Another Meet Record for West Orange's Barnes

It was one memorable day for the West Orange High School boys and girls track and field teams on Saturday. The question now is what's next.

Senior Nia Barnes threw a meet record 154-5 in the javelin and juniors Dexter Valley and Jared Mason set school records in the 400 and 800 at the North Jersey, Section 1 Group IV meet at Randolph High School.

The boys finished third with 65 points behind runner-up Montclair and first-place Ridgewood. The girls were fifth.

The top six in each event now head to the state Group IV meet.

Barnes also set a meet record at last week’s Essex County Meet in Montclair. She smashed the former meet record of 139-7 set in 2004 by Stephanie Petine of Bloomfield. Barnes beat Randolph's Solveig Loeken's second-place throw by 27 feet.

"I hope to continue this roll," said Barnes, who won the state Group IV title last season. 

Barnes' throw came on her first of the day.

"There were some oohs," said Barnes, who'll throw at the University of Alabama next year. "I didn't realize how far it went, but when I did I jumped up and screamed."

Valley's speciality is the 400 and he was disappointed at last week's third-place finish at the county meet. The sectional meet was very different. He ran a personal best of 48.65.

"I was pleased," he said. "I was hydrated, I had a good night sleep and ate well. I had to redeem myself in the 400 after what happened last week."

"I'm going to bring it down even farther because I don't want anybody to break it for a long time," he added.

Valley also won the 100 in 11.04 and was second in the 200.

"I used the 100 as a warm-up, but I figured when I got into the final after the trials I might as well try to win it," he said.

Valley also anchored the 4x400 team to victory in 3:21.58. Carl Cajuste, Anfernee LaRue and James Cham ran the first three legs.

Mason didn’t have St. Benedict sophomore and Kenyan native Ed Cheserek to concern himself this week. Mason, a runner-up in the county meet to Cheserek last week at the county meet, rolled past Ridgewood's Levi Jennings and won in 1:53.86.

"I wanted 1:52," said Mason. "I ran 1:53 last week, so I knew it was in me. I thought if the record came it came. I wanted the points for our team."

He took the lead with about 100 meters to go.

Other notable performances were turned in by senior Josh McNeil, who was third in the triple jump and fifth in the 110 hurdles. 

Freshman Aliya Barnes — Nia's sister — was second in the 100 hurdles. Senior Sydney Grimes was fourth in the discus and shot and Adrienne Hassel was fifth in the 100 dash and sixth in the 200. The 4x400 relay team was fifth.