Central Group 2 Sectionals Recap

Hopewell Valley, Robbinsville, and Allentown traveled to the Bubble on Saturday morning – bright and early, after the start time was moved up to 8am due to a pending winter storm –  for Central Group 2 sectionals. The early start didn’t dampen the excitement or the quality of the races!

Below are the athletes who placed in the top six and will be representing the CVC at the Group 2 Championships on February 22, along with a few other notable performances. 

Girls Results

Girls Team Scores. Hopewell Valley took 3rd place with 33.33 points. Most of those points came from their stellar distance squad and from Uchenna Obidike in the field events.

Girls 400m. In the first event of the day, Autumn Carter (Hopewell Valley) ran a PR of 58.93 to place 4th and qualify for her first indoor group championships. She has run a new indoor PR every time she’s touched the track for an open 400m race this winter.

Girls 1600m. Sydney Young (Hopewell Valley) is heading to her first group championships on the track after a solid run in the 1600m, where she placed 4th in 5:15.77. Her teammate Anna Wilson (Hopewell Valley) is also headed to groups after a great race. Wilson ran a strong second half to move into a qualifying position and then hold on to finish 6th in 5:30.33, equaling her season’s best. Julia Meddahi (Robbinsville) also set a big PR of 5:38.74 for 9th place.

Girls 55mH. Gwyneth Denham (Hopewell Valley) ran 9.93 to just miss making the finals but still place in the top 10.

Girls 800m. Coming back on very short rest after qualifying in the 1600m, Sydney Young (Hopewell Valley) was back on the track for the 800m. She had to settle for 10th place in 2:28.72, but she gets credit for being the only girl to try the difficult 1600m/800m double. Elizabeth Eckel (Hopewell Valley) ran a big PR of 2:31.14 to win her heat and place 11th overall.

Girls 3200m. After the top two girls took off, Claire Dumont (Hopewell Valley) led the chase pack for a while before eventually breaking away and securing her spot at the Group 2 Championships with a 4th-place finish in 11:22.16. She’ll be joined by her teammates, Elsie Rey-de-Castro (Hopewell Valley) and Maddie LaChance (Hopewell Valley), who qualified thanks to furious kicks in the final 100m! Rey-de-Castro took 5th in season’s best of 11:39.76, followed right behind by LaChance in 6th with a PR of 11:40.93. In particular, LaChance – a junior doing track for the first time – came from way back on the last lap to overtake a girl for the final qualification spot. 

Girls 4x400m. The Hopewell Valley relay team grabbed 6th place with a time of 4:22.77, sending them to the group championships. Robbinsville ran a season’s best of 4:32.11 for 9th place.

Girls High Jump. Uchenna Obidike (Hopewell Valley) took 3rd place with a first-attempt clearance of 5-0. Erin Krakovski (Hopewell Valley) cleared a PR of 4-8 and got 8th place, just missing out on a share of 6th place due to attempts. 

Girls Pole Vault. Avery Rick (Hopewell Valley) cleared 8-6 on her first attempt, which was good enough to tie for 6th and send her to groups.

Girls Shot Put. The multi-talented Uchenna Obidike (Hopewell Valley), who had already gotten 3rd place in the high jump, did even better in the shot put by winning the title! It took a 6-inch PR on her fifth throw to secure the win. Vanessa Bartnikowski (Hopewell Valley) also cracked the top 10 with a throw of 27-7 for 9th place.  

Boys Results

Boys Team Scores. Allentown led the local teams with 20.5 points for 6th place, thanks to Gavin Alvarez’s double win. Robbinsville was 10th place with 12 points.

Boys 400m. Gavin Alvarez (Allentown) won the battle for the pole position at the 200m mark and then held that advantage all the way through the line, taking the title in 51.51! Will Strickland (Robbinsville) was a little more boxed in and, despite moving up in a strong finish, missed qualification by 0.2 with a time of 52.52. He’ll at least still get to run a 400m at groups as part of Robbinsville’s 4x400m relay team.

Boys 1600m. Silas Allevik (Hopewell Valley) ran 4:44.22 in a tough heat where he was the odd man out, finishing two seconds out of qualification in 7th place. John O’Leary (Allentown) won a dramatic, back-and-forth finish in the prior heat, where the top four boys all finished within .12 of each other. His kick earned him 10th place overall and a new PR of 4:48.87.

Boys 55m. After Gavin Alvarez (Allentown), Patrick Coleman (Rumson-Fair Haven), and Ryan Aiello (South Plainfield) all ran the exact same mark of 6.75 in the prelims, Alvarez won the ensuing showdown in a big PR of 6.63! Just 0.05 separated 1st place and 3rd place in this exciting race. This was his second championship of the day, not long after he won the 400m.

Boys 800m. Thanks to a good final sprint and a nice lean, Nish Seshadri (Robbinsville) grabbed the 6th and final qualification spot by just 0.07! His time of 2:05.41 was also a PR.

Boys 3200m. Using a big negative split of 5:12-4:57, Finnegan Curley (Hopewell Valley) came from way back in the last mile to finish 4th – and very nearly 3rd – in a time of 10:09.86. Silas Allevik (Hopewell Valley) had no seed time and so had to run in the first heat, which he dominated. He set a PR of 10:33 – even while running solo for most of it – and took 9th overall. John O’Leary (Allentown) also set a PR of 10:38.65, which got him 11th place. 

Boys 4x400m. Robbinsville (Kevin Yarramsetty, Will Strickland, Tanay Patel, and Kenny Sikorski) will be representing Mercer County at groups thanks to their 3rd place finish in 3:38.26.

Boys High Jump. Kenny Sikorski (Robbinsville) cleared 5-8 on his final attempt, which tied his PR and gave him a share of 4th place to advance to groups. He’ll be joined by Dylan Voehl (Allentown), who tied for 6th place thanks to a first-attempt clearance of 5-6.

Boys Pole Vault. Samuel Rispoli (Robbinsville) qualified for groups with a clearance of 10-0, which was good for 6th place.

Boys Shot Put. Drew Damasiewicz (Robbinsville) threw 42-9 on his first attempt, which held up for 6th place and earned him a ticket to groups. Trent Dundale (Robbinsville) finished just one spot behind, getting 7th with a throw of 41-2.25.