of 4:57:26.  Freshman Sierra Castaneda acquitted herself very well in the fastest field in which she has ever competed, with a personal best time of 5:16:78, the top time of any freshman in the conference.

Pole vaulter Marlena Paz rounded out the first day scoring for WMC’s girls, clearing a season best height of 10 feet, to take fourth place in her specialty.

On the boys’ side, WMC’s distance stalwart David Reed had a very strong 1600.  Reed ran consistent splits in the middle of the pack for three laps, but finished with a flourish, passing Mendham’s Paul Ehmann at the tape to take fifth place with a season best time of 4:28.02. Junior Michael Carberry continued to show improvement in his first year of track, bettering his own best time down to 4:53:73.

Day two of the NJAC Championships was contested under overcast skies after raining much of the morning. Kylene Cochrane got the WMC girls off to a good start with a fifth place finish in the 800 meters, with a time of 2:17:81. WMC’s two other 800 runners in the race both ran personal bests, as Lauren Toth ran a 2:22:25 and Meghan Lloyd broke the 2:30 mark for the first time with a 2:29:77.

Brennan Sharkey put another exclamation point on what has been an outstanding season when she set a new school record in the 3200 with a 10:52:57, good for third place in another loaded distance field. Herrigel remarked how proud he is to have two of the best distance runners in school history (school record holders Sharkey and Cochrane) on the team this year.  And, best of all for him and WMC, they are both juniors.

Central’s high jumpers continued their run of success this spring, with Kelsey Cronin and Kendall Ballotti among five jumpers that cleared 5 feet. The finishing order was decided on misses, with Cronin finishing second and Ballotti fifth.  Meggie LaGueux made 4-10 on her first jump and earned a team point with a sixth place finish.

Once the high jump contest was completed, Ballotti had to run from the high jump pit to the long jump pit to compete in the finals of that event.  After catching her breath, she displayed her athleticism with a jump of 16-5 to take fourth place. 

Carli Thurber earned her second medal of the championship, with a fifth place finish in the discus (99-6).

And, in the final event of the meet, Central’s 4x400 team of Toth (1:01:28) Sabatino (1:02:30), freshman Abby Rec (1:01:75) and Cochrane (1:00:07) lowered their season best time down to 4:05:58, good for a fourth place finish.  With the County and State championships coming up in the next two weeks, the 4x4 team is eyeing the school record of 4:04:10. 

Coach Herrigel’s team scored a total of 47 points over the two days, which tied Mendham and Randolph for third place overall, a result which made Herrigel very happy. “It was nice to tie for third after coming off of the Morris County Relays with little rest," the coach said. "The girls are racing, jumping, and throwing so well right now.”

For the Central boys, senior David Reed ran a personal best 9:42:93 in the 3200, just one day after running his season best 1600. Reed cruised with the lead pack for much of the race and solidified his medal winning position in the final laps. The versatile Reed was one of only two runners (Mendham’s Justin Nasselli was the other) to place in both the 1600 and 3200. Teammate Nick Kontos ran a personal best time of 10:07:67 to finish a very respectable 13th place overall.

Kyle Guldner threw a personal best 146-5 in the javelin to just miss earning team points with a seventh place finish. Earlier in the meet, Guldner had PR’d in the discus, with a heave of 107-5. 

Other notable performances by the boys included junior Sam Walczuk running a personal best of 2:07:02 in the 800 and senior Mike Mulcahy equaling his personal best in the pole vault, with a vault of 10-6.

Both the boys and girls teams are off until Tuesday, May 14 when the Morris County Championships get underway at Boonton High School. Expect more good things from the Central track and field team in the next few weeks, as many athletes seem to be rounding into peak form just as the championship season has started.

Information provided by Steve LaGueux.