Haug Has High Hopes for Central Regional Girls Track Team in Meet of Champions

Sam Jensen was off the radar screen coming into the outdoor track and field season when a soccer injury at the end of the season kept her out of the indoor season.

But the Central Regional junior sprinter and hurdler has been on a tear that is off  the charts in the big weekend meets. She hopes to do it one more time today in the NJSIAA Meet of Champions in Old Bridge. Jensen qualified  for three individual events and as a member of the 4x100 relay with senior Essence Clyburn, junior Megan Hubbard and freshman Liz Kroon.

Junior Ashley Bernath and senior Kelly Smith also qualified for individual events.

And Jensen is doing it in a big way, coming off the Group III championships at South Plainfield on May 3 and 4.

She finished in the top six in her event to qualify for the MOC. Jensen came in second in the 100 meters in a personal best :12.01 and second in the 100 high hurdles in :14.21, a hair behind the winning :14.05 time of Kingsway’s Jasmine Waddel. She was fourth in the 400 intermediate hurdles in 1:03.53.

All those times put Jensen is a favorable position to bid for a medal in those events. The 4x100 relay, where teams qualify based not on sectional and group meets performances but on times submitted from in-season meets, put together a :50.21 clocking in the Ocean County Relays.

It was the only time they ran together. Coach Mark Haug said they ran in that meet "specifically to qualify" for a berth in the MOC.

Jensen’s is the most impressive performance Haug said he can remember, the best since Clyburn’s older sister — Faith — reached the MOC in the triple jump and on a relay. Essence Clyburn also ran on the 4x400 relay that finished two places out of advancing in eighth place in 4:04.32. She ran with Bernath and juniors Kristine Buhagiar and Allison DeSantis. It was fifth in the Group III South Jersey sectionals in 4:10.16.

Jensen’s effort captivated her school’s fans and many others and helped Central Regional to a seventh place finish in the team standings, its best in many years.

"She ran great. What she did is pretty huge," Haug said. "She’s had an amazing year, the greatest one I can imagine."

Bernath qualified in the triple jump with a third place 35-feet, 7-inch measure in the groups meet that was a half foot off first place. Smith finished tied for sixth in the high jump with a 5-foot measure.

"Ashley was been jumping real well and was sick on the weekend and still qualified," Haug said.

Haug likes Jensen’s chances in the 100 high hurdles and thinks she could make the finals in the 100 dash.

"She’s better in the 100 hurdles where her endurance is really up," Haug said. "She’s the wild card in the 400 hurdles. She gets out really nice in the 400 and then she runs out of gas a little at the end."

Jensen’s time in the 400 hurdles, nevertheless, stacks up against the rest of the state. She also ran well in the Group III South Jersey sectionals in Egg Harbor on May 28, finishing first in the 100 hurdles in :14.11, third in the 10 dash in :12.32 and in the 400 hurdles in 1:04.41 and fourth in the 200 in :25.83, but scratched in the latter event in the groups meet. Danielle Berris did not throw the javelin at the groups meet. But she qualified in the sectionals with a sixth place 106-7 throw.

Smith advanced out of the sectionals in the triple jump with a fifth place 34-5 3/4 distance. DeSantis just missed advancing in the 400 in 1:00.99 and Kroon was ninth in the 800 in 2:28.34. Central Regional was fifth in the team standings.