A four-pack of Monmouth County girls teams took turns grabbing the spotlight with their meet-record performances, while Christian Brothers hogged the headlines with its wealth of depth, accounting for six gold medals and a meet record when the Monmouth County Relays concluded on Friday evening at the Bennett Center in Toms River.
The top headline coming out of The Bubble was the Colts Neck girls rocketing up to No. 1 in New Jersey and No. 2 in the U.S. this season after winning the distance medley in 12:28.28. They smashed the meet record of 12:30.78 set by St. John Vianney in 2013.
Senior Natalie Shapiro (3:45.4 for 1,200), junior Kelsey Nager (63.8 for 400), freshman Ava Wilmot (2:29.5 for 800) and sophomore Lilly Shapiro (5:09.6 for 1,600) were the stars for Colts Neck. Only North Shore (12:20.19) of Glen Head, N.Y., has run faster in the U.S. this season.
Rumson, led by its meet-record 4x200-meter relay team, earned its first team title since 2016 by winning a tight battle with Howell, 38-35.
Senior Eva Farr, junior Marlee Dotts, sophomore Chloee Dotts and senior Lily Orr led Rumson to the 4x200 meet record of NJ#9 1:46.68.
Christian Brothers, which steamrolled to its 10th straight county title and 37th overall, won the shuttle hurdles (31.60), pole vault (20-6), 4x200 (1:35.01), shot put (106-9), sprint medley (3:44.37) and 4x400 (3:34.40).
CBA senior Eros Bottino heaved the shot put a meet-best 54-10 ½ and junior Christian Ricci was third in the field at 52-7 ½. Their 106-9 combined total broke the meet record of 104-6 ½ set by CBA in 2015.
More record-breakers at the Monmouth County Relays:
Howell's shuttle hurdle crew of seniors Julianna Caccamo, Nicole Milnes, Marisa Santamauro and Sarah Mullen won in a meet-record and NJ#2 32.42. The old mark was 33.03 set by Middletown North last season.
Freehold Township junior Izabel Fronc cleared a meet-record and NJ#2 5-6 in the high jump (she landed 5-4 with her third and final attempt), and teamed with Sophia Yun (4-8) to combine for a 10-2 total, which tied meet record reached four previous times, most recently by Manalapan and Red Bank in 2000. Fronc's mark bested the 5-2 set by Lindsey Rappleyea of Colts Neck in 2009.
The Christian Brothers trio of senior Liam O'Hara and juniors Peter Jaworski and Justin Nocella fueled two gold-medal relays.
They teamed with senior Christian Keane to win the shuttle hurdles in NJ#6 31.60. Nocella and Jaworski were joined by Jason Asare and Joe Silvestri to win the 4x400 in 3:34.40. O'Hara ran the 400 leg of the sprint medley, which included Evan DeSousa, Mark Skrincosky and Brandon Farrell and won in 3:44.37.
Monmouth County produced a pair of blazing 4x800s.
Red Bank Catholic, fueled by senior Gioanna Curci (2:27.3), freshman Cate DeSousa (2:21.8), junior Julianne Kopec (2:17a.4) and senior Maddy Kopec (2:28.3), won the girls 4x800 in NJ#2 9:33.57. Only Union Catholic (9:21.86) has run faster this season.
Middletown North won the boys 4x800 in NJ#3 8:13.52 thanks to seniors Kevin Carragher, Anthony Sclafani and Isa Yilmaz and junior Chris Gambardella. Only Kingsway's 7:55.30 and Washington Township's 8:13.30 are ahead of the Lions.
Individual leaders:
Matawan senior Latiesha Small led the girls shot put field with a 38-2 ½, and she paired with Emma Garofalo to win gold (70-7 ¼).
Another Matawan senior, Dayna Moyer, pole vaulted NJ#6 10-6 to best the field.
In the boys pole vault, Christian Brothers junior Liam Miksic cleared a meet best 10-6 and teamed with Ben Skrincosky to win the event.
Raritan senior Jaren Caso high jumped a meet-best 6-0 and teamed with Ryan Connors (5-8) to tie for the gold with Christian Brothers, led by Jarret Chambers (5-10) and Matt Ruzich (5-10).
