Raiders Perform Well at Winter Track Tournament

Senior Lamar Parkes brought the Raiders their first top six finish of the day in the very first event, taking 2^nd place out of 60 in the boys varsity 55 meter hurdles with a time of 8 seconds. He finished 1^st in the event on Monday at the Christa Racine Invitational, giving him back-to-back top two finishes in the event.

Parkes spoke of his success this year: "Last year, I was the second guy. Now, I just have to step up. And I have been."

Senior Matt Alfano came close to taking a medal in the boys varsity 600 meter run with his 7^th out of 71 finish, only .07 seconds away from the top 6.

Senior Kim Wenson continued her success in girls varsity shot-put, and followed up her 35 foot and 7 inch 1^st place finish on Monday with a 34 foot even 2^nd out of 40 finish on Wednesday.

In boys shot-put, both senior David Kreps and junior Sebastian Valdez placed highly, but neither was in the top 10. Kreps earned a 13^th place finish out of a field of 68 with his 41 foot, 9.75 inch throw, while Valdes earned 16^th with his 39 foot, 3.25 inch throw.

Freshman Christine Miklas stepped up for an impressive varsity performance, taking 17^th out of 56 in the girls 55 meter dash with her 8.26 second finish. The only freshman to beat her in the event was Katie Hatler of Jefferson.

Scotch Plains-Fanwood was the only team to have two members place in the boys varsity 1600 meter run. Junior Alex Parker took 3^rd out of 56 with his 4:37.97 finish, and senior Brandon Wheeler took 4^th with his run of 4:38.42.

Raiders coach Jeff Koegel noted that he has been seeing some improvements on the team since the beginning of the season.

"Kim Wenson is doing well. She didn't have her best day today but she still took second. Lamar Parkes has been doing well. Alex Parker and Brandon Wheeler are running well also," Koegel said. "Parker is our number one guy, but today Wheeler ran 10 seconds faster than he did on Monday, while Parker was a bit too aggressive and lost a couple of seconds."

A few meet records were broken at the Polar Bear Invitational this year, one by Jhakyse Williams of Westfield, who ran his personal best time of 6.63 seconds in the 55 meter dash and broke the record from 2005, which was 6.65 seconds.

In one of the most exciting events of the day, a meet record was set in the high jump by Mark Jones of Summit, who broke the previous record of 6 feet 8 inches with his 6 feet 8.5 inches leap. The crowd was silent as Jones tried, but failed, for 6 feet, 10 inches, and as Jones hit the bar and went down to the mat with it, the crowd responded with a collective sigh followed by applause.

Summit coach Adam Fern noted that Jones is, "the best we've ever had."