Injuries hinder Brick boys team at SC meet

BY WAYNE WITKOWSKI
Staff Writer

BRICK — Brick Township coach Pete Panuska felt optimistic beforehand about his team’s prospects in the Shore Conference track and field championships, particularly since the meet was being held at his school.

After all, the Green Dragons a week earlier finished second in the keenly competitive Ocean County championships that also were held at his school.

But once Tim Boeni joined Joe Marchetti on the sidelines with persistent ankle problems, after he finished sixth in the 100-meter dash in 11.28, those hopes dimmed.

And then, Rob Mahler could not recapture his county championship form of a week earlier in the weight events, although he finished second in the javelin and threw the discus 4 feet farther than he did in his Ocean County championship meet performance while finishing in third place Saturday. He did not qualify for the Shore Conference finals in the shot put after finishing second in the county meet.

“He just had an off day,” said Panuska of Mahler, who has been invited to compete in the javelin national championships in North Carolina late next month.

“The wind wasn’t bad. I just didn’t have a good day,” said Mahler, who threw 180 feet, 9 inches in the javelin (over 8 feet shy of the county meet), 149-9 in the discus, and 49-7 1/2 in the shot put for a nonscoring eighth place, 3 feet less than in the county meet.

Actually, Panuska said that if he had a Most Valuable Player award on Saturday, it would go to Tom Trafer, whose 57.06 time in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles was good for fifth place. Trafer, who has competed indoors throughout his high school career, decided against playing tennis this spring so he could compete in outdoor track and field.

“We were hoping to fight for the Shore Conference championship, and he helped us do that,” said Panuska, whose team finished in 13th place with 17 points. “I’m very impressed with him. That’s two big points we didn’t have in Ocean County last week that we could have used.”

Boeni did not qualify for the long jump finals with a 10th-place measure of 19-2 3/4 as he re-aggravated his ankle problems, and did not qualify in the 110 high hurdles after a seventh-place time of 15.56 in the prelims. By the time they were calling for the qualifying round of the triple jump, Boeni realized he could not build up the speed for it and shut down the day.

“We could’ve been there if we had performances like we had last week,” said Panuska.

But Panuska feels they have to be ready for the state competitions that begin Saturday with the NJSIAA Central Jersey championships at Hillsborough, with the top six advancing to the Group IV finals the following Saturday at Egg Harbor, the final stepping stone to the Meet of Champions. Boeni competed in the MOC as a sophomore in the triple jump.

“For next week, these are senior-oriented kids and there are a couple of other kids who want to go on,” said Panuska. “They’ve had big meets and bad meets. Hopefully, they’ll stay positive.”

Marchetti is expected back from his groin injury on Saturday.

Also, Panuska has said that this is his final season as outdoor track and field coach at Brick Township, although he plans to stay on as indoors and cross country coach.

Panuska expects a lot from Mahler and can only hope that it will not be a repeat of a year ago, when he won the county meet in the javelin with the best throw in the state at the time, but never recaptured the form in the big meets that followed.

On Saturday, after throwing in the upper 170s in the final throw of the qualifiers and in his second throw of the finals on Saturday, he nailed, on his final attempt, a throw of 180-9, which was nearly a foot behind winner Dan Newman from Matawan.

“He had an off day,” said Brick Township assistant coach Bob Acosta, who specializes in coaching the javelin. “The runway was chewed up a bit, and he’s a bigger guy, so he slipped a little. The winner is smaller, and it was better for him.

“Rob was tentative. If he’s worrying about his footing, he won’t do well,” said Acosta.

In the discus, Mahler unleashed his best throw in his middle attempt of the semifinals. He fouled on his first two throws of the final, although the second one appeared to outdistance all competitors before landing out of bounds, while two other discus throwers passed him up — Kade Weston of Red Bank (151-4) and Sal Delhierro of Toms River East (150-2). Mahler’s final throw of the day was short.

“I threw better than last week,” said Mahler. “I should be able to do well in all three (events in the state sectionals). I’m still inconsistent in the shot, but I’m sure I’ll work it out in practice this week. In the javelin, I felt fine and my steps were down, but my arm felt a little weak.

“The one good thing is that I’m getting down my form,” said Mahler. “If I was a little more consistent [on Saturday], I would’ve been good enough to win.”

But Panuska is issuing a challenge to his field events star, who received the Outstanding Performer award for field events in the county meet and who is competing in the East Coast Relays in Morristown on Monday in the javelin with Scott Meulendyke.

“In the next couple of weeks, his big throws have to be there. He can’t have off days,” said Panuska. “Next week could be his last javelin performance of the year.”

There were some other commendable efforts for Brick Township, such as in the 800 where Matt Kay won his heat in 2:01.19 and just finished off the six scoring places. Tom Barry ran a 4:38.2 mile for seventh place, just ahead of Brick Memorial’s Andrew Brodeur in 4:39.47. Mat Weissinger was 24th in 4:44.47.

Neither Brick Memorial runner competed in the 3,200, where they finished one-two in the county meet, with Brodeur setting a school record time.

Jake Garcia of Brick Township clocked a 10:58.39 in the 3,200, and teammate Sean Venerable clocked a 16.08 in the high hurdles for 17th place and a 1:00.42 in the high hurdles for 19th place in the prelims.

Added notes... Bill Bruno, the director of athletics for the Brick Township High Schools, who has served as Shore Conference track and field president, said the meet was “outstanding. At 2:30, we were just about done, which is amazing when you look at how many events we ran and the number of teams.

“The weather was horrible on Friday and we had to make a snap decision,” said Bruno. “I’m tickled pink it went as well as it did.”