Weekend 8: SJTCA #16, Purple Champions, and Ocean Breeze Invy
The first weekend in February brought several great meets! The four biggest venues around here — the Bubble, the Armory, the Ott Center, and Ocean Breeze — were all bustling with New Jersey athletes chasing PRs and seed times before sectionals start next week. Here’s a rundown of top performances from Mercer County schools.
Penn Relays Winter Showcase
The Penn Relays hosted its inaugural Winter Showcase at the Ott Center on January 31 and February 1. Lawrenceville, Notre Dame, Ewing, and West Windsor-Plainsboro South produced some great performances there. Read that recap here.
SJTCA #16
Robbinsville, Allentown, Trenton, and Hamilton West brought squads to the Bennett Bubble on Saturday for SJTCA #16. Below are some notable top-10 finishes. Full results here.
In the boys 400m, Will Strickland (Robbinsville) placed 6th in 52.51. His teammate Kenny Sikorski, who is primarily a high jump specialist, also broke the top 10 with a 53.34 in one of his first open 400m races. Sikorski also cleared 5-8 in the boys high jump to take 4th here.
Gavin Alvarez (Allentown) made the boys 55m finals and finished 5th in 6.75. He came back later to get another top-10 finish in the boys 200m, running 23.76 for 9th place.
Zunica Zubah (Trenton), running the girls 55mH for the first time, ran 9.28 in the prelims to make the final, where she lowered her PR to 9.15 and took 3rd place.
In the boys 1600m, Allentown had three boys all break 4:50 for the first time! Amrit Moehringer led the way in 6th with a time of 4:47.74 — a PR by almost 20 seconds. He was followed by John O’Leary (8th in 4:49.21) and Ethan Urig (9th in 4:49.61). In the girls 1600m, Allentown’s Madeline Ruchelman took 4th place in 5:52.55.
In the girls 800m, Emilia Wroblewski took 5th place in 2:34.54. Julia Meddahi (Robbinsville) ran a PR of 2:37.51 for 9th place.
In a tight boys 800m race, Patrick McCray (Trenton) took 3rd place in 2:06.07, just a quarter-second off the win. Nish Seshadri (Robbinsville) crossed the line less than 0.1 behind McCray, running a huge PR of 2:06.15 for 5th place. Trenton also got great races from Isaiah Mitchell (8th in 2:08.92) and Briyon Ellerbe (9th in 2:09.31), who both broke 2:10 for the first time.
Shine Williams (Trenton) launched a huge 5-foot PR in the boys shot put. His 46’ 2.25” was good for 2nd place. Trent Dundale (Robbinsville) threw a PR of 42-1.5 for 7th, and Drew Damasiewicz (Robbinsville) broke into the top 10 with a 41-11 for 8th place. In the girls shot put, Sonjay Baylor-Reeves won her fifth meet of the year with a throw of 38’ 4.75”.
Nyviah Pacheco (Hamilton West) took 2nd place in the girls high jump, matching her season’s best of 4-10.
It was a good day for Robbinsville’s pole vaulters. In the boys pole vault, Samuel Rispoli cleared 11’ for the first time ever and took 2nd place. That’s tied for #2 in Mercer County this season. Chris Bellisano set an indoor PR of 9’ for 5th place. In the girls pole vault, Meghann Hansen took 3rd with a jump of 8’ 6” — which bested her PR by a whole foot and broke the Robbinsville school record!
Purple Champions HS Invitational
Princeton traveled at the Armory on Saturday evening for the Purple Champions HS Invitational, where they faced many great teams from New York. Full results here.
Kajol Karra had one of the most impressive races of the night, taking 2nd place in the invitational girls 3000m with a time of 10:15.69. Within the first 400m it was apparent that she would be running alone, with New York’s Leyla Bhusri — an NXN individual qualifier — out front and the rest of the chase back far behind. (Karra indeed finished 20 seconds behind Bhusari and 20 seconds ahead of 3rd place.) Despite it effectively being a solo effort, she ran an excellent time that is roughly equivalent to a 10:58 3200m, well under her PR of 11:09.
In the girls 1500m, Phoenix Roth (12th in 4:56.15) and Eowyn Deess (14th in 5:01.77) both had great races. Those 1500m times convert to 1600m times of approximately 5:18 for Roth and 5:24 for Deess, both of which would be big indoor PRs. In the girls 1600m, which was a separate race, Grace Hegedus took 14th in 5:32.72, Sevanne Knoch ran a PR of 5:38.33 for 18th, and Rosemary Warren won the unseeded heat in 5:45.16. In the boys 1600m, Finn Wedmid and Braedyn Capone both ran 4:48, and freshman Lachlan Arnold ran a PR of 4:50.07.
Kyle Carr ran a PR of 23.37 to win his heat and take 12th place overall in the varsity boys 200m. That’s #15 among sophomores in New Jersey. In the varsity girls 200m, Maddie Hamlin (15th in 27.29) and Simone Henriques (16th in 27.30) ran almost identical times in back-to-back heats.
Kacey Howes went wire-to-wire in her heat of the girls 400m and finished with an indoor PR of 1:02.86. That was good for 15th overall in the varsity section.
Sean Wilton won the boys shot put with a big throw of 59-11.25, his second-longest throw ever. He’s still undefeated in the shot put this year.
Princeton also had a couple of impressive relay teams. Their girls 4x800m team took 3rd place in a very quick 9:47.82. All four girls — Kajol Karra, Lena Murray, Mila Trkov, and Rachel Xin — split between 2:25 and 2:29. According to MileSplit, that’s an indoor school record by over 30 seconds! The Princeton boys 4x200m team took 12th in a season’s best of 1:34.96, which moves them up to #2 on the Mercer County leaderboard this season.
Ocean Breeze Invitational
The Ocean Breeze Invitational is one of the largest meets in the United States. There were 397 schools registered, and most events had 3-5 different divisions, with each division having dozens (or hundreds!) of entrants. Needless to say, there was a lot of good competition at Ocean Breeze. Lawrence, Peddie, Princeton Day, Notre Dame, and Hun all brought some of their athletes. Full results here.
Boys Results
Luke Chon (Peddie) had a nice double and came home with two new PRs: 23.62 in the 200m and then 52.95 in the 400m, where he won his heat.
In the 800m, Baker Pott (Peddie) broke 2:00 for the first time indoors. His 1:59.75 was good for 14th place in the top division, and it’s #2 in Mercer County this winter.
Peddie’s 4x400m team (Dasyer Bullock, Dylan Patel, Baker Pott, Luke Chon) won their heat and placed 12th overall. They opened a five-meter lead on the opening lap and then held that lead all the way through the line, crossing in 3:32.45. That’s #2 in Mercer County this season.
Ian Borges (Peddie) placed 4th in the triple jump with an opening jump of 44-9.25. Matin Mahmoud (Lawrence) was a late scratch in the triple jump, but just because of scheduling issues. In the shot put, Parker Hamilton took 9th place with a throw of 47-7.25, his second-best throw of the season.
In the 200m, Isaac Pitts-Parker (Lawrence) ran a PR of 24.14 to take 27th in his division. Alexander Nikolov (Lawrence) ran 8.36 twice to make the final and take 5th place in the sophomore boys 55mH.
Avery Radom (Hun) was the lone runner from Hun to make the trip to Staten Island. He came home with a new indoor PR of 23.44 in the 200m (where he finished 3rd overall in his division). He also had a solid 55m race of 6.84, just 0.02 off his PR.
The Notre Dame boys shuttle hurdles team (Aldric Crawford, Zamir Jones, Bryce Marsh, Christopher Young) kept their win streak going with a run of 31.31, edging out three other teams that went sub-32.
Girls Results
Courtney Cane (Peddie) broke her own school record in the indoor mile with an impressive time of 5:04.02. She was in 10th place at the 400m mark, but she then she started picking off girls until she finished 5th overall. Izzy Meth (Lawrence) also set an indoor mile PR with a 5:27.01 in another heat. According to MileSplit, that’s a Lawrence school record in the 1600/mile.
Alicia Riggins (Lawrence) placed 18th in the top division of the 55mH with a time of 9.18. In the 55m dash, Samya Jenkins (Lawrence) won her prelims heat and finished 17th overall in 7.49. Her teammate, Sasha Glover, took 21st in the sophomore division of the 55m with a big PR of 7.88. In the 200m, Samya Jenkins placed 22nd overall in 26.13, tying her PR. Freshman Faith Jasper had the second fastest time for Lawrence, running 28.41 to win her heat.
Slavina Dusinchka (Lawrence) ran a PR of 2:33.88 to get 16th place in the sophomore division of the 800m. Charlotte Mullen (Princeton Day) ran 2:38, winning her heat by 4 seconds and placing 2nd in her division.
Sophie Trzaskus (Lawrence) placed 2nd in the second division of the pole vault with a clearance of 9’.
Tessa Hughes (Peddie) had quite the day competing in the pentathlon! Of the five events, she won the 60mH (9.23) and the high jump (1.65m or 5’ 4”, #1 in Mercer County), she got 2nd in the 800m (2:29.81), and she took 3rd in the long jump (5.21m or 17’ 1”, #3 in Mercer County and a new school record). She finished 3rd overall in the pentathlon with a score of 3240. The indoor pentathlon isn’t contested too often, but still, according to MileSplit, Hughes is now #10 all-time in New Jersey!