Red Hawks are Golden at the Racine-Drew Invitational

Friday (Dec 27th), the Red Hawks were back in action at the Racine-Drew Invitational at Drew University.  With County Relays less than 2 weeks away the coaches continue to tweak the relay lineups and the results proved positive with both the girls and boys sprint medley and 4x400 relay teams running their season best on Saturday.  Speaking with the coaches throughout the meet yesterday, they felt the team is moving in the right direction but was quick to point out that more is expected out of their experienced runners as the championship portion of the season approaches. 

The Girls highlights of the meet was the Sprint Medley and 4x400m relays winning in dominating fashion.  Although the meet didn’t boast the usual stacked Morris County relays team, the Lady Red Hawks did what was expected and dominated.  Both relays were comprised of the quartet of Bria Saunders, Jen Mlynar, Ally Schlosser & Gabby Rachmaciej.  In the Sprint med, Ally overcame a 10 meter deficit with a split of 2:28 to win with a huge lead and new PHS School Record.  In the 4x400, Bria led off with 61 split to open up a lead that the Red Hawks never relinquished.  In the Racine 55m dash, Bria won in a time of 7.42.  Bria last won the trophy as a sophomore and admitted prior to the final that she really wanted to win another trophy.  In the fields, Kelly Higinbotham finished 6th with a height of 4-08.00 while Emily Fales finished 8th in the Varsity shot put and Aimme Piccinich finished 7th in the JV shot put. 

On the Track for the boys, Malik Francis got off to terrible start in the 55m hurdles and was not able to advance to the finals.  Later Malik bounced back and won the 400m dash from the second heat with a time of 54.25. In the same heat, fellow Red Hawk Peter Hernandez finished right behind Malik and placed 5th overall in a time of 54.72. In the JV 55m dash, Freshman Kwaku Agyemang finished 4th in 7.38. The boys sprint medley improved on their season’s time by 6 seconds with a 7th place finish in 3:56.96 while the 4x400m relay of Peter Hernandez, Malik Francis, Christian Hulse-carr and Josh Crawford finished 2nd in 3:39.98 which is a 4 second improvement from last week.

Girls Highlights

• Sprint Medley of Mlynar, Saunders, Rachmaciej & Schlosser 1st place finish 4:31.07
• 1600 meter Run - Sister duo of Samantha and Haley Pignatelli finished 7 and 8th respectively (5:38.28 & 5:39.28)
• 55 m dash  - Saunders won for the second time in three years in 7.42
• 800m run  - Mlynar finished 9th in 2:32.90
• 4x400m relay of Saunders, Schlosser, Mlynar & Rachmaciej 1st place finish 4:23.05
• Shot Put Emily Fales finished 8th with a mark of 27-11.50
• JV Shot Put Aimee Piccinich finished 7th with a mark of 19-01.25
• High Jump Kelly Higinbotham finished 6th with a jump of 4-08.00, Mlynar finished 9th with a height of 4-06.00

Boys Highlights

• JV 55m dash Kwaku finished 4th in 7.38
• 400m dash Francis finished 1st in 54.25 and Hernandez finished 5th in 54.72
• 4x400m Relay of Hernandez, Francis, Hulse-Carr and Crawford finished 2nd in 3:39.98