Track & Field Meet of Champions: Zawatski, Burke, Strydesky win as Shore Conference rules
FRANKLIN -- In case anyone needed a reminder of how good the Shore Conference is in girls track & field, Saturday’s NJSIAA Meet of Champions provided it.
The conference produced three gold-medal winners and three runners-up on the season’s biggest stage. The champions:
Freehold Township sophomore Emma Zawatski surprised the field in the 1600 with a time of 4:48.88.
Point Pleasant Borough junior Shea Burke broke the tape in the 100 hurdles with a blistering time of 14.36.
Howell junior Samantha Strydesky delivered as the top seed in the high jump with a 5-foot-8 clearance.
On a day when some top competitors skipped the meet in favor of one of the three national meets taking place this weekend, this trio was exactly where they wanted to be – establishing a permanent legacy as state champions,
BOYS TRACK: Ocean's Sadikov, Jackson's Paneque strike MOC gold
Zawatski: ‘I must be dreaming’
No race spoke louder of the Shore Conference’s excellence than the girls 1600. Metuchen’s Molly Malague led for three laps, then Zawatski and the Shore stars took over. She was followed to the finish line by Red Bank Catholic junior Cate DeSousa (second place, 4:49.91), St. Rose junior Tilly O’Connor (third, 4:50.33) and Toms River South junior Lily Oliver (fourth, 4:51.55).
And this was without the state’s top girls miler, injured Colts Neck senior Lilly Shapiro.
“I have so much respect for all those other girls,” Zawatski said. “I’ve looked up to all of them so much. Just to be up there with them is a dream come true.”
Zawatski shaved five seconds off her time from last week’s Group 4 meet, a remarkable achievement on a day marred by 20-mile-per-hour wind gusts. Fifteen minutes after her triumph, she was still having trouble soaking it all in.
“It’s not real,” Zawatski said. “I told my coach, ‘I must be dreaming,’ This is MOC, right? I can’t believe I just did that.”
She ran a textbook race, following coach Todd Briggs’ advice to the letter, letting others cut through the wind, then making a strong move at the bell. As a result she is the first Freehold Township distance runner, male or female, to win a Meet of Champions gold medal indoors or outdoors.
This marks the second Meet of Champs gold medal for the remarkable Zawatski family; Her older brother Tyler won the javelin boys last spring.
“It’s exceptional to be young, young, and have this on your resume,” Briggs said. “However, as a coach I have to keep in mind that there’s a long way to go. If this is the highlight of her running career, I messed up.”
Zawatski said she never considered skipping the Meet of Champions.
“New Jersey has the best athletes,” she said.
Now she is one of them.
Burke’s queen of the hurdles
In May, after winning the 100 hurdles at the Ocean County Championships, Burke said her goal was to finish in the top five at the Meet of Champions.
Turns out, she sold herself short.
Burke commanded the hurdles field from the start on Saturday. After running the top time in the prelims, a 14.59, Burke bolted out of the blocks, clipped just one hurdle and held off a stiff challenge from Rancocas Valley senior Anabella Chin, prevailing by three-hundreths of a second (14.36 to 14.39).
It's the second-fastest automatic time ever run by an Ocean County girl, behind only the record of 14.34 from Manchester's Sonya Sullivan in 2004.
“It’s really amazing honestly, because I don’t view myself as better than anyone else,” Burke said. “Anabella is an amazing athlete and I look up to her. It’s really cool that I’m at her level. It’s amazing that all this hard work I put in has made me become the best in the state. I just looked at myself as good high school hurdler.”
At the finish, even though it was close, Burke threw her arms in the air in triumph.
“I knew that I got it,” she said. “I kept telling myself (on Saturday) that you’re going to win this, you’ve worked for this, you’ve cried, you’re put blood, sweat and tears into this.”
For someone who took up this event only last spring, “just making it to the finals was an award,” Burke said.
She never considered skipping Meet of Champs for a national meet, especially since she also ran on the 4x100 Saturday.
“I didn’t want to bail on my teammates,” she said.
That kind of attitude was richly rewarded. She’s the first Point Boro athlete to win a Meet of Champions crown since Devin Hart took the boys 3200 in 2019. And Saturday's triumph capped her unbeaten season in the event.
“Point Boro has amazing athletes, but it’s a lot of teams,” Burke said. “To get to this point by myself, with help from my coaches, it is really rewarding. I can put my name on these banners and in these (record) books, and create another name for Point Boro, too.”
Strydesky soars
It was the kind of gesture that makes high school track & field special.
Moments after Strydesky won the high jump, she walked over to runner-up Jordan Robinson of Morristown for a heartfelt embrace.
Both cleared a height of 5 feet, 8 inches, but Strydesky won the gold medal because she had fewer misses along the way.
“Jordan is such a sweet girl,” Strydesky said. “We have so much fun when we compete against each other. I really wanted her to do well.”
They both did well, under extreme circumstances. The wind was gusting at nearly 20 miles per hour. Strydesky, who came in as the top seed after clearing 5-8 to win last weekend’s Group 4 meet, missed her first attempt at 5-4 and was clean through 5-8, matching her personal best on her first attempt.
“I came into today more confident than I did for groups,” she said. “The wind changes your approach, but you just have to work through it.”
Strydesky is Howell’s first Meet of Champions winner since Rachel Kern struck gold in the girls javelin in 2017.
“Considering the weather, she looked great,” Howell coach Kevin Dee said. “Jumping 5-8 is like jumping 5-10 today.”
Strydesky, who stands at 5-foot-11, was introduced to the high jump as a Howell middle school sixth-grader. A contingent of her friends and family lined the fence beyond the high jump pit, cheering each clearance with a loud roar.
The thought of competing in one of the national meets never crossed her mind.
“I thought this was more important,” she said. “I thought it would be really cool to win the Meet of Champions.”
She received a last-minute bit of encouragement by Howell senior Laura Gugliotta, who turned in a fine day of her own. The Penn-bound Gugliotta placed second in the girls 400 with a time of 56.91, behind only Kent Place’s Christina Nwachuku (56.09), and later finished third in the 200 (25.23). It was the highest MOC finish over two events by any Shore Conference athlete Saturday.
“Laura is the most supportive person you could ever talk to,” Strydesky said. “She always knows what to say. She’s been there before. She’s always been really supportive of me.”
Other local girls of note
The Shore Conference’s other girls runner-up was Toms River North junior Ayotunde Folawewo, who grabbed silver in the triple jump with a 37-11.5 effort.
Colts Neck junior Kylie Jacoutot placed third in the 400 hurdles in 1:03.58.
Shore Regional senior Caroline Donohoe placed third in the 800 in 2:13.34.
Middletown South sophomore Rosemary Shay placed third in the 3200 in 10:50.
Lucy Jackson became Mater Dei Prep's final-ever competitor in any sport. The junior closed the book on the 62-year-old school, which shut down earlier this month, by tying for 14th in the high jump with a 5-0 clearance and also competed in the 100 hurdles.
Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: NJ Shore track & field Meet of Champions girls: Zawatski, Burke, Strydesky win
