SJTCA #17 and Princeton Invite #2

This is the fun time of year where the meets keep coming, almost every day! While some runners were still recovering from their big efforts over the weekend, here’s where other Mercer County runners were competing on Monday and Tuesday:

• SJTCA #17. Hopewell Valley was the only Mercer County team to attend this Monday night meet at Ocean Breeze. This was one of the most competitive SJTCA meets of the year so far, based on the other NJ teams and individuals that showed up. Full results here.

• Princeton Invitational Series #2. On Tuesday night, Jadwin Gym hosted the second of its three-part high school invitational series. Princeton, Trenton, Pennington, Stuart Country Day, Peddie, and Hun all brought at least some individuals to compete against nearby schools like Montgomery, Hunterdon Central, Hillsborough, and South Brunswick. Full results here and video here.

Check out a few highlights from meet below.

SJTCA #17

Hopewell Valley was the only Mercer County school here, so everyone mentioned in this section is a Bulldog.

Girls 200m. Coming back after running a 400m PR, Autumn Carter ran 26.60 to finish 11th in the 200m.

Girls 400m. Autumn Carter ran a strong second lap to cut .3 off her indoor PR and take 4th place in 59.16. Elle Krakovski took 15th place in 1:03.07, which beat even her outdoor PR by a full second.

Girls 800m. Anna Wilson came into this race with a 2:44 seed time, putting her in heat 3 of 5. She ended up smashing her heat and that old PR! Her time of 2:31.30 was good for 12th place overall.

Girls 1600m. Sydney Young used a 35-second final lap to move up from 4th to 2nd, finishing in 5:08.48. That’s within a second of her outdoor PR, and it’s #21 in New Jersey this winter. Maddie LaChance and Elsie Rey-de-Castro were also top-10, with LaChance getting 7th in 5:25 and Rey-de-Castro getting 8th in 5:26.

Girls 3200m. Claire Dumont cruised to her first victory of the year in a time of 11:26, 24 seconds head of 2nd place. Sophia Pellegrino ran a PR of 12:30 to get 8th place.

Girls Jumps. In the long jump, Tessa Goodman PR’d by almost a foot with a jump of 15-7 on her final attempt. Similarly, Elle Krakovski PR’d by 11.5 inches in the triple jump, going 29-6. Avery Rick cleared 9-0 for the first time ever in the pole vault, indoors or out.

Girls Shot Put. Uchenna Obidike threw 31-1.25 to take 8th place in the shot put, in addition to clearing 5-0 in the high jump.

Boys 800m. Mason O’Connor broke 2:10 for the first time indoors, getting 20th place in 2:09.87.

Princeton Invitational Series #2

Girls 55m. Zunica Zubah (Trenton) ran a PR of 7.78 for 3rd place, while Simone Henriques (Princeton) and Maddie Hamlin (Princeton) were 5th and 6th in 7.83 and 7.84.

Girls 55mH. Tessa Hughes (Peddie) dominated the hurdles with a time of 8.54. Zunica Zubah (Trenton) was the best of the rest with a time of 9.13, which was a PR and the first of three season’s bests she ran that night.

Girls 200m. Maddie Hamlin (Princeton) took 2nd in 27.35, ahead of Zunica Zubah (Trenton) in 27.92 for 3rd and Simone Henriques (Princeton) in 28.01 for 5th. Lena Murray (Princeton) ran 28.93 for 6th in her first ever 200m race.

Girls 400m. Lena Murray (Princeton) took the lead on the second lap and then gapped the field, winning by over a second in a PR of 1:03.62. Rachel Xin also moved up nicely and finished 2nd in 1:04.66.

Girls 800m. Mila Trkov (Princeton) upgraded her 3rd-place finish at last month’s Princeton Invitational to a 1st-place finish here, also cutting 4 seconds off her time. Trkov led wire-to-wire, but hanging right behind her all the way was Fatima El-Banna (Stuart Country Day), who ran 2:29.55 to break 2:30 for the first time ever.

Girls 1600m. Grace Hegedus (Princeton) took control after 400m when the pace started to lag, and she powered away to win in a season’s best of 5:27. The freshman pair of Rosemary Warren (Princeton) and Sonya Keaney (Princeton) worked together — including by both closing in a quick 36.0 — to finish 2-3 and set big PRs of 5:37 and 5:38.

Girls 3200m. Just 72 hours after running a 10:15 3000m at the Armory, Kajol Karra (Princeton) laid down an even more impressive solo effort at Jadwin Gym by winning the 3200m in 10:54. That’s #5 in New Jersey and #36 in the United States! She went out in 5:23 and then held on for a nice PR. Behind Karra, Phoenix Roth (Princeton) ran 11:21 to finish 2nd in her first 16-lap race. That’s even faster than she ran outdoors in the spring.

Girls Shot Put. After Angela Volkova (Hillsborough) took over the lead in the final round, Sonjay Baylor Reeves (Trenton) came in clutch, launching a throw of 42-1 — her second longest ever — to reclaim the lead and take the victory. She also got a lot of pressure from Anna Casciano (Hun), who took 3rd in 39-3.5, her third-longest throw ever.

Boys 55m. Tahmere Brown (Pennington) ran a huge PR of 6.58 to win this race by 0.04 over Jason Keiser (South Brunswick). Brown’s time is #2 in Mercer County and #2 among all freshmen in New Jersey! Avery Radom (Hun) and Kyle Carr (Princeton) also ran PRs of 6.78 and 6.82 to get 4th and 5th.

Boys 200m. Shortly after setting a big PR to win the 55m, Tahmere Brown (Pennington) set another PR to narrowly win the 200m over Avery Radom (Hun), 23.73 to 23.88.

Boys 400m. Fletcher Harrison (Princeton) took 3rd place with a 53.40, breaking his PR by over a half-second. Isaiah Mitchell (Trenton) had a very strong second lap and broke his PR by over a full second, getting 5th in 53.69.

Boys 800m. Felix Yu (Princeton) ran 2:09.56 to break 2:10 for the first time and take 4th overall.

Boys 1600m. With the top two boys from Montgomery and South Brunswick far out front, Finn Wedmid (Princeton) won the battle for 3rd place and finished in 4:44.07. Patrick McCray (Trenton) was 5th in 4:48.05, followed by Lachlan Arnold (Princeton), who broke 4:50 for the first time in 4:49.22.

Boys 3200m. Ziyang Ling (Princeton) — 4th in 10:48 — and Andrew Hofacker (Pennington) — 5th in 11:13 — both set PRs in this race.

Boys Jumps. In the long jump, Sullivan Spagnoli (Princeton) placed 2nd with a first-attempt 19-5, just an inch off his season’s best. Ian Borges (Peddie) won the triple jump in 43-5.25 and took 4th in the long jump in 18-11.

Boys Shot Put. Sean Wilton (Princeton) continued his dominant season, winning this one with a throw of 58-0.5. Shine Williams (Trenton), who just on Saturday PR’d by 5+ feet, added another 6 inches to his PR on Tuesday and got 2nd place in 46-8.