Watch the can't miss final heat of the 1600m where some of the very best in the state went head to head.
Full Results | Photos | Race Replays
On a windy cold Friday night 350 distance runners made their way to Basking Ridge, New Jersey, for the Ridge Twilight Night of 1600s.
The entry list provided some hype going into this one and if you watched any of those top heats you certainly weren't disappointed. There were great battles and quick times all around, and if the weather took a friendlier stance we may have seen even faster performances.
On the girls side four of the top seven 1600m times in the state were recorded. Colts Neck's Lilly Shapiro and Voorhees' Emma McGill, the top seeded girls coming in, took to the track in heat 17.
Watch Top Girls Race
Shapiro opened with a 1:12, went through the 800m at 2:24, and came back with laps of 74.20 and 69.23 to close out her impressive 4:48.31.
The time ranks her just outside the top 12 all-time for the 1600m/mile in New Jersey outdoor high school track history. Between this run and her NJ No. 11 all-time 3200m performance at Cherokee last week Shapiro is now the state leader for both the 1600m and 3200m so far in 2021.
McGill, who is no stranger to the sub-5 herself, finished with a NJ No. 3 time of 4:59.14.
Girls Top 8 Finishers - Various Heats
Earlier in heat 13 we were treated to a great battle between Lindsay Hausman of Kent Place and Caroline Mehlhorn of Montgomery as well.
Hausman brought on a late charge on the last lap to clock a 5:02.04 passing Mehlhorn who finished shortly after at 5:03.58. They are now NJ No. 4 and No. 5 so far in this young season.
Fast-forward to heat 22, a line-up that could rival the top of the Meet of Champions field we see in June.
Watch Top Boys Race
The lead was passed around early as most of the field stuck close together. The current state leader Jackson Barna had the lead midway leading the field through the 800 meter with 2:13 on the clock.
Barna, Marco Langon, Myles Plummer, and Matt Bogdan separated from the field heading into the bell. Langon and Barna were two wide entering the final straight but Bogdan had other plans and unleashed a monster kick to win the race at 4:17.35 ranked NJ No. 3.
Bogdan's final lap was a 59.9! Full series of laps: 66.23, 67.66, 63.55, 59.91.
We also witnessed a kick to the win from Bogdan a week earlier when he took the victory at Cherokee Night Racing in the 3200m, coming back from fourth to first running a state leading 9:13.74.
Myles Plummer also cracked the top five in the state this season with his 4:19.64 for fourth.
Six of the top eight finishers are juniors who will be back next year!
Boys Top 8 Finishers
Two 800 meter heats were also conducted at Ridge towards the end of the 1600m heats. We saw Kaleigh Gunsiorowski, an up and coming sophomore from Union Catholic, win the girls 800m with her 2:18.29 battling back against Pingry's Ryan Davi who finished second at 2:19.76.
Luke Roberts of Ridge won in front of his home crowd running 1:58.55.
