Week 5: Princeton Invitational Series, Tsai Relays, and Much
Runners are back from winter break and the indoor season is going full steam ahead – Mercer County teams competed five meets across four straight days this week! Here are some noteworthy results from all these competitions.
Millrose Trials
On Wednesday, Lawrenceville and Peddie sent some of their best runners to the Millrose Trials at the Armory, and they put on a show. Read that recap here.
Princeton Invitational Series #1
The first edition of the Princeton Invitational Series took place on Thursday at the Jadwin Gym. Princeton, Hopewell Valley, Stuart Country Day, and Hun ran there, and their out-of-county competition included Westfield, Hunterdon Central, Franklin, and the George School. Full results here.
Girls Results
Girls 55m. In a race where the top three were separated by just 0.03, freshman Simone Henriques (Princeton) outleaned a couple of Franklin girls to win in 7.69, a new PR. Lena Hamilton (Princeton) crossed next, getting 4th in 7.80.
Girls 200m. Princeton teammates Maddie Hamlin and Simone Henriques pushed each other all the way to the line, and they both came away with PRs. Hamlin took the win in 27.74, and Henriques got 2nd place in 27.80.
Girls 400m. Elizabeth Eckel (Hopewell Valley) was the top Mercer County finisher, taking 3rd place with an indoor PR of 1:03.83. Kacey Howes (Princeton) finished just behind her in 1:04.18 for 4th. Senior Reidun Armendinger (Hopewell Valley) ran 1:06.36 for 7th in her open 400m debut.
Girls 800m. Lena Murray (Princeton), Fatima El-Banna (Stuart Country Day), Sydney Young (Hopewell Valley), and Mila Trkov (Princeton) ran as a pack for the first 400m before Young dropped the hammer, eventually winning by a wide margin in 2:27. El-Banna had the next-best close and finished 2nd in 2:31, followed by Trkov in 2:32 and Murray in 2:33.
Girls 1600m. Princeton’s Kajol Karra outdueled Hunterdon Central’s Molly Domurat over the last lap of the 1600m to win by 0.25 in 5:20.31. Both girls showed impressive closing speed, running 36-second last laps. That’s a big indoor PR for Karra, and it’s not far off her outdoor PR from last spring. Elsie Rey-de-Castro (Hopewell Valley) made a big move to catch the leaders with 800m to go and she held on for 4th place and a new PR of 5:25.54. Phoenix Roth (Princeton) caught Claire Dumont (Hopewell Valley) right at the line, as both girls ran 5:28. Anna Wilson (Hopewell Valley) was next in 5:34. Sophomore Eowyn Deess (Princeton), who had a huge breakout XC season, is doing winter track for the first time and ran 5:35 for a solid 1600m PR in her indoor debut.
Girls 3200m. Grace Hegedus (Princeton) won the 3200m in 11:27, a new indoor PR. She beat out Maddie LaChance (Hopewell Valley), who ran a ten-second PR of 11:47 for 2nd place.
Girls 4x400m. Princeton ran its faster legs first while Hopewell Valley ran its faster legs last, so the race gradually got closer and closer. Hopewell Valley was able to catch Princeton in the end and get the win, 4:22 to 4:23.
Girls Field Events. Anna Casciano (Hun) won the shot put in 40-2, her first time ever breaking 40’. Her throw of 40-2 is #9 in New Jersey this winter, in addition to being a school record. Uchenna Obidike (Hopewell Valley) took 3rd with a throw of 32-0.5. Obidike then came back in the high jump and cleared a new PR of 5-1, which is the top mark in Mercer County this season. Elle Krakovski (Hopewell Valley) set a new PR in the triple jump of 27-6.25 for 3rd place.
Boys Results
Boys 55m. It was a photo finish in the boys 55m, with Princeton’s Ben Gitai (6.81) barely getting the win over Hun’s Avery Radom (6.82) and Franklin’s Jaedon Powell (6.83). Princeton teammates Kyle Carr (6.87) and Victor Shen (6.93) weren’t far behind. Those were PRs for Radom, Carr, and Shen.
Boys 55mH. Yi-Tian Xiong (Princeton) ran a PR of 8.23 to take 3rd place in the hurdles.
Boys 200m. Ben Gitai (Princeton) got his second win of the day with a season’s best of 23.23 in the 200m. His teammates Andrew Foreman (2nd in 23.95) and Kyle Carr (4th in 24.17) both ran nice PRs.
Boys 400m. Fletcher Harrison (Princeton) took 2nd place in 55.13, a new indoor PR. Hopewell Valley’s Archer Seas (4th in 55.86) and Princeton’s Anderson Potter (5th in 55.90) both broke 56 for the first time.
Boys 800m. The top Mercer County runner was Princeton’s Harrison Knoch (3rd in 2:10.73), just ahead of Hopewell Valley’s Mason O’Connor (4th in 2:11.18). Saboor Qureshi (Princeton) took 5th with a seven-second PR of 2:11.78.
Hopewell Valley’s Silas Allevik, Finnegan Curley, and Colin Vickery go 1-2-3 in the 1600m at the Princeton Invitational Series #1. | 2L Race Services
Boys 1600m. Hopewell Valley’s top three boys all dropped 31-second last laps to outkick the competition and sweep the top three spots. Silas Allevik won in 4:40.44, followed by Finnegan Curley in 4:40.84 and then Colin Vickery in 4:41.2, a new PR. Finn Wedmid (Princeton) took 4th in a big PR of 4:42.95.
Boys Field Events. Sean Wilton (Princeton) continued his undefeated season in the shot put, winning by over 10 feet with a throw of 57-3. Ellington Hinds (Princeton), a junior in his first season of track, cleared 5-10 for 2nd place in the high jump; that’s #3 in Mercer County this season. Princeton’s Ishaq Inayat won the long jump with a jump of 20-9, which is a PR and the longest in Mercer County this winter. His teammate Sullivan Spagnoli took 4th in 18-4.25, and Hun’s Mason Ughetta also cleared 18’ for 6th place. Joe Dunbar (Hopewell Valley) went 37-5 for 3rd in the long jump.
Toms River Relay Championships
Nottingham raced on Friday at the Bubble in the Toms River Relay Championships. Some highlights include their boys SMR team getting 2nd in 3:48.50, their girls 4x400m (4:29.89) and boys 4x400m (3:50.46) each taking 4th place, and Ernest Gaykai taking 3rd in the shot put with a throw of 45-10. See full results here.
SJTCA #11
It was Trenton’s and Robbinsville’s turn to run at the Bubble on Saturday, where they competed at the SJTCA #11 meet. Like many of the other meets these past two weeks, this meet held only relays and field events. Some of these schools’ top relay teams include Robbinsville’s boys 4x400m (2nd in 3:35.82), Robbinsville’s girls DMR (4th in 13:58), and Trenton’s boys DMR (5th in 11:42). In the field events, Trenton’s Sonjay Baylor-Reeves placed 2nd in the shot put with a throw of 40-0.25, and Robbinsville’s Kenny Sikorski jumped a PR of 5-8 to tie for 6th in the high jump. See full results here.
Baylor-Reeves also had a throw of 41-1.5 at the Cherokee Throwdown #1 on Thursday, where she was her team’s lone contestant. (So maybe that counts as Mercer County having six meets in four days.) She took 2nd place there, too.
Tsai Relays
On Saturday, the beautiful new Tsai Fieldhouse at Lawrenceville – the only banked indoor track in the state of New Jersey – hosted its biggest meets yet, the Tsai Relays. Like last week’s CVC Relays, all the running events at this meet were team affairs, although field events were held as normal. Attendees included Lawrenceville, Allentown, Lawrence, Notre Dame, Pennington, and Princeton Day, in addition to schools like Hunterdon Central and Hill. Below are some highlights, and you can find the full results here. There are also videos of the girls SMR, boys SHR, 4x200m, and 4x400m here.
Girls Results
Girls SMR. The performance of the meet was by the Lawrenceville girls SMR team. Using a stacked lineup on fresh legs, the Big Red trimmed a half second off their school record and won in 4:08.59. That’s a Mercer County record, and it’s also #20 all-time in New Jersey. The team of Lexie Koch, Sofia Swindell, Jael Gaines, and Blair Bartlett all ran impressive splits of approximately 25.7, 24.7, 59.4, and 2:18.6. Watch a video of their race above.
Notre Dame’s SMR team finished behind Lawrenceville in 4:30.04. Lawrence won the second heat of the SMR and took 3rd overall, thanks in part to a gutsy anchor leg who lost the lead but then dug deep to take it back in the last 100m.
Girls 4x200m. Lawrence won the 4x200 after taking the lead on the anchor leg and holding off Lawrenceville, 1:53.04 to 1:53.65.
Girls 4x400m. Lawrenceville capped off the meet with a 4:05 to win the girls 4x400m. Hunterdon Central was 2nd, followed by Notre Dame in 4:25.
Girls 4x800m. Lawrenceville won the 4x800 in a county-leading 9:57, which is #11 in New Jersey. Lawrenceville showed its depth by having its “B” team take 2nd place in 11:00, ahead of Notre Dame (11:09) and Princeton Day (11:30). That appears to be Princeton Day’s first time ever racing a girls 4x800m team in the program’s short history.
Girls DMR. Lawrence took 2nd place in the DMR in 13:40, seven seconds back from Hunterdon Central and five seconds ahead of John P. Stevens. That’s a big indoor school record for Lawrence, and just five seconds off their outdoor school record!
Girls 4x1600m. Allentown won in 24:28, ahead of Lawrenceville in 24:55. And apparently no Mercer County girls team has ever run an indoor 4x1600m or 4xMile before, so that’s a new county record!
Girls Field Events. Stella Bove (Notre Dame) has shown steady improvement in the triple jump this season, and she won today in an indoor PR of 29-5. Rhianna Scott (Lawrenceville) won the long jump in 16-7.5, just edging out a girl from her school’s rival, the Hill School. Amanda Hoglund (Allentown) won the high jump in a PR-tying 5-10, in addition to getting 3rd place in the long jump. Audrey Cheng (Lawrenceville) won the pole vault in 10-6. Sophie Trzaskus (Lawrence) cleared 9-0, a new indoor PR and school record!
Boys Results
Boys 4x200m. Notre Dame won the 4x200m in 1:34.69. Lawrence also stole the win out of the second heat, running 1:35.18. Those are the top two times in Mercer County this season.Boys SMR. The Lawrenceville boys won the SMR in 3:38, which is #3 in New Jersey this winter. Lawrence finished 2nd in 3:57, beating out Lawrenceville’s “B” team in 4:00.
Boys 4x400m. Notre Dame dominated the 4x400m, running 3:32.02 to win and surpass Lawrenceville as the top time in the county this season. Their “B” team edged Lawrence for 4th place, after a big anchor leg from Lawrence made for an exciting, back-and-forth finish.
Boys Shuttle Hurdle Relay. The Notre Dame shuttle hurdle relay team won in 30.42, exactly tying their school record from earlier this season. Their time is still #3 in New Jersey.
Boys DMR, 4x800m, 4x1600m. Lawrenceville made the DMR exciting when their anchor leg made a big push to catch the leaders with 400m to go, though ultimately they had to settle for 3rd in 11:27. But the Big Red swept the other distance relays, winning the 4x1600m in 19:14 and the 4x800m in 8:51.
Boys Field Events. Matin Mahmoud (Lawrence) continued his undefeated season in the triple jump, winning in 45-2. Aldric Crawford (Notre Dame) won the long jump in 19-10, beating out a pair of Blair boys. Ayo Britto (Lawrenceville) jumped 6-2 to win the high jump. Lawrenceville’s Thaddeus Dankwa had a good meet, jumping PRs in both the long jump (18-6.5 for 4th) and the triple jump (39-11 for 4th). Isaiah Spencer (Lawrence) crushed his shot put PR by almost 18 inches, winning the meet with a throw of 47-3. His teammate Ryan Rodriguez took 2nd in 45-3.25, followed by Cameron Bailey (Notre Dame) with a 42-9.5.