Track and field teams rank among Shore’s elite squads
Jackson boys, Lakewood girls continue to impress
By Mike White
Staff Writer

VERONICA YANKOWSKI Howell’s Heather Garleb competes in the Distance Medley during Saturday’s Holmdel Relays.

HOLMDEL — Powered by the strength of its field events, the Jackson High School boys’ outdoor track team finished in third place last Saturday in Division III at the 28th annual Holmdel Relays.

The Jaguars captured first place in both the shot put and discus to collect a total of 65 points, which placed them in a tie for third place with Southern Regional.

Toms River East won Group III with a total of 86 points, while Toms River North placed runner-up with 74.

Jackson held a couple of key runners out of the competition due to injuries. Jags coach Bill Riva knew it would take a monumental effort to win the event without his missing runners.

"We’re always trying to attempt to finish in the top three and we accomplished that," Riva said. "We held a couple of guys out today who are suffering slight injuries. We could have run them if we really needed them, but we decided not to do that. We went in with the attitude that we would let things fall the way they did."

Senior Ray Brown and junior Rich Casazza combined to finish in first place in the shot put with a combined toss of 94 feet.

Brown returned to the team with junior Rob Schoch to win the discus with a total of 130 feet.

Jackson placed first in the high jump. Sophomores Eric Boone and Raheen Carson combined for a total of 11 feet, 6 inches to capture the event.

Carson just recently cleared 6 feet in a meet earlier in the week.

"They both had a good meet," Riva said. "They only get a total of six jumps between them and they made the most of them."

In the track events, Jackson placed runner-up in the 4x110 hurdles. The team of Oray Carew, Eric Dufrense, Vadim Menzorov and Greg Keaton finished in a time of 1:04.83.

The quartet of Carew, Mike Curcci, Dufrense and Kenny Smith placed third in the 4x200 with a time of 1:34.25.

In the 4x400, Curcci, Menzorov, Ryan Mogila and Smith posted a time of 3:33.06 to finish third.

Lakewood boys and girls win

Both the boys’ and girls’ teams posted victories over Pinelands last Wednesday. Both teams now own identical 3-0 records.

For the girls, Shakeema Martin, Jen Dolan and Jocelyn Kearney each won a pair of events as the Lady Piners recorded an 80-42 win.

The boys easily outdistanced their opponents behind the sprinting of Mike Wittenburg and the strength of Sydney Murray.

Martin captured both the 100 and 200 meters. The junior sprinter posted a time of 12.1 seconds to capture the 100 meters. She returned to win the 200 in 25.2.

In addition, Martin ran the leadoff leg of Lakewood’s winning 1,600 meter relay team. She teamed with Danielle Robinson, Tiffany Mayfield and Erin Cunliffe to register a winning time of 4:16.

Dolan won the 1,600 meters in 5:53 and the 3,200 meters in 13:33, respectively.

Kearney won both the shot put (38 feet, 1 inch) and the discus (105 feet).

For the boys, Wittenburg won both the 100 and 200 meter events. The junior captured the 100 in a time of 10.7 seconds. He won the 200 in a blistering 22.0.

Murray, a senior captain, won both the shot put (50-8) and discus (149-1).