Burke, 4x4 Teams Find Success at Penn Relays

It's not in Cranford track athlete Kelly Burke's nature to take the easy road.

The Penn Relays only allow an individual to select one event. Burke decided to nix the pole vault, because she knew the competition would be more difficult in the triple jump.

Her instincts paid off. She placed 5th at 39'7.75", breaking the school record and the Union County mark, while earning the long coveted Penn Relay medal.

"It's an amazing feeling," said Burke. To finish sixth the last two years and to just miss a medal was a little frustrating, but I just kept working at it and achieved my goal." 

Her first jump marked 11.67m, which put her in the top half of jumpers.  Her second (11.45) and third (11.49) jumps were not as good as the first, but Burke looked confident. On her fourth jump she landed at 11.96m. She had two more tries to break the 12m mark. Her fifth jump was unscored, and with that she had one jump left. Burke made it on her sixth attempt.

"She wanted to go in there and win a medal. Top five get medals," said Cranford Track coach Peter Kane. "It didn't matter if it was first or fifth, it was the Penn Relays. Anything she jumps, she breaks her own record, and this time is it was by an inch and a quarter."

The girls' 4x400 had a banner day as well, finishing in 4:17 and breaking their own mark by a full 10 seconds. And to think, there were four sophomores handing off the baton, as Kate Evans, Megan Schetelich, Devon Cacchione, and Rebecca Shimonov enjoyed the highlight of their fledgling high school careers.

"With Natalie Englese sidelined for another week or so, we had another four girls step up and just blast it," Kane said. "They ran 10 seconds better than they did last Saturday with the same four girls. The Penn Relays does crazy things to you."

It's all about participating in one of the biggest track and field events in the world.

"I think it's the atmosphere," Kane said. "You see on Sunday in football games, packed stadiums, you don't see anything like that in track other than the Penn Relays. It is the largest relay carnival in the world and these girls have the unique opportunity to be a part of it. It's amazing for them. They walk you into the stadium, thousands of people surrounding Franklin Field, and they line you up and you just race. It's just the feeling you get, you get the chills. It's fun."

The 4 x 400 success is a great sign for the future of this improving group of sophomores.

"I was very excited to see Kate Evans take us out in the beginning," Kane said. "It's a mob scene, it's a fist fight. They line up 15 girls. They put seven at one line, eight in the next line and they just fight it out. If you're passive, you get bumped to the back, and you can't make that ground up, We did some work leading up to it, putting a bunch of guys around Kate and they fought it out to get out around that turn, and if you gotta elbow people, you do what you have to do, cause no one's looking out for you, so you can't look out for them."

Megan Schetelich ran the second leg while filling in for Englese and broke her own PR. Previously, their best time of the season was 4:14, and without Englese, it was 4:16. The next goal is to run a sub 4:10. It's a credit to the program that they have been able to develop so much depth.

"They were pumped up," Kane said. "They all wore their t-shirts to school and they're so excited about it. It was a great team bonding experience, a confidence builder. They saw the results of their hard work and they know that the season is only half way over. They can still get better."

And according to Kane, running in front of thousands of fans in such a big setting will only make them more successful in the future. 

"When they go to the Meet of Champions, it's huge, but it's not the Penn Relays. They already have that experience. They know what it's like to feel like that. They become comfortable. And the higher end competitors that step up in the big meets are comfortable with big meet settings."

The girls headed back to New Jersey to compete in Madison on Saturday, but the boys stayed in Philadelphia to get their chance in the 4x400m relay.

The heat was 12 teams deep, and there was a lot of jostling at the beginning of the race. Lead-off Chris Witwick handled it well.

"I was kind of anxious and there was a lot of adrenaline going through my system, so I was excited to start," said Witwick. "I basically tried to get out as hard as I could. I ended up being behind everyone else, unfortunately, but on the first turn I ended up catching up to some people so I just kept the pace up and I ended up not falling too far behind. It feels great to be here as a sophomore. I can't wait until next year."

Witwick handed off to teammate Tyler Ainge. As Witwick came in, the boys were tightly bunched together, but the exchange was clean and Ainge took off.

"I was trying to find out what spot he was in so I could be in the right spot for the hand-off," said Ainge. "I just wanted to run as fast as I could, make sure the person behind me didn't pass me, and try to pass the person in front of me. As a team, I just wanted us to PR."

Ainge then gave the baton to teammate Dan Cleary in a good position.

"I just wanted to make sure he could see me to get me the baton," said Cleary.  "There's 12 guys on the line so you're not sure that he can see you. So I had to get in front of another kid whose guy wasn't there yet and was in the way. But we had a clean hand-off in the end. Then I just took off. I was a good 10 paces behind the guy who was in front of me, so I was a little alone out there."

Senior team member Jeff Sun ran the anchor leg, and set about picking off the people in front of him.

"I was cheering Dan on. It's a great experience, but you don't really think much.  It's pretty loud," said  Sun. "I got the baton and there were about five people in front of me, ranging from about 10 meters to 50 meters so I just had my eye on the guy who was 50 meters ahead. I just went for it. Me and the guy in front of me both caught up to him and made up a lot of space. Being the senior, one goal I had was to have a great time.  This is a great experience and I just want to take it all in.  I ran a great race so I'm happy."

With the Penn Relays behind them, the Cranford track team now focuses on the rest of their season, which includes county championships and Meet of Champions.

Other local results

400m Hurdles:

Jackie Madden (Ridge) 1:02.44

Pole Vault:

Kayla Polcari of Ridgewood: 3.6m (3rd)

Chelsea Hartigan of Ramapo: 3.5m (6th)

4x100m, Small Schools Division

Indian Hills (Gianna Ditommaso, Dana Maloney, Sarah Kneip and Katie Johnson) 54.8s. 

Hoboken (Deidamia Estrella, Dayanara Morales, Diamond Gonzalez and Kaylah Linton) 57.9s.

4x100m, Large School Division

Westfield (Ashley Edwards, Hannah Kronick, Alex Hawkins, and Katie Ponce) 54.05s.

Columbia (Whitney Jackson, Jasmine Carter, Ambur Ballew and Kayann Richards) 47.28s

Ridge (Courtney Wu, Maggie Hanna, Samantha Menza and Jackie Madden) 50.95s

Ridgewood 4x100m team ran a time of 53.13

4x400m, Small Schools Division:

Hoboken (Deidamia Estrella, Diamond Gonzalez, Kaylah Linton, and Dayanara Morales) DQ

Westfield (Katie Ponce, Sophia DeVita, Kelly Irving, and Ashley Edwards)

Indian Hills (Katie Johnson, Nikki Felice, Sarah Polansky, and Kayla Savage) DNF

Summit (Nicola Hallenborg, Kearsley Olcott, Katie Watson, Rebecca Cummings) 4:22.54

4x400m, Large Schools Division:

Ridgewood (Sarah Devita, Charlotte Criqui, Macaela McPadden, Victoria Oliva) 4:11.50.

Ridge (Meredith Bozzi, Jackie Madden, Courtney Wu, Allison Hodges) 4:01.84

Columbia (TyVonna Johnson, Kelsey Jackson, Brittney Jackson, Kayann Richards) 3:43.72- Columbia is in the Championship of America tomorrow evening.

4x800m Relay, Small Schools Division

Indian Hills (John Prizzi, Corey Crawford, Nick Ward and Mark Filandro) 8:04.34

4x100m Relay, Small Schools Division

Indian Hills (Mike Wasserman, Danny Thompson, Charlie Dzienis, and Kevin Halloran) 46.6

4x100m Relay, Large Schools Division

Westfield (Andrew Gates, Jon Henry, Kyle Star, and Jhakyse Williams) 43.74

Boys 400m Hurdles Championship

Mark Filandro (Indian Hills) 54.97

InSoo Hwang (Ridgewood) 54.49

Boys 4x400m Relay

Cranford (Chris Witwick, Tyler Ainge, Dan Cleary, Jeff Sun) 3:38.40

Hoboken (Jonathan Melero, Yovan Lasso, Julian Palacios, Andrew Mendez) 3:51.65

Ridgewood (Matt Grundy, Juan Llinas, Jon Reimer, InSoo Hwang) 3:25.11

Indian Hills (Cory Crawford, Mike Wasserman, Calvin Knox, Mark Filandro) 3:24.04

Summit  (Matt Espy, Alex Grillo, Ben Raskin, Thomas Chin) 3:31.74

Westfield (Jhakyse Williams, Brian Henry, Patrick Gray, Jon Henry) 3:20.72

Columbia (Junior Derius (51.0), Eric Bennett (49.4), Franklin Bellamy (51.0), D.J. Roberts (47.9)) 3:19.25

Girls 4x100m Relay Tri-State Championship

Columbia (Whitney Jackson, Jasmine Carter, Ambur Ballew, Kayann Richards) 47.34 2^nd place overall

Boys High Jump Championship

Mark Jones (Summit) 2.09m (6-10.25) 2^nd place overall

Tommy DeVita (Ridgewood) 1.96m (6-5) 9^th place overall

Boys Pole Vault Championship

John Wisener (Ridgewood) 4.35m (14-3.25) 12^th place overall

Boys Long Jump Championship

Corey Crawford (Indian Hills) 7.24m (23-9) 4^th place overall