Roundup: Preseason and Week 1
While the Poreda Invitational hosted the largest contingent of Mercer County athletes this week (and gets its own write-up here), there were plenty of other opening meets around the state, including:
The Armory Trials (10/20, results here)
Lawrenceville Opener (12/7, results here)
Monmouth University TC Indoor Showcase #1 (12/10, results here)
Wayne Gardiner Holiday Relays (12/11, results here)
SJTCA #1 (12/13, results here)
Demarest Invitational (12/14, results here)
It was a lot of teams spread out across a lot of meets, but here are some performances by Mercer County athletes that you shouldn’t miss.
Boys Highlights
Boys 55m. Tolu Olatunji (Lawrenceville) ran a big PR of 6.62 to win the Lawrenceville Opener. At Monmouth, Gavin Alvarez (Allentown) also ran a PR of 6.69 to take 4th. Freshman Tahmere Brown (Pennington) ran a 6.87 at the Lawrenceville Opener in his first high school race. Lawrence hurdler Tristan Jusino Lansing is trying out the flat 55m this season and ran 6.90 at Demarest.
Boys 200m. At the Lawrenceville Opener, Pennington freshman Tahmere Brown ran 24.10 for 3rd place. His teammates King Liu and Seamus Manning ran 25.08 and 25.10.
Boys 55mH. Tristan Jusino Lansing (Lawrence) opened his season on October 20 at the Armory Trials, where he ran 6.94 for 55m and 7.74 for 55mH. That 55mH time is still #3 in New Jersey so far this year. At Demarest this week, he won the 55mH in 7.82 and lowered his 55m PR to 6.90 for 6th place.
Boys 300m/400m. Gavin Alvarez (Allentown) won the Monmouth 300m in an impressive 36.94. The 300m is admittedly not a very common event, but still his time is #16 on the Mercer County all-time leaderboard according to MileSplit. Alvarez’s teammate Cedric Mbachu took 2nd in 39.57.
Boys 600m/800m/1000m. At the Lawrenceville Opener on December 7, Lawrenceville’s Ayodele Joa-Griffith took first in 2:02.29, and his teammate Amari Akakpo was 2nd in 2:03.05. Another Lawrenceville runner, Jamie Ho, was 3rd in 2:08.87. At Demarest, Mohamed Toure (Nottingham) ran 1:26 for 5th in the 600m and then doubled doubled back to get 4th in the 1000m in 2:49.34. Ethan Urig (Allentown) also broke 3:00 at Monmouth, running 2:57.35.
Boys 1600m. Owen Eldridge (Lawrenceville), a senior who focused on mid-distance events for the last two years, stepped up to the 1600m at the Lawrenceville opener and won in an impressive 4:36.16, which is #3 in New Jersey right now. His teammate Taksh Gupta ran 4:47 for 3rd in that same race.
Boys 3000m/3200m. John O’Leary (Allentown) won the 3000m at Monmouth in 9:58.67, which converts to faster than his 3200m PR.
Boys Jumps. At the Armory Trials on October 20, Matin Mahmoud (Lawrence) hit a big PR of 44-8 in the triple jump to win the Armory Trials over Ian Borges (Peddie), who jumped 43-3.75. Then, at the Armory Youth Season Opener on November 30, Borges uncorked a massive jump of 46-1.5, which is a mark that only four New Jersey jumpers beat all of last winter! Borges and Mahmoud are the #1 and #3 triple jumpers in New Jersey right now. Borges also went 19-8.75 in the long jump at the Armory Youth Season Opener, just .75 off his outdoor PR.
Boys Shot Put. Ernest Gaykai (Nottingham) threw 44-6 at the Wayne Gardiner Holiday Relays and then went even further at Demarest, hitting 46-0.5 for 2nd place. Two Lawrence throwers finished 3rd and 4th behind Gaykai at Demarest, with Isaiah Spencer throwing 43-10.75 (a new PR) and Joel Ceasar throwing 42-6. At Monmouth, Brandon Zambrio (Allentown) took 2nd in 43-0, his longest throw ever. Grant Lefchak (Steinert) topped 40’ for the first time with a 40-11.5 at SJTCA.
Girls Highlights
Girls 55m. Lexie Koch (Lawrenceville) ran a big PR of 7.34 to take 2nd at the Lawrenceville Opener. At Demarest, sophomore Samya Jenkins (Lawrence) matched her PR of 7.62 and then cut off 0.1 to win the finals in 7.52.
Girls 55mH. Haile Zimmerman (Steinert) ran 9.07 at the Armory Trials, which was a PR by 0.4 seconds. Alicia Riggins (Lawrence) also set a nice PR of 9.15 and got 4th at Demarest.
Girls 200m. Back at the Armory Trials, Hailie Zimmerman (Steinert) ran a PR of 28.06. At last week’s Lawrenceville Opener, freshman Ava Chincarini (Lawrenceville) took 2nd in 28.24, just ahead of teammate Blake Hatwood in 28.33.
Girls 300m/400m. At Demarest, Lawrence’s Samya Jenkins doubled back from PR’ing (and winning) in the 55m to win the 300m in 44.07. At Monmouth, Isabelle Andre (Allentown) ran the 300m in 46.32 for 6th. At SJTCA, Hailie Zimmerman took 2nd in the 400m with a PR of 1:02.87.
Girls 600m. Jael Gaines (Lawrenceville) won the Lawrenceville Opener with a 2:28.82 in her first-ever 800m. In the 600m, Ava McKithen (Lawrence) was the top Mercer County girl this week with a 1:57 at Demarest.
Girls 1000m/3000m. Emilia Wroblewski (Allentown) won the 1000m at Monmouth in 3:17. Her teammate Madeline Ruchelman took 4th in the 3000m with a 11:58.
Girls Jumps. In the high jump, senior Amanda Hoglund (Allentown) started her season with an excellent win at Monmouth, clearing 5-0 for her first time since her sophomore outdoor season. In the long jump, Isabelle Andre (Allentown) took 2nd at Monmouth in 15-3.75. In the pole vault, Lawrence’s Zuzanna Trzasko and Sophie Trzaskus both cleared 8-6 and to get their indoor PRs.
Girls Shot Put. Catalina Holliday (Nottingham) started her senior season with a bang, throwing 40-0.05 at the Wayne Gardiner Holiday Relays. Anna Casciano (Hun) went north to the Garfield HS High Jump/Shot Put Invitational and took 2nd with a huge PR of 38-6.