Marchetti’s injury dampens Green Dragons’ chances

Brick Township’s boys track and field team, looking to harvest a big bushel of points while hosting the Ocean County championships this week, lost one of its “big three” senior competitors when Joe Marchetti suffered a hamstring pull in the Ocean County relay meet on Saturday at Southern Regional.

“That really hurts us this week. We’re depressed about it,” said subdued coach Pete Panuska, who feels Marchetti, Rob Mahler and Tim Boeni could pull in a lot of points.

Marchetti is the team’s best long jumper and finished fourth in the county meet last year at 20 feet 6 inches, and also competes in the triple jump.

Boeni competed in the Meet of Champions in the triple jump as a sophomore two springs ago and was second in the county meet last season in an injury-riddled spring. Boeni also competes in the long jump and high jump. Mahler throws the shot put, discus and javelin.

Marchetti had just taken part in the early stages of the long jump and moved over to the triple jump, where he suffered the pulled hamstring on the landing of the first phase of the triple jump. Marchetti also is a sprinter.

“That puts a damper in the county,” said Panuska. “Hopefully he’ll be back in three weeks.”

The mishap took place during a torrential downpour and Panuska, fearing other possible injuries, pulled his team from the meet shortly afterward.

The only event that had a final result was the distance medley where Brick Township finished fourth, sparked by Matt Kay’s 2:02 split in the half-mile and Tom Barry’s 4:42 mile that tied his personal best. Panuska feels Barry may score in that event in the county meet, where he ran 4:55 a year ago.

— Wayne Witkowski