Athlete of the Week
A pair of throwers had a big impact at last Saturday's Mercer County Relays.
Princeton junior Paul Brennan had the top throw in the discus, helping Princeton win that event with a throw of 164-6 that was 37-7 further than anyone else in the field. Brennan also had the top shot put at the meet, throwing 48-4 ¼ to outdo anyone else in the field by 10 ¾ inches.
Brennan made the NJSIAA Meet of Champions outdoor last year in the discus, finishing seventh, and he took 18th in the shot put indoors this winter.
Hightstown junior Samira van der Laan also won the discus as the only competitor with a 100-foot throw, reaching 105-8 to outdo the rest of the throwers by 7-1. She also had the top javelin, throwing 109-4 to better the field by 14 feet, and had the second-best shot put, registering 36-0 ½.
Van der Laan made the M of C this winter in the shot put, finishing 18th.
Team of the Week
Princeton's boys were the unofficial Mercer County Relays team champion, scoring 86 points to finish 17 in front of the previous year's unofficial champ, Hamilton West. The Tigers won the pole vault, discus, javelin, long jump, distance medley relay and 4x400 relay.
WW-P South's girls were also the unofficial champs of the girls meet, scoring 66 ½ points to finish seven in front of Lawrenceville. The Pirates won the 4x800, the 4x100 shuttle hurdles relay, and the distance medley relay, using 10 runners to get those three titles with only Kelsey Kobus and Julia Mao, both in the 4x800 and DMR, on more than one of those teams.
Meet of the Week
Along with Princeton's and WW-P South's team success, the Mercer County Relays saw 20 athletes or relay teams meet MileSplit's U.S. second-team standard, including Notre Dame's Haley Horvath's 11-0 pole vault, Hopewell Valley's Keyana Brooks' 38-4 ¼ shot put, Brennan's discus, WW-P South's A'Nan Bridgett's 6-6 high jump, and Princeton's Varun Narayan's 22-7 long jump. The girls sprint medley relays from Steinert (4:13.84), WW-P South (4:17.20), Princeton (4:17.57) and Lawrenceville (4:18.03), boys SMRs from Lawrenceville (3:36.26), Robbinsville (3:36.93), Trenton (3:40.22), Hopewell Valley (3:40.33), and Hightstown (3:42.70), as well as the boys 4x800 teams from Hopewell Valley (7:48.94), Princeton (7:56.22), WW-P North (7:57.26) and WW-P South (8:01.25).
Meets to Watch
It's Penn Relays week, and there's always a strong contingent of locals headed to Franklin Field for the three-day event, Thursday through Saturday at the University of Pennsylvania's Franklin Field.
Allentown, Bordentown, Ewing, Hamilton West, Hightstown, Hopewell Valley, Lawrence, Lawrenceville, Montgomery, Northern Burlington, Notre Dame, Nottingham, Peddie, Princeton, Robbinsville, Steinert, Stuart, Trenton, WW-P North and WW-P South are all on the event's registration list from the area.
"Any time you have a historic venue with a long-running, historic event and you get the opportunity to bring high school athletes to experience that, you've got to go," Princeton coach Jim Smirk said. "You've got to. It definitely is a piece that helps us understand the importance of the history of the sport and what our role in that is and our responsibility in that. It's always a fun day as well. It's an amazing atmosphere. You get to see these amazing teams run. You get to see teams from all over the world come out and race, college teams. I think it really helps us develop a sense of pride in what we're doing, above and beyond just what we're doing here in the county, but that track and field and running as a whole in the U.S. is a really important thing and being a part of that is important as well."
The Haddon Township-hosted George Rowland Relays are also on the docket Saturday with Bordentown and Northern Burlington scheduled to compete.
Notes
At the Cherokee Night of 3200s last Thursday, Montgomery senior Julia Hans clocked 11:26.09 as the top area runner, finishing third overall in a field of 112 with Mainland's Alyssa Aldridge pacing the meet in 10:36.12. WW-P South junior Jake Williams (9:46.74) and sophomore Austin True (9:46.97) were eighth and ninth overall as the top locals in a field of 178 boys with Delsea's Colin Kane leading the way in 9:30.84.
Montgomery tuned in some noteworthy performances at the Somerset County Relays last Saturday, with Abrianna Barrett turning in the top high jump at 5-4, Rydell Johnson, Alex Liu, Carter McFadden and Ryan Cashman winning the 4x200 in 1:31.35, and Cashman (45-4 ¾) and McFadden (38-2 ¾) teamed to win the triple jump relay with Cashman getting the top jump overall. The Montgomery boys finished fourth with 59 points and the girls took sixth with 38. Hillsborough won the boys meet with 98 points and Ridge won the girls title at 105.
Ad Choices