Week 6 Race To The Finish: Greater Middlesex Conference Relays
The East Brunswick girls were the surprise winners at the two-day GMC Relays event this past Tuesday and Wednesday at South Brunswick’s sprawling complex in Monmouth Junction. They ended the host Vikings streak of winning 14 years in a row.
South Brunswick’s amazing stranglehold started in 2006 when they were co-champions with Old Bridge. The Vikings then won every year through 2019. The event was cancelled the last two seasons because of the pandemic.
With Tuesday’s opening day spoiled by late day clouds, heavy winds and dropping temperatures that seemed to affect many of the league’s top performers, it appeared to be anyone’s race to win on Wednesday’s final day of competition.
The Bears 16-year veteran head coach Jeff Sundberg said back in March that his team had the potential to make some noise and he was right. “We have good balance” he stated, “we have good throwers, good distance runners and sprinters.”
East Brunswick wasted little time letting everyone know they were to be taken as a serious threat in the meet’s first event – the 3x400 meter hurdle relay with sophomore Chloe Smith, junior Paige Michlik and freshman Violet Sawicki earning silver.
In each of the first day running events which included the 4x1600 relay, 4x200 relay and the sprint medley relay, the Bears scored critical points in each of the four races.
As for the day one field events, Anna Sawicki, Katherine McSweeney and sister Arianna McSweeney placed fourth in the triple jump which added four important team points, which may have been lost by a few of the favorites.
The discus team led by Kayla Collins, Julia Perez and Caroline Kelly placed third with Collins launching the second-best throw of the meet at 101-04 feet. East Brunswick would pick up another needed point in the high jump as they finished in sixth position.
Wednesday turned out to be much warmer and there was a gentle breeze which had little if any effect on the competition. However, the temperature on the track was about to heat up as the competition started in earnest.
The Bears were favored to win the pole vault and did with the McSweeney sisters taking the gold. It was however in the long jump where they may have turned a few heads as the combination of Ariana D’Onofrio, Ana Sawicki and Arianna McSweeney took a gold medal with D’Onofrio having the second-best jump of the day at 16-05 feet.
Their throwers were able to secure additional points with a third-place finish in the javelin led by Mariela Sarmiento’s toss of 92-05 feet while the shot-put trio of Emily Oppong-Dwamena, Kayla Collins and Mariela Sarmiento secured a fifth-place spot adding two more team points.
With East Brunswick’s bronze medal in the 4x800, which was won in record fashion by the Metuchen quartet of Molly Malague, Caroline Schlief, Sara Lignell and Kaitlyn Connors in 9:31.92, the Bears were poised to make a run at the conference title.
A third-place finish in the 4x100 shuttle hurdles and a scintillating silver medal race in the 4x100 relay had the Green and White faithful believing they had a chance to unseat the hometown Vikings.
With two running event remaining, the distance medley and the 4x400 relay, the Bears needed to score points.
Their sixth-place finish in the DMR gave them an additional point which may have come as a surprise to some as Gia James, Catherine Yang, Emma Pusung and Melissa Keenen bested their seed time by a little more than 26 seconds.
The final race of the day was bittersweet for the surprising Bears as the foursome of Paige Michlik, Marley Vachon, Nicole Tomsik and Chloe Smith finished the 4x400 relay in second place adding eight more points to their final tally of 90 which was enough to earn East Brunswick the title of 2022 GMC Girls Relay Champions.
South Brunswick’s head coach boys coach Wilfredo Rivera watched, as did so many of the fans, participants, coaches and officials in awe as the last two standing in the final competition of the day, the high jump, were fellow teammates.
State leader Damarion Potts, the 2022 Indoor Meet of Champions gold medal winner in the high jump at 6-8, was now battling senior teammate Yathin Vemula for gold with both having cleared 6-2.
With the bar raised to 6-4, Vemula went first as Potts missed his first attempt at 6-2. The senior easily cleared 6-4, a new PR, as Potts followed him wowing the crowd with an effortless flight over the bar in what looked to be in the 6-8 range.
Vemula was extremely pumped as he was in rarified air while attempting his first 6-6 jump. He missed at his attempt as it looked like he changed his approach going further back than normal. His junior jumping partner also missed giving them both two more opportunities.
Yathin went back to his normal starting mark after a discussion with his jumping coach. What followed next was the roar of the crowd as Vemula glided over the bar with ease and scored a second PR.
Potts would miss his remaining two attempts at 6-6, however he seemed more interested in celebrating his fellow Viking’s newest accomplishment as well as their new county relay record of 18-feet, 10-inches shared with Brian Rawls, who jumped a personal best of six feet.
South Brunswick was able to win the 2022 GMC Boys Relay Championship dominating the 17 teams competing for the title by winning the field events and jumps.
Senior Nick Wisbeski and sophomores Braden Paulmenn and Xavier Lynch took gold in the javelin outdistancing the second-place team by 30 feet.
Potts, along with Jacob Brokaw and Ryan Nartey, won gold in the long jump and the triple jump. Damarion finished with the best long jump of 21-10 and all three finished in the top six medal positions for the triple jump –
Potts in third and Nartey and Brokaw in fifth and sixth place respectively.
In the discus, the favorite, Sayreville’s Anthony Voto, won individual gold with a toss of 148-8, however the Vikings’ trio of Jean Carlos Martinez Peralta, Wisbeski and Christian Farhat took second though fifth with a combined 399-08 feet to win the 10 team points for finishing first in the relay.
The pole vault’s gold medal went to GMC runner-up East Brunswick as Jayvee Dumas won the individual gold at 12-06 along with teammate Vinny Taormina finishing fourth. Nevertheless, the Vikings’ Amit Vankadhara had the second-best jump, which when combined with sophomore Aarav Yadav’s effort of 8-6, gave South Brunswick two more team points for finishing fifth.
Sixty-two of South Brunswick’s 96 total points were won on the grass or in the sand pits. As Rivera said in his post-meet interview, “some years you win the sprints, sometimes it’s distance runners, this year we are strong in the field events and jumps.”
The game plan worked as Rivera had envisioned, however South Brunswick still had to score points on the track to hold off the competition.
Senior Wan Ye, junior Karol Porbeni and freshman Jason Keiser worked their magic finishing second in the 3x400 hurdle relay and were joined by junior Jacob Brokaw in the 4x110 shuttle hurdle relay to earn another silver medal for a total of 16 team points.
Distance runners Aronmozhi Kannan, Neal Chaudhari, Aidan Silva and Sahil Sheth earned valuable points in the 4x1600 relay garnering a bronze medal. Sheth also anchored the sprint medley relay helping fellow Vikings Matthew Nurse, Porbeni and Keiser win another third-place medal.
Whereas South Brunswick’s coach felt his team could have performed better in a few of the other relay events, the Vikings accomplished one of their pre-season goals which was to win the GMC relays which were shelved the past two years due to the pandemic.
The next big event is a little more than a week away when the Red and White Division titles will be up for grabs on Saturday, May 15 at St. Joseph H.S. in Metuchen.
Find complete results here, photos here and video here.
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Girls Top 3 Individual performers for each event
400m Hurdles
Brooke’Lyn Drakeford, Piscataway, 1:03.49
Chloe Smith, East Brunswick, 1:05
Melina Updale, Woodbridge, 1:09.23
4x200 Relay
Metuchen, 1:49.15
East Brunswick, 1:49.47
South Brunswick, 1:49.73
Sprint Medley Relay
Metuchen, 4:14.52
Piscataway, 4:22.11
Woodbridge, 4:24.79
Discus
Lilia Ould-Hammou, Metuchen, 105-10
Kayla Collins, East Brunswick, 101-04
Madelynn Pfeiffer, South Plainfield, 101-01
Triple Jump
Renee Nartey, South Brunswick, 36-05.50
Leah Williams-White, Sayreville, 34-09
Tatiana Camilo, Woodbridge, 34-0
High Jump
Tatiana Camilo, Woodbridge, 5-2
Melanie LaCorte, South Brunswick, 5-0
Tonna Ogina, Highland Park, 5-0
4x800 Relay
Metuchen, 9:31.92R
Old Bridge, 9:43.62
East Brunswick, 10:14.31
4x100 Shuttle Hurdle Relay
North Brunswick, 1:08.56
South Brunswick, 1:10.31
East Brunswick, 1:10.49
4x100 Relay
Piscataway, 50.00
East Brunswick, 50.65
Metuchen, 51.50
4x400 Relay
Piscataway, 4:02.75
East Brunswick, 4:05.46
Metuchen, 4:07.21
Distance Medley Relay
Metuchen, 12:53.36
JP Stevens, 13:13.30
Piscataway, 13:16.83
Shot Put
Zi’yanah Baker, South Brunswick, 35-05.75
Syndney Loiacano, South Plainfield, 35-0
Kayla Damoah, Sayreville, 33-07.25
Javelin
Olivia Willemsen, Piscataway, 114-10
Alessandra Colon, North Brunswick, 106-00
Alison Forsell, Spotswood, 94-02
Long Jump
Renee Nartey, South Brunswick, 17-00
Ariana D’Onofrio, East Brunswick, 16-05
Leah Williams-White, Sayreville, 16-03
Pole Vault
Arianna McSweeney, East Brunswick, 10-6
Kathryn McSweeney, East Brunswick, 10-6
Hanna Puritz, North Brunswick, 9-06
Boys Top 3 Individual performers for each event
400m Hurdles
Christopher Serrao, East Brunswick, 53.21
Chiemelie Anosike, East Brunswick, 57.24
Andre Pearson, North Brunswick, 57.46
4x200 Relay
East Brunswick, 1:28.18
Piscataway, 1:30.82
Old Bridge, 1:31.23
Sprint Medley Relay
Old Bridge, 3:35.43
St. Joseph, 3:35.62
South Brunswick, 3:35.91
Discus
Anthony Voto, Sayreville, 148-08
Jean Carlos Martinez Peralta, South Brunswick, 136-11
Nicholas Wisbeski, South Brunswick, 131-11
Triple Jump
Joseph Oduro, South Plainfield, 46-09
Heru Dwyer, Piscataway, 45-01
Damarion Potts, South Brunswick, 43-06.
High Jump
Yathin Vemula, South Brunswick, 6-6
Damarion Potts, South Brunswick, 6-4
Mikail Maturkanitch, North Brunswick, 6-0
4x800 Relay
Old Bridge, 8:14.06
Sayreville, 8:14.90
Metuchen 8:26.44
4x110 Shuttle Hurdle Relay
East Brunswick, 1:01.81
South Brunswick, 1:04.22
North Brunswick, 1:06.36
4x100 Relay
East Brunswick, 41.94R
Piscataway, 42.96
North Brunswick, 43.24
4x400 Relay
East Brunswick, 3:20.86
Old Bridge, 3:21.53
North Brunswick, 3:28.72
Distance Medley Relay
Edison, 10:37.69
Monroe, 10:41.99
Old Bridge, 10:45.06
Shot Put
Anthony Voto, Sayreville, 53-09.50
Kenneth Rudy, Woodbridge, 44-03.25
Joshua Nazario, New Brunswick, 44-02.50
Javelin
Nicholas Wisbeski, South Brunswick, 149-02
Braden Paulmann, South Brunswick, 147-00
Reda Elaroussi, New Brunswick, 136-02
Long Jump
Damarion Potts, South Brunswick, 21-10
Joseph Oduro, South Plainfield, 21-09
Jacob Brokaw, South Brunswick, 21-00
Pole Vault
Jayvee Dumas, East Brunswick, 12-6
Amit Vankadhari, South Brunswick, 10-6
Sean Donnamaria, Sayreville, 10-06
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Week 6 Race To The Finish: Greater Middlesex Conference Relays
