Union County Conference: Hunt, Moore, Evans Win 4 Golds

Union County Conference Championships
Jim Lambert


Results 

It's about time that people start paying attention to how great Tommy Hunt is!!

Hunt, one of the biggest stars in the state that doesn't get talked about as much as he should, put on a sensational show at the Union County Conference Championships, which concluded on Saturday at Gov. Livingston High School.

Hunt, a senior at Oratory, showed off his great range when he won four gold medals to ignite Oratory to its first Mountain Division title ever.

On Thursday, Hunt won the 1,600 in 4:28.98 and the 400 in a personal best 49.44, and on Friday he finished first in the 800 in a PR of 1:53.05, the third fastest time in the state this season, and anchored the victorious 4x400 (3:28.12) with a 49.23 carry! Tommy Hunt is a stud!   

Led by the Providence-bound Hunt, Oratory outscored runner-up Hillside, 126.50-96.50.

Oratory, which won the Valley Division in 2016 and 2022, also picked up huge points from sophomore Connor Bassolino, who ran a PR 9:52.35 to lead a 1-2-4 finish for the Rams in the 3,200. Oratory also went 1,2,3 in the 1600. In the field, junior James Martin had a huge PR of 47-2 to finish second in the shot put, and sophomore Brody Sheehan finished second in the long jump with a PR of 21-0, and third in the triple jump with a PR of 40-8.50.

"We were incredibly proud of all the guys for really stepping up and working towards this goal all season,'' said Oratory coach Joe Seebode. "We scored points in all but two events so it was a whole team effort.''


MOORE AND EVANS STRIKE GOLD 4 TIMES

Oak Knoll, behind quadruple gold medal winner Reagan Moore, junior Danya Spoor and a very strong supporting cast, edged two-time defending champion Cranford, 125-118, to capture the girls team title, Rahway's Saniyah Evans won four individual golds to highlight the action in the girls Mountain Division.

This is the first outright title for Oak Knoll in the Mountain Division. The Royals shared the Mountain title with Cranford in 2022, and they won the Valley Division in 2015, 2017, and 2018.      

Moore , a freshman, was her usual sensational self for Oak Knoll. If you don't know about Moore by now, consider this your wake up call! 

She won the 400 in 55.61, the 9th fastest time by a freshman in state history, finished first in the 800 in 2:16.21, captured the 200 in 25.88, and split 58.78 as the anchor on the winning 4x400 that clocked a 3:59.98! What a day for the remarkable rookie!

Spoor also piled up lots of points for the Royals. She won the 400 hurdles in 1:03.56, placed second in 400 in 58.31, was second in the high jump at 5-0, and ran a 58.21 second leg on the winning 4x400 relays.   

Evans was the only athlete at the meet to win four individual golds!!

She captured the 100 dash in 12.22, the 100 hurdles in 15.38 (14.45 in the trials), cleared 5-2 to win the high jump, and she soared 18-10.25 to finish first in the long jump. Evans, just like we mentioned above about Tommy Hunt of Oratory, is one of the state's biggest stars that should not be off anyone's radar!!!    

VIKINGS BREAK OUT BROOMS

Union Catholic had 20 total champions (11 girls and nine boys) on the way to sweep the team titles in the Watchung Division.

On the boys side, juniors Avery Atexide, Noah Cooper and senior Marcus McCoy each won two events for the Vikings, who received several PR's en route to a 143-110 victory over runner-up Westfield

Atexide burned a NJ No. 3 time of 47.97 in the 400, and came back to win the 200 in 22.15. Cooper swept the horizontal jumps with marks of 45-5 and 21-8.25. McCoy won both hurdle races with times of 55,78 and 14.75. 

The rest of the winners for the boys were Al-Qamar Rojas, in the 100 (a PR of 10.89), Josh Hunsinger in the pole vault (a PR of 11-0), and Alessandro Alvarez-Tullo in the 3,200 in 9:47.49.      

For the UC girls, who rolled to a 200.33-82.33 victory over runner-up Scotch Plains-Fanwood, Taylor Cox, Peyton Hollis and Vonya Gould were double winners.

Cox won the 100 with meet record an PR of 11.74 and the high hurdles in 13.81 (a meet record 13.74 in trials). Cox's 13.74 in the HH broke the meet record of 13.87 that was set in 2014 by the legendary Sydney McLaughlin of UC. In the 100 dash, Cox was one of three girls to run under the previous meet record of 12.04 in the 100 dash, which was set in 2022 by Julia Jackson of Scotch Plains-Fanwood. Taylor Aska of UC (11.77) and sophomore Delaney Farley of Scotch Plains-Fanwood (11.79) also went well under 12.00.

Hollis led a 1-2-3 finish for UC in the 400 (57.21) and captured the 800 in 2:14.78, and Gould captured the long lump (17-11.50) and triple jump (36-9.25)   

Also earning victories for UC were Kayla Devine, who led a 1-2-3 finish in the 1,600 for the Vikings with a 5:02.83, Emma Muir in the javelin (109-4), Taylor Aska in the 200 (24.41), Sydney Chadwick in the 400 hurdles (1:04.13), and the 4x400 squad was victorious.     

Another very impressive performance in the Watchung Division was turned in by the Westfield boys, who swept the 1,600. Junior Ryan Daly led the way with a wining time of 4:21.44. Eamon Mason was second (4:21.88) and Tage Mehta third (4:23.58).


DAYTON AND BREARLEY FINISH ON TOP 

The Johnson boys and Brearley girls each scored very impressive wins in the Valley Division.

In the boys competition, Dayton went 1-2-3 in the meet-concluding pole vault to rally for a dramatic 134-130.33 victory over Johnson. Sophomore Nathan Radler (8-0), freshman Cameron Maus (7-6), and sophomore Chidozie Iwuh (7-0) pulled off the pole vault sweep for the Bulldogs! NOTE-They are pictured above.

We're pretty impressed with our vaulters,'' said Dayton head coach Matt Van Deursen. "Two of them are new to the team, and the other is in his second year. Two of them had just started learning the event early this spring then had some injuries, so this was their first real meet they were able to compete in. To deal with that pressure and compete at such a young age was really impressive. The second thing that we are proud of is our depth. We scored in 15 events, and 18 different kids scored at least one point. We have a very young team, as seniors only accounted for 26 of our points. It's a very young crew, but everyone stepped up and performed admirably. They've been approaching every practice with a purpose, and we're glad they got rewarded for their hard work.''

Runner-up Johnson received great all-round performances by seniors Kyle Gunsiorowski and Emilio Menicucci,    

Gunsiorowski won the 800 (2:05.22), was second in the 400 hurdles (60.36), third in the 1,600 (4:49.06), and took fifth in the 110 hurdles (18.53). Menicucci finished first in the 200 in 23.80, was second in the shot put (45-8), second in the 100 in 11.6, and third in the long jump (19-0). How many sprinters throw the shot!! Not very many!! To score in both the 100 and 200 and the shot put is just awesome!
    

On the girls side, Brearley scored a 124.33 to 107.33 victory over runner-up Plainfield. This marks the second time that the Brearley girls have won the division. The Bears also won in 2022.  

Brearley was led by the Dias twins, Madison and Samantha, and Julianna Ballesteros, who are all juniors.

Madison Dias led a 1-2-3 finish for Brearley in the 1,600 with a winning time of 5:55.28, and was third in the 800. Samantha won the 800 in 2:35.35, finished first in the pole vault (7-0), and was second to her sister in the 1,600. 

Ballesteros won the javelin with a throw of 97-9, placed fifth in the 400 hurdles (1:15.54), was third in the 100 hurdles in 15.80 (15.77 in the trials, and she placed second in the pole vault (6-6).

Sophomore Sara Costa also had a strong meet for Brearley, placing third in the 1,600 and fourth in the 800.