MAPL Championships Recap
The MAPL indoor track championships were held on Friday in Lawrenceville’s new fieldhouse. The major players in the Mid-Atlantic Prep League are Lawrenceville, Peddie, Hill, and Mercersburg, but athletes from Pennington and Hun also had some nice performances.
Girls Results
Girls Team Scores. The Lawrenceville girls beat Peddie, 125 to 94, to repeat as the MAPL indoor track champions!
Girls 55mH. Sofia Swindell (Lawrenceville) was already one of the state’s fastest hurdlers coming into this race, but she still dropped her 55mH PR by over 0.1 to win in a very impressive time of 8.07. That’s #2 in New Jersey this year! Tessa Hughes (Peddie), another of New Jersey’s best hurdles, also ran very well in pursuit of Swindell. She matched her PR with a time of 8.39, which is NJ #11.
Girls 55m. Lexie Koch (Lawrenceville) won the 55m a tight battle over Harper Latham (Hill), 7.37 to 7.47.
Girls 1600m. Courtney Cane (Peddie) won the 1600m in negative-split 5:06.68 after a good duel with Ella Blanco (Mercersburg). Blanco was right on her heels for the first 1400m, but Cane was able to drop her with a great final lap. Matilda Kardhashi (Peddie) also had a great duel for 3rd place with Anne Sehon (Mercersburg). Although Sehon barely nipped her at the line, Kardhashi came away with a six-second PR of 5:21.40.
Girls 400m. Rhianna Scott (Lawrenceville) had a huge race, cutting over a second off her open 400m PR to win in 58.41. That moves her to #2 in Mercer County this winter. Jael Gaines (Lawrenceville) continued her season-long sub-60 streak by taking 2nd place in 59.49.
Girls 800m. Courtney Cane (Peddie) doubled back from her 1600m win to claim the victory in the 800m with an indoor PR of 2:20.09, which is also a new Peddie school record! She won by two seconds over Yasmin Willie (Lawrenceville, 2nd in 2:22.54) and Rory Laubach (Lawrenceville, 3rd in a PR of 2:23.73). Those times are all top-5 in Mercer County this year in the open 800m.
Girls 200m. Lexie Koch (Lawrenceville) notched her second win of the day with a very quick 25.59 in the 200m, ahead of Tessa Hughes (Peddie) in 26.00. Those were big PRs of exactly 0.42 for both girls.
Girls 3200m. Shanel Tan (Peddie) was the top Mercer County girl, taking 3rd place with an indoor PR of 12:18.50.
Girls Jumps. Tessa Hughes (Peddie) won the high jump in 5-0 and took 2nd in the long jump with a jump of 16-10.25. Combined with her 2nd-place finishes in the 55mH and 200m, Hughes scored 24 points for Peddie! Audrey Cheng (Lawrenceville) won the pole vault with a one-inch indoor PR of 11-7.
Girls Shot Put. Anna Casciano (Hun) dominated the shot put, throwing 39-8 to win by six-and-a-half feet.
Boys Results
Boys Team Scores. On their home track, the Lawrenceville boys scored 115.5 points to reclaim the MAPL indoor championships title! Peddie narrowly beat out the Hill School for 2nd place, 97 to 94.
Boys 55m. Michael Bradley (Lawrenceville) lowered his PR from 6.49 to 6.45 to take the win in the 55m. He’s now #7 in New Jersey! Tahmere Brown (Pennington) PR’d for the second time in five days, running 6.57 in the prelims before going on to run 6.60 in the finals and get 4th place. Tolu Olatunji (Lawrenceville) and Avery Radom (Hun) also ran nice PRs in the prelims. Olatunji went 6.61 but then didn’t contest the finals. Radom ran 6.70 and went on to place 6th in the finals.
Boys 1600m. Owen Eldridge (Lawrenceville) had a nice battle against Ryan Du Plessis (Mercerburg) in the 1600m. Eldridge pushed the pace for most of the race, and although he couldn’t hold off Du Plessis in the final 100m, he was rewarded for his strong frontrunning with a new PR of 4:24.81. Arunav Sarkar (Lawrenceville) led the chase pack and finished 3rd place in an indoor PR of 4:32.58, followed by Taksh Gupta (Lawrenceville) in a season’s best of 4:38.46 for 5th.
Boys 800m. Dylan Patel (Peddie), who was one of the top middle-distance runners in Mercer County last year, ran his first meet of the year here. After running an indoor PR of 4:40.23 for 6th place in the 1600m, he was the county’s top finisher in the 800m, where he got 3rd in 2:05.77.
Boys 55mH. Trevon Foster (Hill) won this meet with an incredible time of 7.18 – that’s #4 in the United States! Chasing Foster, Jelani Cine (Peddie) was pulled to a nice PR of 7.79 for 2nd place, which moved him to #3 in Mercer County. Corey Woodson (Lawrenceville) was 3rd in 8.01. Aj Diallo (Lawrenceville) PR’d by a full half-second with a 8.03 in the prelims, and he went on to get 4th in the finals with a 8.10.
Boys 400m. Baker Pott (Peddie) won in 51.88, which is his fastest open 400m indoors or out. Luke Chon (Peddie) wasn’t far behind with his own PR of 52.12.
Boys 200m. Michael Bradley (Lawrenceville) doubled back from his excellent 55m race to also take the 200m win in a lean over Trevon Foster (Hill), 22.61 to 22.62. Jelani Cine (Peddie) was 4th in 23.26, just ahead of Tahmere Brown (Pennington), who ran 23.46 to win his earlier heat. Both Cine and Brown broke their 200m PRs.
Boys 3200m. Owen Eldridge (Lawrenceville) ran 9:53.93 to win the 3200m in his fourth sub-10 performance this season. Mohamed Mohamed (Lawrenceville) continues knocking on sub-10’s door, this time running 10:04.52 for 2nd place. Bastian Bockledge (Lawrenceville) followed in 10:29 for 3rd place, within a second of his season’s best.
Boys 4x400m. The Peddie boys (Jelani Cine, Dasyer Bullock, Luke Chon, and Baker Pott) stacked their 4x400m and blazed a time of 3.31.06, which is #1 in Mercer County and broke a 31-year-old school record!
Boys Jumps. Ayo Britto (Lawrenceville) won the high jump with a clearance of 6-0, and Eric Cho (Peddie) took 3rd with a 5-inch PR of 5-8. Ian Borges (Peddie). Ian Borges (Pedde) won the horizontal jumps double with two big efforts: a PR of 20-6 in the long jump and a 45-8 in the triple jump, his second-longest ever. Tahmere Brown (Pennington) jumped 19-4.75 for 4th in the long jump, and Eric Cho (Peddie) went 41-2 in the triple jump, with both boys setting big PRs. Aslan Aksu (Lawrenceville) won the pole vault in 12-6.
Boys Shot Put. Parker Hamilton (Peddie) crushed the 50-foot barrier with a huge throw of 53-3, which was a PR by a full four feet and moved him to #18 in New Jersey.