Lakewood's Greaves keeps setting new marks
Mayers pulls a double at Group III meet

Lakewood High School senior Shavon Greaves won three events last weekend at the NJSIAA Group III Championships held at South Plainfield High School.

The Penn State University-bound Greaves won the 100-, 200- and 400-meter events to help lead the Lady Piners to a second-place overall finish behind champion Ramapo. Lakewood collected a total of 30 points to share the runner-up spot with Woodrow Wilson and Kingsway. Greaves was responsible for all of Lakewood's scoring.

On Friday, the first day of competition, Greaves won both the 100 and 400 meters. Greaves set a new mark for the Group III Championships with a wining time of 11.61. She narrowly defeated Ocean Township High School standout Georgina Nembhard to claim the gold medal. It marks the third time this postseason that Greaves has beaten Nembhard in the event.

In addition, Greaves also won the 400 meters in a time of 55.26.

On Saturday, she shattered the record for the 200 meters, winning the event in a time of 23.69.

While Greaves collected the impressive triple, fellow senior Emanuel Mayers was putting on his own virtuoso performance, claiming two gold medals in the 110- and 400-meter hurdles. In the 400 meters, Mayers topped the field with a time of 51.98 before coming back to win the shorter event in 14.04. For good measure, Mayers added a fourth-place finish in the boys triple jump (46-09) to advance to yesterday's Meet of Champions (also at South Plainfield) in all three events.

Both Mayers and Greaves were the only Lakewood athletes to advance to yesterday's championship meet, and were looking to put exclamation points on what have been a pair of brilliant high school careers.

In the boys Group I competition, New Egypt's Sean Vasquez also advanced to yesterday's MOC, taking fifth in the 800 in a time of 1:58.92.

In the Group IV championship, held in Egg Harbor Township, the Jackson boys advanced two athletes to the MOC - junior Chris Karle, who took second in the 3,200 (9:24.14), and junior Reinaldo Aponte, who tied for sixth in the high jump (6-2).

The Jackson girls finished third in the team competition with 33 points, behind Southern Regional (48) and East Orange (41).

Senior Amanda Marino finished fourth in the 3,200 (11:08.67), won by Colts Neck's Ashley Higginson, the national champion in the event.

Sophomore Shannon Watt took second in the discus with a distance of 123-06. That event was won by Brick Township's DeAnne Hahn (a transfer from Lakewood), who also captured the shot put title.

Senior Justine Stevenson took third in the javelin, with a throw of 123-07. Stevenson and Watt also finished fourth and fifth in the shot put, respectively, with distances of 43-06 and 42-05, while junior Samantha Brady finished second in the pole vault with a height of 11-00.

Junior Ifeekam Ozonuwe also advanced to the MOC after taking sixth in the 100-meter dash (12.52).

A pair of Howell Rebels are headed to the MOC, led by javelin thrower Brittany Napoli, who finished second (123-11). From the start of the season to the state meets, the Rebel has proved to be remarkably consistent in an event marked by inconsistency. Her teammate, Jamie Leacock, placed sixth in the 400 intermediate hurdles (1:04.27) to extend her career to the MOC.