Brick indoor teams look good after a long layoff

BY WAYNE WITKOWSKI
Staff Writer

Although Brick Township’s girls distance medley team was the only team to place significantly from the school’s indoor track program at the state relays at Princeton University Saturday, both the girls coaches were pleased with their teams’ performances. The girls team placed 17th out of 34.

The are especially pleased with the teams’ performance considering neither has been able to compete for a month because Red Bank’s facility has been shut down with bleacher problems.

"We did very well," said girls coach Bill Brunner. "Although we haven’t run (competitively) in a month, we got some training done. We did compete and we’ll only get better."

"We are getting better," said boys coach Pete Panuska. "In indoors, we’re missing some people, but by outdoors, we’ll be very exciting."

Brunner said he had hoped the distance medley would break 14 minutes and the quartet of Robin Daniels, Ali Sweeney, Amy Marino and Erin Reddan clocked a 13:50. Daniels clocked a 4:05 in her first time running 1,200 meters. Sweeney had a 1:07 400 and Marino a 2:37 800, while Reddan, subbing for Kaity McCabe who was excused for the weekend, had a 5:54 time in the 1,200. The same quartet ran the 4x400 in 4:32.

Brick Township’s 4x200 meter relay team crossed the finish line in 1:59, while the sprint medley did likewise in 5:03. Nicole Alvarez, Kelly Wargo and Beth Wood ran on both relays while Ashley Boutier ran in the 4x200 and Danielle Barrett anchored the sprint medley.

"Hopefully Kelly Wargo is an up-and-coming sprint star for us and freshman Beth Wood has been doing a great job," said Brunner.

The shot put relay of Nicole Quinn (29-4) and Emily Wagner (28-6) tallied a 57-foot 10-inch total, while the high jump tandem of Daniels (4 feet 10 inches) and Lauren Scott (4-6) also earned praise.

As for the boys, Tim Boeni had an indoors personal best 6-feet-2-inch leap in the high jump, and teammate Sam Venerable logged 5-0.

The 4x200 relay of Tristan Bennett, Joe Marchitto, Anthony Saragusa and John Foy recorded a 1:40, while the sprint medley of Tom Trafer, Bennett, Saragusa and Jesse Pettyjohn also ran well, with Trafer running a :55.9 400 and Pettyjohn a 2:13 800. The mile relay of Boeni, Marchetti, Venerable and Ryan Morris, who ran a personal best :54.2, was timed in 3:45.

Both teams will be getting ready for the state individual championships in two weeks.