Girls Group 2 Recap | West Essex Wins First Title, Reanda Richards Leads Way

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The West Essex girls won their first state title in school history on Saturday scoring 44 points, Governor Livingston was second with 36 and Delsea third at 29. 

West Essex won gold in two events during the Group 2 meet and Reanda Richards was part of both of them and more. Richards opened the meet with a season best 58.46 and then finished out the competition on the 4x400 squad which won running 3:59.19 NJ#5. What makes that more impressive is she also had two third place finishes in between those performances. In the 800 meter Richards ran third with a time of 2:16.22 NJ#5 and also scored a bronze in the 55 meter hurdles running of 8.44. 

Her teammates also placed in two other events thanks to Hailey Blum, who ran 7.43 for fourth in the 55 meter, and Julia Geiger, who cleared 5-0 in the high jump for second. 

Another big story from this meet was the freshman state 800 meter champion from Governor Livingston Victoria Vanriele. She ran a NJ#2 time of 2:13.71, the fastest of all the groups that weekend. 

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In the 55 meter hurdles Camden's Lenaami Morton ran 8.19 in prelims and then 8.25 for the win in finals. She already ranks NJ#2 this season with an 8.11 from January. Cecelia Gerstenbacher of Delsea won the 55 meter dash running 7.17 NJ#7. In the distance events Briana Gess of Haddonfield earned 1600 meter gold with a 5:04.15 and Sterling's Madison Coppolino 11:13.09 time was good for first during the 3200 meter. 

Governor Livingston's Leah Saifi cleared a winning 12-0 in the pole vault, she is already the state leader at 12-8.25. The high jump went to Carlie Wilson of Sparta at 5-0 and the shot put was won by Alicia Boucer of Jefferson Twp with a mark of 38-7. 

Group 2 State Champions