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The Piscataway boys rallied to capture its first championship in dramatic fashion and the Washington Township girls rolled to their first title since 1999 at the NJSIAA Group 4 Relay on Monday at the Bennett Center in Toms River.
The finish to the boys meet was off the hook.
Heading into the meet-concluding 4x400, defending champion Washington Township led Piscataway, 37-28.
Knowing it had to finish first to give the Chiefs its first title, Piscataway's foursome of DeShaun Stephens, Skylar McGhee, Jamari Atkinson, and Noah Grant leveled up and came through in the clutch as Grant came storming from behind on the the final straight to pass West Orange and bring the Chiefs across first in 3:31.50, just ahead of West Orange (3:31.97).
With the win in the 4x400, Piscataway picked up 10 points to earn a heart-pounding and historic 38-37 victory over Washington Township.
The splits for Piscataway's 4x400 were 52.1 for Stephens, 53.4 for McGhee, 53.4 for Atkinson and 52.2 for Grant.
"We told Grant to ride the West Orange anchor and for the final straight to make his move,'' said Piscataway coach Pete Buccino. "It was a great team win for us. We had a lot of guys contribute and I was exceptionally proud of the way everyone stepped up.''
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In addition to its 4x400 victory, Piscataway finished second in shuttle hurdles in a NJ No. 4 30.80, second in the 4x200 in 1:33.58, second in the high jump, and fourth in the SMR. In the HJ, McGhee cleared 6-2, tied for the best jump of the meet. McGhee also ran on the 4x200, Stephens ran the shuttles and 4x200, and Grant blasted a 22.5 on the anchor of the 4x200.
The Washington Township boys turned in several sparkling performances, finishing first in the shuttles in a NJ No. 2 30.34, first in the 4x200 in 1:30.88, and first in the high jump behind Carson Thomas, who made 6-2.
Another big highlight was provided the Manalapan boys DMR crew of Clay Stevens, Crue Brown, Suhaan Dahya, and Stephen Kyvelos, who dropped a NJ No. 1/US No. 5 time of 10:32.91!!
And the Kingsway boys also scored a big win by capturing the SMR title with a NJ No. 2 time of 3:39.05!
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WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP GIRLS ROLL TO FIRST TITLE IN 25 YEARS
In the girls competition, Washington Township outscored Hillsborough, 46-29, to win its first title since capturing its only other championship 25 years ago.
Washington won three events, the 4x200 in 1:46.38, the high jump, and the shot put, and placed in four more events.
In the 4x200, Alexandria Hetzel, Kayla D'Ottaviano, Dylan Giloley, and Dahlia Beasley combined on the victory. Beasley also cleared 5-4 when she teamed with Ashley Lopez (4-10) to win the high jump, and ran on the fifth-place 4x400.
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Ella Karp (36-2.50) and Lauren Stanger (33-8) picked up the win for Washington in the shot put, and Washington placed second in the shuttle hurdles (32.60), fourth in the pole vault (Cali Lacovara made a PR of 10-0 and Gabby Chelnik cleared 8-0), fifth in the 4x400, and fifth in the 4x800.
One the best races among all six state relay meets over the last week was the girls SMR where Eastern edged Toms River North, 4:12.76 to 4:12.81. Those are the two fastest times in the state this season!!
Another great performance came in the circle where Madison Stevens of Columbia reset her state leading mark in the shot put to 41-5.50, and the Toms River North girls made their presence felt in the DMR with a winning time of 12:30.63, which is NJ No. 3/US No. 8.