Cranford Track Set for North II Group II Sectionals

The Cranford Cougars track squad turned in a great showing last week and built momentum as they head into the final leg of their schedule. The week began with the Union County Championship meet on Sunday (Jan 29) and the Ed Poreda Invite at Lawrenceville Prep on Wed (Feb 1).

Here are some highlights and of course full results can be found @ www.njrunners.com.

Kristen Van Benschoten won the Union County shot put title with a personal and school record of 34'6". She then followed that up by leading the shot put at the Poreda Invite until the final throw. She placed 2nd but she bombed another school record of 35'9".  She is really clicking right now and she sits in second right now going into the sectional championship.

In the boys throws there was another personal record set, this time by senior JD Foye  with a throw of 41'5". That throw puts he and teammate senior TJ Nichols (41'6") ranked 6th and 7th going into today'sectional meet. Coach Mike Dow has done a great job so far with the throwers and he doesnt plan on stopping now.

The team also turned in some strong performances in the track events as well. In the county meet Megan Byrnes placed 6th in the 1600m and Katia Oltman placed 4th in the 3200m. The Poreda Inivitational also had its fair share of strong performances and personal records with junior Bryanna Grant making the finals and running a personal in the 55-meter high hurdles (8.85) and Rebecca Shimonov also recorded a personal best with a 9.0.

Grant then went on to tie her personal record in the pole vault with a jump of 9'6, which tied her for 3rd overall and then she triple jumped 37'9 to place 2nd only to the last year's Spring Meet of Champions winner. Shimonov also long jumped 15'9" which qualified her for the Eastern State Championship later this month.

Joining Grant in triple jump was senior Gillian Burke with a jump of 33'11" a number that also qualified her for the Eastern State Championship.  That makes three Cougars who have qualified for Easterns; Now we have 3 girl TJ qualifiers in Grant, Burke and junior Regine Hunter for the Easterns. 

The boys 4x800 had their sights set on a time of 8:15 which would qualify them for Penn Relays, Nationals and the Eastern State Championship. They fell seven seconds short but ran a personal record of 8:22. The group looks to ride this performance to big things come Spring.

Last but not least is the boys pole vault. Sophomore Pat Lynch has proven that he is one of if not the favorite in the section.  He cleared 12'6" on Wednesday to tie for 3rd and is currently ranked first in the section and first in Union County.  He is also ranked first for all sophomores in NJ. 

Best of luck to all Cougars as they put their hard work up to the test against some of the state's best at the North II Group II championships.