2004 Boys Outdoor Track Preview

Rich McGriff was a junior at Scotch Plains Fanwood High School in 1983 when the
Raiders last lost a dual meet. McGriff, who shares head coaching duties with Cross Country and Indoor Coach Jeff Koegel is hoping an influx of talented athletes from one of the most successful athletic seasons in school history keeps the streak going another year and make up for a disappointing indoor season. The Raiders are also hoping to defend their Watchung Conference Title and regain the state sectional title.

“We have a lot of fine athletes joining us. There is a lot of potential out
there,” said McGriff.

The top all around athlete is junior Sean Smith, one of the bright spots of the indoor season. After missing the entire cross country season with a stress fracture Smith was the team leader in the hurdles, the high jump and the 400 meters and could be even more dominant if he could compete in all his events

“One of our biggest problems will be limiting Sean to four events,” said
Koegel.
“He can excel in every running event from the 200 to the 800, both 400 intermediate and 110 high hurdles, the long jump, triple jump, and high jump, the javelin and the relays.”
Pushing Smith in the 400 hurdles will be senior Pete Liss and Nehemiah
Burney-Porter who is also a top triple jumper.
“ He could also be a good pole vaulter and discus thrower, “ added Koegel of
Smith.
“ We will be drumming him up as a potential decathlete when it comes to
recruiting time when he is a senior. He is a very athletic person, so he has a
number
of coaches pulling at him.”

The most well known and one of the most talented multi sport athletes is
sophomore basketball star Lance Thomas who used his leaping ability to lead the
team in the long jump and high jump last year. He also shows great potential in
the 400 meters. Another lanky basketball star, Mike Walker will also compete in the jumps along with indoor star Iceberg Bryant

The strength of the team should once again be the distances where Union County
indoor 2 mile champion Brian Kopnicki will be pushed by fellow senior Zack
McGuire. McGuire who ran 1:59.8 in the 800 and 4:23 in the mile sat out the
indoor season to try and fully recovery from a leg injury suffered during cross
country season. Kopnicki's bests are 4:26 and 9:41, both run this indoor
season. Freshman Mike Miller, who has already lettered in Cross Country and Swimming and sophomore Josh Zinman give the Raiders a deep and balanced distance corps.

The weight events coached by Ken Hernandez, traditionally a strong point of the
team face the difficult task of replacing graduated county champion Chris
Feighner in the shot put and discus. Football players Marc Fabiano and Tim
Karis will push junior Ted Acosta, the current leader who also competed
indoors. Freshman John Badala will also contribute in the shot put and discus,
where Karis is the top returnee. Smith is currently the leading javelin
thrower.

Pete Kane, a 1997 Scotch Plains graduate and a 15' pole-vaulter in college is
hoping that Max Carow and a large group talented underclassmen can continue a
long high school tradition of excellence in the pole vault.

“We have an incredibly large number of freshmen boys out ,” said Koegel.
“ Pete Kane and Jon Stack(weights and sprint coach) are the frosh football
coaches, and they had about 40 kids on their team this fall. They got most of
them out for track. Many will be throwers, some will be multi-event. A few
of them seem to be extremely athletic ,” said Koegel.

The turnout has been so great that it has caused a shortage of uniforms.
Koegel ran out of the 55 on hand. The other administrative challenge is less
pleasant for Koegel to discuss.
“The condition of our track is pathetic ,” said Koegel.
“Every other sports team has had work done on their facilities,
including new baseball and softball fields. Even as successful as our track
team has been over the years (our trophy case is full), we cannot get our track
re-surfaced.”

2004 SPF Girls Outdoor Track Preview

In athletics it is well know that success feeds on itself, which Coach Jeff
Koegel feels is responsible for the large increase in available girls for this
year’s Scotch Plains Fanwood track team. Last fall a miniscule but very
talented group of six underclassmen, led by junior Mary Shashaty broke every
school record with an undefeated cross country season and won the conference
championship. The success continued into the indoor season as the girls
finished second in the county relays to Westfield and established several more
school records.

As expected, the strength of the team is in the middle and long distance
running events.
Shashaty is the top returnee in the mile and should improve on the 5:25 run as
a sophomore last year. Juniors Laura Harrison (5:34), Liz Elko (5:43) and
freshman Allie Hoynes-O'Connor (5:44) give the team impressive depth.

Shashaty,who smashed the school record with an 11:34.indoors heads the 3200
with Harrison (12:15) and Elko (12:30) and Hoynes-O'Connor pushing the
leader.

Although Shashaty has run faster (2:23), freshman Kim Appezzato (2:27 indoors)
will be the top 800 runner with this as her primary event and will also run
events from the 400
through the 1600.

Junior Aja Bundy dominates the shorter events and should run under 60 seconds
this spring in 400, according to Koegel. She will also run the 100, 200,
compete in the long jump, and usually anchor the sprint relay teams. Freshmen
Samantha Gates and Amanda Bobyack, members of the county champion relay teams
will push Bundy in the sprints.

The hurdles are led by sophomore Meaghan Kelly, who qualified for groups in
the 400 intermediate hurdles event as a freshman last year and Lauren Belford
,who returns to the track team after being out last year.

The high jump is paced by junior Kaitlin Carman and Belford . Bundy and
Michelle Regg lead the long jump and Regg returns to defend her North II
Group III Championship in the triple jump where Kelly will also compete. A big
loss is Patrina Hillman, who won the conference high jump and long jump as a
freshman last year but hasn’t come out for the team.County gymnastics champion
Katie Zaleski is the leading pole vaulter. “I am looking to get more gymnasts
out- they make
good pole vaulters ,” noted Koegel.

The Raiders are very thin in the weight events where juniors Kat Berka and
Carly Wells are the leaders. “We will be taking a look at people who have extra
events to also compete here ,” said Koegel

Koegel is hoping another successful season will help to alleviate the depth
problems.
“Our numbers are small, but we made quite an impact this
winter, placing second in the county relay meet with a team of youngsters. We
have a number of newcomers now as well, and we will pool our resources to find
the best events for them ,” said Koegel..

“We usually pick up a few runners after the softball cuts.”

While the team continues to grow and improve Koegel still would like to see
much higher numbers. “We just have a much easier time getting boys out for the
teams than we do girls. We probably have about 80 boys out, but maybe 25
girls, “ said Koegel..
“We always make the best out of what we have though, so don't count us out.”