Christian Brothers Academy led New Jersey in the COA DMR on Friday. / Photo by Brandon Miles for MileSplit
Penn Relays continued Friday and the top performances kept rolling. The day welcomed the boys to the carnival and saw the girls return to finish what they started. Check out the highlights below, each event header links to the full results.
| Distance
Girls 4x800m Championship | The Ridge girls, who qualified for the Championship of American on Thursday by running 10th overall with 9:24.32, placed seventh on Friday with a NJ#1 US#17 time of 9:19.82! Their splits were as follows: Liz Newman (2:20.80), Kelly Van Baalen (2:21.26), Emily Hirsch (2:20.02), Abigail Regner (2:17.76)
Boys 4x800m Trials | New Jersey had THREE teams qualify for the Championship of America to be run on Saturday, which accepts the top 12 times from the trials. River Dell placed second in their small school heat with a 7:55.34 which is good for the fourth seed and NJ#1. Morris Hills was right behind them in that heat with a 7:59.62 ranking them 10th for the finals. The South Brunswick boys ran in the Large School heat taking second with a 7:58.93, the eight seed heading into Saturday and now ranked NJ#4 this season.
Team Splits:
River Dell - Rob Klopf (1:58.57), Colin Daly (1:54.36), Justin Fernandez (2:05.40), Will Daly (1:57.02)
South Brunswick - Jared Fisher (2:03.02), Nicholas Neville (1:55.94), Kyle McCann (2:01.30), Ryan Budhu (1:58.68)
Morris Hills - Ian McNally (1:58.47), Jason Schweizer (2:00.94), Alex Pai (2:00.68), John Dennehy (1:59.54)
Boys Distance Medley Championship | Another race with mutiple great New Jersey performances. Christian Brothers Academy came so close with a potential final push but crossed the line in third running 10:12.78, only .68 off the winning La Salle Academy from Rhode Island. They now rank NJ#1 US#7. Haddon Twp earned a sixth place finish running 10:19.67, NJ#2 US#19, including a 4:14.98 anchor leg from Luke Petela.
Also representing Jersey well was West Windsor Plainsboro South who placed eighth with a 10:25.66 NJ#6, Summit 10th at 10:26.60 NJ#7, and Haddonfield 11th 10:27.23 NJ#8.
Key Splits:
CBA - Drake Anzano (3:08.93), Mike Zupko (48.55), Christian McLaughlin (1:59.71), Blaise Ferro (4:15.60)
Haddon Twp - Owen Long (3:09.50), Jake Dinerman (53.24), Randy Ladd (2:01.97), Luke Petela (4:14.98)
Boys 3000m Championship | Conor Murphy of Allentown placed sixth with a time of 8:37.44! That is ranked US#11 so far this season. Pat Sullivan and David Ross of Don Bosco placed 19th and 21st with 8:56.04 and 9:00.49.
| Sprints
Girls 4x400m Championship | Columbia girls had qualified for the COA Thursday with a NJ#1 time of 3:49.64. They came back on Friday with an eighth place finish running 3:53.33.
Boys 4x100m Trials | The Rancocas Valley boys, who hold the NJ#1 time of 42.49 from the Woodbury Relays, posted a 42.85 for the 16th best time out of 552 teams on Friday. This performance qualified them for the Large Schools final on Saturday at 1:55pm.
| Throws
Luke Grodeska of St. Rose extended his lead on the state in the shot put. / Photo by Don Rich for MileSplit
Boys Shot Put Championship | Luke Grodeska of St. Rose improved his state lead with a NJ#1 mark of 59-4.5 placing eighth. CBA's Andrew Liskowitz was 11th with a NJ#4 56-8.5. Check out the full results linked on the header which featured six New Jersey competitors.
Boys Discus Championship | We had a NJ#1 and #2 in the discus at Penn! Kevin Benson of Toms River North launched a 173-2.75 mark for fifth overall and the state lead. Right after him Nicolas Botett of South Brunswick with a 172-8.75. Vlad Castillo Jr of Montgomery Twp finished 11th with a NJ#5 mark of 164-1.
Boys Javelin Championship | The top finisher for NJ was Gregory Harnett in 11th with a throw of 175-5. He currently leads the state with a mark 184-11 from week 1 at the Raider Relays.
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Thursday Highlights right here!
