The Union Catholic girls and Bergen Catholic boys left a lot of smoke on the track when they lit up the oval in the 4x200-meter relays at the New Balance National Championships on Friday are being held at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.
In the girls 4x200, the UC girls demolished the NJ record by blasting a 1:35.89 to finish second. Bullis of Maryland won the race in 1:33.84.
UC's 1:35.89 smashed the state record of 1:37.53 that UC ran at the 2017 Union County Relays at Gary Kehler Stadium in Westfield. The 2017 team featured the legendary Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who led off for the Vikings that day.
UC's record-breaking foursome on Friday consisted of freshman Maya Wyche (24.1), senior Taylor Cox (23.9), sophomore Sydney Chadwick (23.7), and senior Taylor Aska (23.9).
Chadwick, who earned All-American honors earlier on Friday when she ran a PR of 59.05 to place sixth in the 400 hurdles, is the younger sister of Amaya Chadwick, who ran on the UC squad that held the pervious NJ record.
In the boys 4x200, Bergen Catholic equaled the fastest time in NJ history when the Crusaders ripped a 1:24.69 to finish third. Archbishop Carroll of Washington, D.C. won the race in a meet record 1:23.64 and Bullis of Maryland was second in 1:23.95.
Bergen Catholic's 1:24.69 matched the NJ record that Winslow ran to finish first at the 2003 Adidas National Championships in
The quartet for BC on Friday consisted of senior Andrew Jeremiah Boakye, sophomore Bryan Porter, and freshmen twins Adrian Woodward and Amir Woodward.
MORE NJ HIGHLIGHTS
In the boys 4x800, Union Catholic earned All-American honors by placing fifth in 7:35.44, the fourth fastest time in NJ history!!
UC's splits were 1:55.43 for junior Elijah McCoy, 1:52.93 for sophomore Quintin Clemons, 1:54.55 for junior Ciaran Brosnan, and 1:52.54 by junior Keandre Kelly. Kelly won the 800 at the NJ Meet of Champions on June 4.
Westfield, the defending 4x800 champs, won the unseeded section of the boys 4x800 in 7:40.68, No. 13 in NJ history! Senior Ryan Daly dropped a 1:50.50 on the anchor for Westfield!!!!
The fastest NJ girls 4x800 squad was Cherokee, who dropped a school record 9:06.96 to place third in the unseeded section. Cherokee's former overall school record was the 9:07.27 it ran at the 2002 New Balance Nationals at the NY Armory.
Sophomore Alyssa Suriano led off for Cherokee with a 2:16:01, senior Megan Niglio followed with a 2:20.22, sophomore Sofia Recinto split 2:13.56, and sophomore Madeline Meder closed with a 2:19.18 carry.
Freshman Leah Starkey of Ocean Township, who won the 3,200 at the NJ Meet of Champions on June 4, finished 12th in the girls 2-mile in 10:19.85.