Track Team Wins Girls State Relay Championship

The great part about track and field is that you never know who will step up in a big situation. Such was the case for Cranford at the Group 2 State Relays in Toms River, as the Cougars placed four teams, including three on the girls side and one on the boys side, and grabbed a first-place finish in the Girls 55 Shuttle Hurdle Relay.

It is quite an achievement considering the stiff competition.

"It is very difficult to place in the State Group Relays because of the number of teams that are competing from the entire state," said head coach Peter Kane. "There were approximately 60 teams competing against us on Saturday and they were all loading up their relays with their best kids."

But that didn't stop the Cranford Girls 55 Shuttle Hurdle Relay team from becoming the State Relay Champions, earning first place thanks to the efforts of Rebecca Shiminov, Gillian Burke, Bryanna Grant and Kelly Burke, who finished in 35.22, just edging out rival Rahway at the end.

"It was a really big goal for us," said the sophomore Shiminov. "We were .01 seconds off Rahway, who are normally our No. 1 competitors, and we managed to finish strong. I knew we were going to place near the top, but it's unbelievable to place first."

The Cougars were trailing Rahway in the latter stages of the race, but senior Kelly Burke, who is headed to Notre Dame in the fall, finished strong. She kneeled in at the wire to top an exciting finish and give her team the victory.

"When we found out we won, me and Gillian were jumping up and down," said Shiminov. "We were really happy."

Even more impressive was the fact that the Lady Cougars were the only public school girls' team in Union County to win a State Relay Championship while earning the highest placing of any Union County girls' team by placing seventh.

The girls also placed fourth in the 4x200 with a time of 1:53 (Gillian Burke, Rebecca Shimonov, Kate Evans and Natalie Englese) and fifth in the Girls 4x400 (Gillian Burke, Kelly Burke, Devon Cacchione, Natalie Englese).

The girls shuttle hurdle relay team joined Kelly Burke in pole vault and triple jump and Natalie Englese in the 400 in qualifying for the Nike Indoor Nationals in Boston in March.

Meanwhile the boys' finished sixth in the 4x800 thanks to strong performances from leadoff runner George El-Khoury, whose aggressive style got the team off to a good start. He handed off to Billy Haussner, who has been a solid performer the last two years. Then the handoff went to newcomer Dan Cleary, who continues to step up, before anchor Jeff Sun brought the baton home. This past weekend, the final time was 8:36.

"It was a competitive field," said senior Jeff Sun. "We all ran our best, overall a good performance. We call our 4x8 the 'Wrecking Crew' because we're four guys who work really hard."

With another outstanding meet in the books, the Cougars will turn their attention to new challenges.

"Now that the relay season is over we are looking forward to the Union County Championships this Saturday in Jersey City and the North 2 Group 2 State Sectionals in Toms River on Feb 6.

Along with their established runners, Kane is excited about a number of young runners who are showing promise.

"We have a great young and talented 800 runners that PR (personal record) every time they hit the track," said Kane.

They include sophomore Altea Nadolny (2:55), Shannon Maher (2:53) and Megan Byrnes (2:41), along with freshman Erica Faraone (2:42) and juniors Ronnie Miller (2:51) and Bridget Miller (2:38)

"800 is one of the hardest races on the track, "said Kane. "These girls are doing a fantastic job attacking the race and dropping their times every week."

Expect more records to drop this weekend at the Union County Championships.

Individual results from the relays:

PR: personal record

Boys:

• (Fr )James Budries ran a PR of 61.0 in the Boys Distance Medley Relay (DMR)
• (Sr.) John Powasnik PR'd (personal record) in the DMR 1600 in 4:57
• Shuttle Hurdle Relay PR's included (So.) Chris Witwick (8.45) (So.) Mike Zanfardino (9.27) and (So.) Walter James (9.24) 
• Splits of the 6th place 4x800 were (Sr.) Jeff Sun (2:05), (Jr.) Dan Cleary (2:12), (So.) --George El Khoury (2:07) and (Jr.) Billy Haussner (2:09) total time 8:36

Girls

• Splits of 5th place 4x400 – (Jr.) Natalie Englese (58.0) (Sr.) Kelly Burke (64.0), (So.) Gillian Burke (66.0) and (So.) Devon Cacchione (67.0) time 4:17 
• Splits of 4th place 4x200 are (Jr )Natalie Englese (26.2), (So.) Kate Evans (28.8) (So.) Gillian Burke (28.2) and (So.) Rebecca Shimonov (29.4) 
• Splits of 1st place state champions shuttle hurdle relay – (Sr.) Kelly Burke (8.3), (Fr.) Bryanna Grant (8.6), (So.) Rebecca Shimonov (8.8) and (So.) Gillian Burke (9.3). 

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