West Orange Athlete Sets Meet of Champions Javelin Record

The atmosphere was in total contrast to the wind, heavy rain, thunder and lightning that suspended the Meet of Champions Thursday night at Old Bridge's Lombardi Field.

The meet resumed Monday night with clear skies, soft winds and near-perfect temperatures. Focused West Orange High School senior standout Nia Barnes once again had a javelin in her right hand.

The University of Alabama-bound Barnes accomplished what she so badly wanted, her best throw of the night — a meet record and personal best of 154-11 – also meant a Meet of Champions title. She became the fifth Mountaineer to become an all-group champion.

The boys 4x400 team of junior Jared Mason, sophomore Karl Cajuste, senior James Cham and junior Dexter Valley finished fifth, recording a school record of 3:20.10.

The previous mark was 3:21.18 set in 2004.

Barnes placed second last year in the meet, but this time there was really wasn't a race for the top spot. She beat runner-up Jaime Klein of Paramus Catholic by over 15 feet.

"All my hard work again paid off," said Barnes. "I accomplished what I wanted to do. All my goals were met and I'm more than satisfied and truly happy with myself with what I did. I'm thankful, grateful, any word that would describe it. Amazing."

The javelin competition started Thursday night, and Barnes had two throws and was leading before the event was suspended. She threw 148 Monday on her last throw in the qualifying flight. She then hit a 142 before the record throw.

"I felt it because one way I know is that after the throw I don't feel strained, I don't feel like I muscled it," said Barnes, whose previous best was 154-5 when she won the North Jersey, Section 1 Group IV title last month. "If you muscle it, it won't go anywhere. It flowed smooth and natural. I know where the mark is going to be with the way it flies. If the tip is kind of like not going parallel, by more 45 degrees in the air, it's going to go far."

Barnes, who entered this season with a personal best of 145-04, said she was upset like many other athletes when the meet was stopped Thursday. But she added that the break gave her some more time to adjust.

"That really kind of ticked me off, but I had to get over it," she said. "I used the emotion or anger to focus, I'm happy it happened because I got a little more practice and I had the time to work on what I needed to get better."

When asked what it felt like to be the state’s very best — the best out of four public school groups and two non-public groups, Barnes smiled.

"It's music to my ears," she said.

As was the time that the 4x4 team turned in. Valley figures he was in or third or fourth when he got the baton. Valley got the Mountaineers the victory in their heat, and their time got them the medals.

"I wanted to dedicate this to (James) Cham our senior on our team, it was his last race, so I wanted to go out hard," said Valley.