Athletes Showcase Talents at Dodgertown Relays

The Madison Dodgers girls and boys track team competed on Saturday at Madison High School's 7^th annual Dodgertown Relays. Grace Marotta and Casey Reeve dominated in girls throwing, together earning three medal-winning top-six finishes, while R.J. Graddy tied a personal best and led two boys relays in jumping events to top three finishes.

Graddy tied with Richard Sodeke of Hanover Park for the best long jumps of the day, both hitting the 19-feet, 9-inch mark. Graddy's jump, combined with Sean Munkel's jump of 16 feet, 6 inches, earned Madison fourth place and four points in the long jump relay.

Graddy did not stop at long-jump though–he went on to triple jump 39 feet, 3 inches, which was the best individual result of the Dodgertown Relays. Carter Buxton triple-jumped 35 feet, 7 inches, and together with Graddy they took second overall in the relay, earning eight points for the Madison boys.

Graddy also tied his personal best in the high jump, reaching 5 feet, 10 inches, the second highest individual jump of the day.

"I'll make five-eight easy, and then five-ten starts to get tough," said Graddy.

Reeve and Marotta placed in all three throwing events for the girls–shot-put, javelin, and discus. Reeve, who threw her personal best of 107.8 feet in javelin on Thursday against Chatham, placed second individually in the javelin relay at Dodgertown. Reeve and Marotta's combined throw of 172 feet, 8 inches in javelin earned them second place. They took fifth in shot-put with a combined throw of 51 feet, 2 inches and fifth in discus with a combined throw of 139 feet, 11 inches.

"I'm glad we placed, but the potential was there to do better," Marotta said.

The first varsity runners for the Dodgers girls team to place were the 4x800 relay team. Jen Salo, Katie McCarter, Kelly Cleaves, and Bailey Link combined for a sixth-place finish with a time of 12:10.49 in the event, earning one point for Madison.

"It was faster than I've run so far this year in the 800," McCarter said.

The Madison boys also took second overall in the pole vault relay. Aaron Shinn and Chris Conley combined for a total of 20 feet even, edged out only by Mendham, who combined for 23 feet even.

In the final event of the meet, the Madison boys 4x400 relay team took third, beating fourth place Mendham by .05 seconds, and earning the Dodgers their final six points of the meet.

Hanover Park's boys and girls teams both dominated throughout the day, with the girls winning overall with a total of 87 points and the boys winning with 70 points. Mendham took second for the girls with 66 points and Madison took tenth with 13 points. Parsippanny took second for the boys with 55 points, and Madison came in seventh with 33.5 points.

Madison Varsity Top 6 Finishes

Aaron Shinn, Chris Conley – Boys Pole Vault Relay – second place – 20 feet

RJ Graddy, Sean Munkel – Boys Long Jump Relay – fourth place – 36 feet, 3 inches

Grace Marotta, Casey Reeve – Girls Shot-Put Relay – fifth place – 51 feet, 2 inches

Grace Marotta, Casey Reeve – Girls Discus Relay – fifth place – 139 feet, 11 inches

Casey Reeve, Grace Marotta  – Girls Javelin Relay – second place – 172 feet, 8 inches

Reid Buxton, Nick Haboj – Boys Javelin Throw Relay – tied sixth place – 229 feet, 2 inches

RJ Graddy, Alex Florez, Sean Munkel, Vijay Prabakaran – Boys Shuttle Hurdle – fourth place – 1:16.25

Greg Zitelli, Carter Buxton, Jack Mahoney, Kyle Flyer – Boys Distance Medley – sixth place – 11:24.78

Kyle Flyer, Jack Mahoney, Greg Zitelli, Doug Capuder – Boys 4x800 – fifth place – 8:57.76

RJ Graddy, Carter Buxton – Boys Triple Jump Relay – second place – 74 feet, 10 inches

Jen Salo, Katie McCarter, Kelly Cleaves, Bailey Link – Girls 4x800 – sixth place – 12:10.49

Carter Buxton, Jack Mahoney, Aaron Shinn, Kyle Flyer – Boys 4x400 – third place – 3:44.23