Hahn flawless in becoming a national champ BY WAYNE WITKOWSKI Staff Writer file photo Deanne Hahn, who won the outdoor Meet of Champions title for the shot put for Lakewood High School last year, has added to her resume since transferring to Brick Township this year, winning an indoor national championship in the shot put this past weekend in New York City. Brick Township's two high schools have boasted many state champions but the only national champions from there in recent memory are Pop Warner cheerleading teams. That is, until Friday, when sensational shot-putter Deanne Hahn of Brick Township outclassed the field at the USA Track and Field Scholastic Prep Championships held at 168th Street Armory in New York, with a winning throw of 46 feet 8 inches. "It feels good. It still hasn't hit me yet," said Hahn hours later as the township was abuzz with the news, especially in the track and field family, where cell phones were ringing with athletes calling each other. "When I got there [the armory] in the morning, I thought, just relax and have a good time and it was good competition," said Hahn. "After losing in the NJSIAA Group IV championships and the Meet of Champions [both second-place finishes] and winning the Easterns [with Hillsborough's Taryn O'Connor providing the competition in those meets], winning the nationals put me back on track." Hahn uncorked the winning throw on her fourth attempt, the first throw in the finals, and was far beyond the 45-5 of a competitor from California. A thrower from Oregon was third. In fact, Hahn led from the second throw and threw two other times beyond 46 feet, well beyond the winning 45-7 throw in the Easterns on her first throw of the day at the same arena. It was beyond her 45-10 in the Group IV championships and the 44-9 she threw in the MOC. O'Connor's throw was surpassed only by her throw of 47 feet 2 inches in the Ocean County Relays held in early January at the Jersey City Armory, a throw that was 2 feet shy of the state record. "On my second throw I threw 45 feet and was leading, and then on my third throw I was past 46 feet and still leading, so I went into the finals and said, 'Go for it.' "Today, I was on top of my game," said Hahn, who felt she ironed out the glitches in her technique that she lamented in recent meets. Hahn also exceeded 46 feet on her final two throws, meaning she had the four best throws of the day of any competitor. "The girls in the program were ecstatic having a national champion," said Brick Township girls track and field coach Bill Brunner, who could not accompany Hahn because NJSIAA rules prohibit high school coaches from working with their athletes beyond the end of the high school indoor season. Instead, Hahn was accompanied by her club coach - Joe Napoli of the World's Longest Throw. Brunner did not mind that idea, saying, "We're both on the same page. She throws with him all summer and with me during the prep [school] year." Brunner has coached two MOC champions in the shot put in Brian Dalatri in the late 1970s and Karen Deckelnick in 1986, the latter also nationally ranked, but reveled over the novelty of a national titlist. "It's a nice feather in the hat to the entire sports community in Brick," said Brunner. "She has drawn a lot of attention. Today, I heard from a college coach who is the national record-holder in the shot put [Ramona Pagel of Fresno State], but she can't talk with Deanne yet." After the Friday fanfare, Hahn took her SAT exams Saturday morning and then left Sunday morning for Landover, Md., for the Nike Invitational, an open national meet for women ages 19 and under, where she finished in fifth place with a throw of 45-10. Currently ranked No. 3 in the country, Hahn finished behind the Top 2 throwers but was ahead of rival Taryn O'Connor of Hillsborough, who was sixth at 45-7. "She didn't throw as consistently well on Sunday but she had a good weekend," understated Brunner with a tone of pride in his voice. She probably was tired from the whole weekend by the time she got to Sunday and she had to go down there the same day for that meet. Anyone in the country tuned into track and field now knows who Deanne Hahn is." With the outdoor season practices under way, Hahn no doubt will bounce back quickly into training for the spring and will be out some time this week to begin defense of her MOC outdoor championship that she won at Lakewood before transferring to Brick Township. And she feels she'll continue to get an extra boost from Brick Township throwing partner Lisa Stuto, who placed fourth in the MOC indoors.