*Adelaide Asante talks about her victory, goals and more
Adelaide Asante, the Piscataway sprinters, Damarion Potts, Ben Godish, and Nick Medeiros all produced eye-popping victories during the opening day of the Greater Middlesex Conference Championships on Monday at Frank Jost Field in South Plainfield.
In the team standings, the South Brunswick girls lead East Brunswick, 44.50-36, and the South Brunswick boys lead EB, 70-34.
The second and final day of action is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. on Tuesday at Frank Jost.
Asante, a senior at North Brunswick, was waiting all season to break out and show the form that made her one of the state's top 400-meter hurdlers as a sophomore two years ago.
She did exactly that by taking control of the 400 hurdlers right from the gun and finished strong to win the second title of her career in the event with a NJ#2 time of 1:02.59. That's just off her personal best of 1:02.10 that she ran in 2019.
The Princeton-bound Asante will be chasing more gold on Tuesday when she competes in the 200m, 100 hurdles, and the 4x100.
Piscataway put on a sizzling show in the sprints, sweeping the boys and girls 100 dashes.
Kaleia Arrington got a rocket start and ran away with the girls 100 in a PR and NJ#6 12.21. Senior Kaelen Mitchell followed that up by winning the boys dash for Piscataway with a PR of 10.95.
On Tuesday, Mitchell, one of the top long jumpers in the nation who owns a PR of 24-3.25, will be taking aim at the meet record in the LJ (24-0 set in 2012 by Emeka Eze of Sayreville) and the county record of 24-4 that Eze hit in 2012.
The Georgetown-bound Medeiros, a senior at Old Bridge, took over the state lead in the 400m with a decisive win in 48.36. Medeiros, the indoor national champ in the 1000, is expected to be running the 800 and 4x400 on Tuesday.
Potts continued his stunning sophomore season at South Brunswick by clearing 6-6 to win the boys high jump. Potts, the state leader at 6-8, took three good shots at the school record of 6-8.25, but came up a little short. Potts said his biggest goal this season is to join the very small group of sophomores who have cleared 7-0 in state history.
* Potts talked about his rapid rise to stardom and his quest to hit 7-0 and higher in the video below
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OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
Godish, a senior at Highland Park, scored the biggest win of his career when he used a big kick over the final 300 meters to hold off Vidhur Polam of South Brunswick to win the boys 1600m with a 4:19.77. Polam was second in 4:20.71.
Junior Chris Serrao of East Brunswick won the boys 400 hurdles with a PR of 57.73. His previous best was 57.76. Serrao will be very busy on Tuesday when he runs the 110 HH, the 4x100, and the 4x400. Serrao is targeting a sub 14 in the high hurdles, something that's never been done in meet history. Could the county record of 13.95 go down? Stay tuned!
Junior Lilia Ould-Hammou unloaded a 99-11 to become the first girl from Metuchen to ever win the GMC discus title.
Woodbridge junior Melina Updale sliced more than two seconds off her PR with her winning time of 59.87 in the girls 400m.
There was a great battle between Metuchen juniors Caroline Schleif and Mary Malague in the girls 1600m. Schleif won in 5:09.83, and Malague was 2nd in 5:10.41, a PR by seven seconds!!
