Record-Setting Season For Central Girls Track

Editor's note: The following was submitted by Steve LaGueux on behalf of the West Morris Central Girls Track Team.

The West Morris Central girls’ track and field team concluded their most successful regular season in over two decades in thrilling fashion against Mendham Tuesday.

The meet actually began on April 10 but was stopped halfway through the schedule of events due to a thunderstorm. Tuesday’s festivities consisted of the remaining events that had yet to be completed earlier this month. As the meet wound to a conclusion, West Morris needed the 5 first place points in the final event to tie Mendham. With her entire team watching and cheering, WMC’s top pole vaulter, Marlena Paz, came through under pressure to win with a vault of 9 feet. 

The result allowed WMC to complete an undefeated regular season and clinch a tie for first place in their division of the North Jersey Athletic Conference. This is the first conference championship for the school since 1992.

 Coach Jay Herrigel said he was proud of the girls’ achievements so far.

"We set the bar high this season with ambitions of finishing towards the top of the NJAC Conference, Morris County, and State Sectionals.  We are now co-champions of our NJAC division with a record of 5-0-1," Herrigel said. "The girls have worked tremendously hard over the past two months to compete at the top level.”

One of the more anticipated races on Tuesday was the showdown between four of New Jersey’s top distance runners in the 3,200 meters, pitting WMC stars Kylene Cochrane and Brennan Sharkey against Mendham’s pair of distance standouts, Mackenzie Barry and Abby Seel. Barry, who was last year’s state champion at the distance, immediately went to the front and set the pace for the first six laps, with teammate Seel close behind. But, Cochrane and Sharkey, running side by side the entire race, slowly reeled in the two Mendham girls, passing Seel in lap 6 and pulling even with Barry in lap 7. The three girls stayed even through the first half of the bell lap, until Cochrane flew down the home stretch in front of a roaring crowd to win the race in 10:53 (breaking the school record held by Kristen Hall since 1989), followed by Barry and Sharkey (10:55, a personal best by 17 seconds). 

With her 3,200 win, Cochrane completed an impressive two-day triple against Mendham having won the 800 meters (2:18) earlier in the meet and the 1,600 meters (5:09) on April 10. Cochrane’s performance was particularly impressive in light of the quality of Mendham’s distance runners.

In the field events, the West Morris girls dominated, taking 5 of 7 possible first place positions. In addition to Paz’s win in the pole vault, the high jumpers swept their event with Meggie LaGueux (5-0) taking first, Kelsey Cronin (5-0) second and Kendall Ballotti (4-10) third. The highlight for the jumpers was when Cronin reached the 5 foot mark for the first time in her career and was immediately mobbed by her supportive, and very exuberant, teammates.  Ballotti won a second event in the meet with a triple jump of 32-3.  And, senior Carli Thurber also pulled off an impressive double with wins in the shot and the discus.

Earlier this season, the girls won the Wallkill Valley Ranger Relays (for the second straight year).  Among the many highlights from Wallkill was the Distance Medley Relay team of Sharkey (3:58 for 1,200 meters), Katie Sabatino (1:02:4 for 400), Lauren Toth (2:31:8 for 800) and Cochrane (5:06:14 for 1,600) setting a meet record with a time of 12:38:34. The previous meet record had stood for 10 years.

Central swept the two hurdle relays with the Shuttle Hurdles team of Brigitte Rec (17:65), Cronin (17:86), Sondra Iozzia (18:07) and Sabatino (17:64) cruising to an impressive victory in 1:11:38.  Later in the day, Rec (1:12:00) and Iozzia (1:14:76) teamed with freshmen Morgan Lovenberg (1:15:02) to win the  grueling 1,200 meter Hurdles Relay. 

The Sprint Medley team of Toth (1:03:20 for 400), LaGueux (28:40 for 200), Sabatino (27:41 for 200) and Cochrane (2:18:50 for800) pulled away from the pack early and won by a comfortable margin with a time of 4:17:52. 

Each year, the Wallkill meet features a one of a kind boy/girl relay event and senior girls Alex Donaldson (100 meters) and Meggie LaGueux (200) teamed with senior boys Patrick Goodhand (100) and Zach Boyd (400) to win the “Ranger Relay.”  Central won this event last year as well.

And, in the field events throwing standout Thurber (88-05) and Brielle Kelly (83-06) took second and fourth overall, to take the team title for the discus.

This past Saturday, West Morris finished third in the Large School division of the Randolph Relays.  WMC’s relay teams scored in numerous events and were led by two first place finishes. The 4 x 1,600 Relay team of Sharkey (5:23:57), Taylor Brown (5:52:07), freshmen Sierra Castaneda (5:22:95) and Cochrane (5:05:69) won their event in a time of 21:44:79. 

And, the talented high jump trio of Ballotti (5-2), LaGueux (5-0) and Cronin (4-10) combined for an impressive total of 15 feet to win by 4 inches over a very strong Passaic Tech team.

As he does every year, Coach Herrigel sent a 4 x 400 team to the Penn Relays at Franklin Field in Philadelphia earlier this month. The quartet of Sabatino (1:02:02), Rec (1:04:00), Toth (1:02:16) and Cochrane (1:00:69) ran a season best 4:09 to finish third in their heat and return home with medals from the historic Penn Relays.

With the regular season concluded, Coach Herrigel is getting his girls ready for the championship meets that conclude the season.

“I'm so proud of their efforts, but our journey is not over yet. The championship part of the season is upon us and we still have some mountains to climb," Herrigel said. "I'm extremely excited to see how it will all play out."

This key stretch kicks off this weekend with the Morris County Relay Championships, followed by the NJAC Championships next week and the County Championship on May 14 and 15. 

The State meets begin later in the month with State Sectionals in South Plainfield on May 24 and 25  followed by the Group 3 Championships (May 31 and June 1) and ultimately the NJ Meet of Champions in Old Bridge on June 5. Herrigel expects to have many Central athletes peaking at these high profile meets and is confident he’ll have a number of performers at the prestigious Meet of Champions to conclude one of the most successful seasons in West Morris Central track and field history.