The Livingston girls continued their magical season, and the Seton Hall Prep express kept rolling along at the Essex County Relays on Thursday night in Livingston.
Livingston flexed its superior balance by scoring in 14 of the 16 events on the way to a 96-74 victory over a very strong Montclair team. It's the Essex County Relay Championship for Livingston and first since 2008.
On the boys side, defending champion Seton Hall Prep, which also scored in 14 events, dominated the competition as expected with a 112-78 victory over runner-up Livingston.
In the girls competition, Livingston s
cored 54 points in the field and 42 on the track.
The Lancers were led by Captains Magdalene Siao, Summer Yung and Kylie Prendergast, who combined for five victories new LHS School Records.
The 400 hurdles team of Prendergast (66.27), Siao (68.32) and
Darcy Bialick (69.27) ran a combined 3:23.86 to finish first and shatter the former school record of 3:29.23 set in 2006.
Yung joined Prendergast, Siao and Bialick in the winning shuttle hurdle squad that ran 1:06.71 to break the former record of 1:06.98 set in 2014.
In the pole vault, Yung and Sophia Scharf both set personal bests to win the event with a combined height of 18-6. In the triple jump, Siao and Erica Wang hopped, skipped and leaped to victory with a combined 63-6.5 0. Wang teamed up with Jessica Oji to win the gold in the javelin with a combined distance of 204-1.
Livingston added crucial points with runner-up finishes in the 4x1600, discus and high jump, third-place finishes in the Shot Put and 4x800m, a fourth place finish in the sprint medley, fifth place finishes in the long jump, 4x100, and distance medley relay.
SETON HALL PREP REPEATS
Seton Hall Prep simply overpowered the rest of the county in the boys competition.
The Pirates won three events - the 4x400 (3:19.12), the SMR (3:38.43), and the long jump, placed second in the shot put, discus, pole vault, 4x800, 4x100, and 400 hurdles, third in the triple jump, fourth in the shuttles and DMR, and fifth in the javelin.
Juniors Nick DeVita, Xavier Donaldson, and Ryan Matulonis, and senior Reece Watkins were the catalysts for Seton Hall
DeVita split 48.1 in the 4x400, and ran on the 4x800, and SMR. Donaldson, the state leader in the 400 at 47.70, dropped a 47.9 in the 4x400, a 21.3 in the 4x200, and was a member of the 4x100. Matulonis ran a meet-best 55.14 in the 400 hurdles, split 1:59.8 on the 4x800, 50.6 in the SMR, and ran on the shuttles. Watkins soared 21-4 in the long jump, tied for the top mark of the meet, and cleared 6-2 in the high jump.
Note: Seton Hall Prep and the Livingston girls are both in the lead at the Essex County Individual Championships, which were halted by bad weather during last Saturday's second day of competition. The meet is scheduled to resume on Monday, June 6 at 4 p.m. at Woodman Field in Montclair.
