Track And Field Team Impresses At Union County Championships

Last week's Union County Championships was another place for the Cranford track and field team to showcase their talents, as they prepare for the stretch run of the spring season.

The Cougars competed with schools within their division in the Mountain Valley Conference at Governor Livingston High School in Berkeley Heights, and came away with first place in triple jump and pole vault thanks to Notre Dame-bound senior Kelly Burke.

Burke broke her own county record in the pole vault, when she cleared 12-6 on her second try to win the Mountain Division title. She vaulted 12-2 last month at the Blue Devil Classic.

Burke also won the triple jump with a 37-3 ½ effort.

"We all had a great meet," said sophomore Rebecca Shimanoff. "Overall we placed third in the Mountain Division and we all did well. On Monday, I did long jump, and I had a great PR of 16-7 1/2, which placed me fourth."

Among some of the other highlights, sophomore Megan Schetelich took third place in Intermediate Hurdles, while on the boys side, senior Will Smith finished an impressive second in the 800-meter run, with Jeff Sun coming in fifth-place in the same event.

"I'm very happy," said Schetelich. "I wasn't expecting to have as much fun. We're all working so hard as a team. It's really exciting when you PR because it shows how much hard work you put into it. It's just really rewarding."

Stepping up on the boys' side is Eli Howard, a distance runner who is showing plenty of promise.

"My time for the two-mile was 10:24, and I want to improve on that," said Howard. "At the Union County Championships, I'd like to take that down another five or ten seconds. That would be great.. The spring team has been really good. We've had really good 800 runners. Basically, everybody's been having a really good season."

Senior Will Smith, meanwhile, has been running the mile and the 800, beating his personal best almost every time.

"I got down to a 1:59 and that was in the conference meet," Smith noted. "I took second. I'll be running in the mile on Firday, and hopefully I can get top five. That's my goal. I'd like to PR in the 800 on Saturday."

Smith and the rest of the 4 x 800 team will be heading to the East Coast Relays next week.

"We're looking to all PR and run a good time as a team."

Coming up this weekend, the Cougars will look forward to the Union County Championship where they will compete against all the county schools.

"We really look to have some solid individual performances leading into the peak of our season, which is going to be the state sectional meet, which is two weeks from now" said coach John Schiano. "This is a really good warm-up for that, because that's where we're really going for it. We want the girls to try and win the sectional title, and advance as many boys as possible to the group meet."

"Now it's getting event specific," noted Shiminoff. "It's all individuals from here on out and this Friday and Saturday is the Union County Relays. We're looking to win the title because we won it last year and we know we can do it again."

The girls' enjoy being the defending champs and having being the team to target. Shiminoff, for one, sees a repeat in the making.

"We love being in that spot, because everyone is intimidated by us and now we just show them what we've got," said Shiminov. "There is a little pressure to keep our title, but I believe in all of us and we can definitely do it."

While it's all individual events, the higher you place, the more points you earn for the team title.

"We think we're in a really good spot right now," added Schiano. "This is where we wanted to be at the end of the season. We're at the peak of our season right now and we're mostly healthy and everyone's having strong performances, so we're peaking at the right time and this is exactly where we wanted to be. We just have to finish it off."