For the first time in indoor Meet of Champions meet history, with the addition of the long jump, we have four field events to cover. Here is your field events recap for Saturday's boys competition.
With New Balance Nationals Indoor still to go this pole vault season has already been one to remember and the Meet of Champions was a battle to the end. Three boys cleared 15-06 with Liam Landau of Pascack Hills earning the win on attempts over Bradley Jelmert of Watchung Hills and Simon Schenk of Princeton.
Landau already cleared 15-09 this season back in January to lead the state and crack the top twenty in the US. That performance is also a Bergen County record and ranks sixth all-time for the state. All three attempted 16-00 and didn't clear, though Simon Schenk was very close before being called on a hand violation as he cleared the bar.
Now over to the high jump pit where we had another victory decided on attempts, Mark Anselmi of Middletown South cleared his first run at 6-08 to win over second place Jamier Wright-Collins of J F Kennedy Paterson at the same height.
Anselmi now has nine wins this indoor and is undefeated in 2019. This was a major goal for Anselmi coming into the season and credits giving more time to his strength training for the great indoor campaign so far. He'll be competing in the high jump at New Balance Nationals, a meet where he cleared 6-09 last season. There are now three athletes tied for the state lead at 6-08 including Anselmi, Wright-Collins, and St. Peter's Prep's Adonis McGee who finished fourth at this meet clearing 6-04.
At the shot put we had a hard earned win by Brendan Loftus of Red Bank Regional who got the upset over NJ#1 ranked Kyle Lipscomb of Linden. Loftus threw 56-07 on his last attempt for the victory, Lipscomb second at 56-01.5. Both of these competitors have already thrown farther this season with Lipscomb NJ#1 at 58-06.75 and Loftus NJ#3 at 57-08.5.
And if you missed our recap on the long jump showcase from Thursday, Nils Wildberg of Princeton was the first champion at 23-04. That was after returning from a meniscus injury that held him out most of the season. You can find that full recap here.