Winter Track: Highlights from Group 2 and 3 Sectionals

Demarest overcomes big loss, repeats in Boys Group 2

Almost every great team has adversity to overcome. Sometimes its an unexpected loss on the field, or an injury to an important athlete. It's how they face that adversity that determines a team's legacy.

Friday night, Demarest showed they were a great team that could overcome adversity. The Norsemen captured their second straight North 1, group 2 sectional title and fourth in six years, 73-61, over a very good Old Tappan team, despite losing one of the best throwers in New Jersey to a significant injury suffered in practice just a few days earlier.

Helped by wins from seniors Jack Attali (55 hurdles), Chris Short (55), sophomore Liam Paneque (high jump) and capped by a win in the 4-x-400 relay, Demarest overcame the loss of North Jersey's No. 1 ranked shot putter, Ohan Ambartsoumian to win the title.

"Losing Ohan is a big blow to us, not only for the points he gets us, but for the way he leads and handles himself,'' said Demarest coach Mike Theuerkauf. "But all our kids performed well as they usually do. We miss him a lot but we have to power through.''

Short, who won the seeded heat of the 400 but finished second in the overall standings to an athlete from an unseeded heat, came right back with a season's best performance in the 55, winning his second straight title in the event. He then ran a sterling anchor leg in the 4-x-400 relay to pull away from Vernon and Old Tappan to secure the title.

"We knew when Ohan got hurt that our margin of error to win went down, but it made all of us dig a little deeper to make up for it,'' said Short, who won the 400 a year ago from the unseeded heat. "But we have a lot of great athletes on this team.''

One of those is Attali, who started hurdling less than a year ago while recovering from a broken wrist which hindered his ability to triple jump, which had previously been his best event.

"I couldn't do some of the drills in the jumps while I was recovering from the injury,'' said Attali, who won the hurdles easily Friday in 7.73, just a few ticks off of his school record performance earlier in the year and one of the top performances in the state this year. "I started three-stepping right away and I liked it.''

There's no triple jump in the winter state series (although Attali hopes to jump in the showcase event at the State Meet of Champions in March), so Attali had to confine himself to hurdling and a personal best in the 55 dash, where he took a surprise fifth.

There's no long jump in states either, so Paneque, one of the top sophomores in the country in the event, had to focus on the high jump instead. It worked out pretty well as he cleared a personal best 6-2 to win the event.

"I was thinking before today's meet that every time I finish the long jump, that I have to come out of the pit and run over to high jump and I never get warmed up the way I want to,'' said Paneque. "So it was nice today to just focus on one thing.''

He entered at 5-4 and made his first three heights easily before missing his first try at 5-10.

"I realized that I hadn't put my spikes in properly and every spike in my shoe was gone,'' said Paneque, who fixed the problem, cleared 5-10 on his next try, made 6-0 on his first jump and then 6-2 on his final attempt to earn gold.

"When you're surrounded by good athletes like Andrew (Tandler) and Jack every day, you have to push all the time,'' said Paneque. "You can't let up.

Tandler was an unsung hero of the victory taking second behind Attali in a personal best 8.10 for the hurdles and taking third in the high jump.

River Dell domination of girls group 2 continues, thanks to Allen and Rilveria

River Dell junior Christina Allen has already fashioned a legendary high school career, even though she has four and a half seasons and 16 months left before graduation.

She's won two State Meet of Champions outdoor titles in two different events, helped the Golden Hawks to the 2022 state group 2 winter title and to numerous sectional and league crowns in track and cross-country.

But that's not the biggest reason coach Mike Urso gushes about her.

"She is not only the best athlete on the team, she's a selfless kid and a wonderful teammate,'' said Urso after Allen's unprecedented group 2 sectional distance triple provided the difference in the Golden Hawks' 66-53-48 win over Mahwah and Old Tappan for a sixth sectional title in the last eight meets. "She's a champion in every sense of the word.''

Strangely, the big performance came at a time when Allen was struggling for the first time in her career, although most observers were unaware of it.

"I found myself enjoying running less than I ever had before,'' said Allen, who came up short of victory in several late season cross-country meets and had several early season winter performances she felt had not come up to her own high standards.

But a solid performance in multiple events at the Bergen County Relays a week ago picked up her spirits and a chance Friday to help her team win another big title provided an even bigger spark.

Allen won the 1,600 comfortably, pulling away on the final laps for an easy win, did the same thing in a routine 800 win and then prepared to run an easy race in the 3,200, joining teammate Rachel Mills in what figured to be a 2-3 finish behind race favorite Morgan Uhlhorn of Lakeland in her third race of the day.

"But I felt myself picking up energy as the race went on and I felt really good with 400 to go so I went after it,'' said Allen, after an seemingly effortless change of gear led to a 50 meter win in a big indoor personal best of 11:14.70 to clinch the win.

Another veteran and star of last winter's state title, senior Abreeana Rilveria, was second in the 55 hurdles and fourth in a personal best in the 55 dash after battling through her own rough patch a year earlier.

"I was spending too much time watching other runners and not focusing on my own lane,'' said Rilveria, whose surprise second at states last winter was a key element in the River Dell victory. "I can't even tell you how many times coach told me to do it, before it finally clicked.''

River Dell also got a win from junior Grace McQueeney in her third best event, the high jump (the long and triple jumps are not part of the program) and got key points from Morgan Levine (55), Emily Turschmann (55 hurdles), Isabella Gabay (800) and Mills, who got her third in the 3,200. The 4-x-400 relay also finished fourth.

North Jersey athletes provide huge individual performances

It wasn't just River Dell girls and Demarest boys that provided highlight reel performances during the marathon six hour meet.

Defending group 3 state high jump champ Norina Khanzada finally broke out of the "funk" that had seen her clear 5-4 in six straight meets by clearing 5-6 to win her fifth straight sectional title (indoors and outdoors) in the event.

"Every meet I was so close to making 5-6 again,'' said Khanzada, who cleared 5-7 last winter in winning the Bergen County title and 5-6 in winning group 3. "I hit it with the bottom of my heel, the hair by arm, a flap on the uniform, and every single time I was so close."

She credits a psychology class she's taking at Tenafly for helping her get back over the bar. "I learned that when stress hits you can take it as a challenge or a threat and now I take it as a challenge because there's no reason to be scared.''

Mahwah junior Siena Kannenberg won the 400 for a second straight time, with an indoor best of 60.25 seconds, took third in the 55 and anchored the Thunderbirds to a win in the group 2 4-x-400.

As she gets more experienced on the track, she gets more confident, and it even helps her soccer game.

"Experience helps me overcome my nerve and concentrating on proper technique and running form and makes me both a better runner and a better soccer player,'' said Kannenberg. "In soccer my arms were lower than they should be and now my legs help me drive to the ball better.''

But perhaps the most impressive performance of all came from the Old Tappan pole vaulting squad, both boys and girls.

The Golden Knights vaulters, coached by Jeff Clark, went 1-2-4 in the boys vault with Nathan Park clearing 14 feet for the first time with Tyler DeMarco (13-0) and Caleb Park (12-0) following. And they went 1-2-3 in the girls vault, with soph Jamie Kim winning at 10 feet, soph Salome Sanchez PR'ing at 10 feet and junior Allie Tuite third at 9 feet.

"(Coach) Clark is amazing at doing something with us every day to fix our jumping even if it's too cold to be outside vaulting,'' said Nathan Park, who won OT's fifth state outdoor title last spring since 2014 (five different vaulters). "Everybody pushes each other in practice every day and gets us ready for every meet.''

"Everyone's improved so much because he keeps us positive and wanting to get better every day.''

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Winter Track: Highlights from Group 2 and 3 Sectionals