What a great meet! If you didn't see the live stream of the Wayne Gardiner Holiday Relays don't worry we have you covered with links to all the races on demand below along with a quick recap of what you'll see in those videos.
PHOTOS FROM THE MEET BY MAE KELLERT
Shuttle Hurdle Relays
The Union Catholic girls had an incredibly impressive early season time in the shuttle hurdles, recorded at a 31.76. Which absolutely destroys the meet record of 33.60 set by Franklin Twp in 1997.
On the boys side West Essex flew to a meet record as well with a 30.43 inching out the 1991 meet standard set by North Hunterdon at 30.50.
*Video Note* Unfortunately these ran during the Distance Medley, so we had to keep switching back and forth. Some of the early heats were recorded during the Distance Medley videos below, I will be taking some time to edit out heats to upload them separately soon. Unfortunately we missed some of the later SHR heats due to the simultaneous running of the events, sorry about that and thanks for the understanding.
Distance Medley Relay
In heat 1 of the boys DMR we saw a US#1 meet record time of 10:44.60 from the Morristown boys. They didn't take over first until the last 100 meters when Eric Clay laid down a monster kick to bring home the victory. In our preview we thought this story line might come up as Clay opened his season last weekend hot by setting the 1600 meter meet record at the Jack O'Leary Lid Lifter Invitational with a 4:29.53.
For the girls we saw another US#1 time from the Randolph girls who posted a 12:40.66 all alone out front. They were only seven seconds off the meet record.
Boys Heat 1 | Girls Heat 1 |
Boys Heat 2 | Girls Heat 2 |
4x200 Meter Relay
The Hunterdon Central and Elizabeth boys went head to head for an exciting race in heat 1. Hunterdon Central would squeak out the win with a NJ#4 time of 1:33.01 and was less than a second of the meet record of 1:32.40 set by Elizabeth in 1989.
For the girls Union Catholic took the win with a 1:48.22, just off the meet record of 1:48.06. Union Catholic already holds the NJ#2 spot this season with a 1:45.77 ran just last week at the Hall of Fame Invitational.
Boys Heat 1 | Girls Heat 1 |
Boys Heat 2 | Girls Heat 2 |
Boys Heat 3 | Girls Heat 3 |
Boys Heat 4 | Girls Heat 4 |
Boys Heat 5 | Girls Heat 5 |
Boys Heat 6 | Girls Heat 6 |
Boys Heat 7 | Girls Heat 7 |
Boys Heat 8 | Girls Heat 8 |
Boys Heat 9 |
4x800 Meter Relay
In heat 1 of the boys Whippany Park won an exciting race with an 8:14.66 to now rank NJ#3 US#6 on the season, so close to the meet record of 8:13.05 set in 2013 by Westfield. On the girls side the Randolph girls took off on the rest of the pack running to a 10:00.69 for NJ#1.
Boys Heat 1 | Girls Heat 1 |
Boys Heat 2 | Girls Heat 2 |
Boys Heat 3 |
Sprint Medley Relay
Excitement arose before the racing even took place when the crowd realized Sydney McLaughlin would be stepping onto the track for the first time since her Olympic run this past summer, read and see more here. Union Catholic went on to run a NJ#1 US#3 and meet record time of 4:17.76, the previous record was a 4:18.07 from Morris Knolls in 2006.
On the boys side there was excitement and drama between the first two heats. In heat 1 Union Catholic ran a time of 3:40.93 US#6 demolishing the meet record of 3:42.06. That meet record would only stand for less than four minutes because heat two ran even faster! Delbarton School and Morris Hills battled all race long trading leads until Delbarton's Joey DeFeo put the peddle down on his 800 meter leg to run 3:40.60 for NJ#1 US#4, Morris Hills second overall with a NJ#2 US#5 time of 3:40.60.
Boys Heat 1 | Girls Heat 1 |
Boys Heat 2 | Girls Heat 2 |
Boys Heat 3 | Girls Heat 3 |
Boys Heat 4 | Girls Heat 4 |
Boys Heat 5 |
4x400 Meter Relay
In the 4x400 meter relays the Union Catholic boys and girls teams both set meet records. The boys ran a 3:27.28 for NJ#1 US#3 destroying the previous record of 3:30.68 set by Metuchen in 1999. The girls squad also left the past record in the dust running a NJ#2 time of 4:06.40, breaking the 2015 record of 4:09.63 set by Hunterdon Central.
Boys Heat 1 | Girls Heat 1 |
Boys Heat 2 | Girls Heat 2 |
Boys Heat 3 | Girls Heat 3 |
Boys Heat 4 | Girls Heat 4 |
Boys Heat 5 | Girls Heat 5 |
Boys Heat 6 |
High Jump
Meghan O'Malley a sophomore from Randoph has started this season off on a great foot. First clearing 5-05 for a PR and meet record at last week's Lid Lifter Invitational and then at Wayne Gardiner tying the NJ#1 height of 5-06 as seen below in the video.