Brian Kopnicki

There must be something about the number three for Brian Kopnicki. In addition
to the number of syllables in his last name, many of the talented Scotch Plains
senior’s accomplishments have come in threes.

Two weeks ago he completed the county long distance Triple Crown when he won
3200 meters at the Union County championships, adding to the titles he won in
indoor track and cross country. This past week he set personal bests in three
distance events, running 1:57.0 for the 800, 4:17.51 in the 1600 and 9:32.39 in
the 3200. The latter two were done at the State Sectionals where Kopnicki
qualified in, you guessed it, three events for the state championships, which
start today. The third event was appropriately the triple jump, where Kopnicki
may be the only runner in the state to have qualified in such disparate events,
adding a fifth place last weekend to a first in the 3200 meters and a second in the 1600 meters.

Kopnicki’s performance helped the Raider boys to a fourth place finish in a reconstructed section that has added Central New Jersey powers like Phillipsburg, Franklin and Middletown South which grabbed the top three spots. The only other multiple event qualifier was junior Sean Smith who was third in the 400-meter hurdles and 6th in the 110-meter hurdles. Other Raider qualifiers included Iceberg Bryant(Long Jump), Tim Karis (Discus) and Max Karow (Pole Vault).

Always a talented distance runner, Kopnicki added the triple jump to his
repertoire last year.” I was watching some of the guys on the team do it and I
thought I could do it just as well or even better, “ recalled Kopnicki,
“ This year at the Westfield dual meet I think we were down by a few points
going into the last three events one of which being the triple jump, and I saw
(Had TrackCoach) Rich McGriff trying to teach a kid how to triple jump so I
offered to do it. I ended up winning that day so I kept with it..”

Kopnicki’s coach, Jeff Koegel, an elite distance runner in high school and
college, is mixed about the third event. “Overall I'm not that big on it. I
don't know if I will let him do it this weekend, as he is only seeded 18th. He
is very good at it however. We're not looking to win Group III, so we need to
make sure the focus is on the 1600 and 3200 ,” said Koegel.

Kopnicki’s 800 was as anchor for a sprint medley team at the Eastern Relays on
Monday at Morristown where he brought the team from far back to nearly
medalling. In the 1600 last Friday he pushed Phillipsburg’s Josh Davis to a new sectional record, which Kopnicki also was under.

“Unfortunately, Brian gave Davis too much respect on the third lap. Brian came after
him hard on the last lap, running 62.6 to Davis' 63.6. Brian missed him by 0.25
seconds (4:17.26 to 4:17.51). It may have been a different outcome had Brian
stayed on him on the third 400 , “ said Koegel.


On Saturday Kopnicki exacted revenge on Davis, pulling away in the final 800 to easily win the 3200. Kopnicki was fresher than Davis who had run the 800 earlier in the day. “We knew then that the 3200 was Brian's to win, but that Davis would still give him a good run. Brian and Davis separated themselves again, going through 1600 in 4:46.3. They slowed down drastically after that, as neither one wanted to take the lead. They started running a few 75 second quarters, which is way too slow. I think Davis' plan was to try to turn it into a kicking duel,” said Koegel.

“ Brian forced the pace a little bit with two laps to go, and with about 275 meters to go, he took off on Davis, running the last 400 in 63.0. He ran the last 275 about nine seconds faster that Davis. He finished in 9:32.39, a nine second PR. He has the potential to run at least 10 seconds faster if he pushes laps 5-6-7 ,” added Koegel.

“I definitely think I can get into the low 9:20s in the 3200., “ said Kopnicki.
“Qualifying for the Outdoor Meet of Champions would be great.” Kopnicki added that he is most proud of his 1600 time because he can go much faster in the 3200.

His triple jumping ability may make Kopnicki a natural for an event that combines long distance endurance with jumping agility, the 3000 meter steeplechase. “He definitely has a future in the steeplechase,” said Koegel.
“ He has gone over hurdles in practice while we were running
cooldowns and recoveries, and he has excellent form. “

“Yeah I actually have it looks like a lot of fun, and a good challenge. It would definitely be interesting to try it out ,” said Kopnicki. And it starts with the right number,3.

2004 SPF Girls Union County Track Championships

A long shot in the long jump. Scotch Plains freshman Amanda Bobyack fit theBilling perfectly Saturday afternoon at the Union County Track Championships atPlainfield. Until March of this year she had never long jumped and though shehad shown fast improvement her personal best of 15 feet 2 ½ inches was wellshort of what would be needed to finish in the first six scoring places. But nobody told Bobyack she didn’t belong in this elite company. On her secondto last jump she soared 16 feet 5 ½ inches to stun favored Ashley Adams ofPlainfield who had the advantage of using her home field.

“ The girls she was jumping against were much taller and more muscular than her, but I guess that did not matter all that much in theend. She was very excited when she won. I can't remember any freshman (boy or girl)winning a county championship in an individual event for us in the eight years I have been here,” said Coach Jeff Koegel. Bobyack’s shocker and victories in the triple jump Michelle Regg and the 4by 400 relay spurred the Scotch Plains Girls to a strong second place finishwith 57 pointsfinishing only behind Elizabeth. 54 of Elizabeth’s 76 points came from thetwoCintron sisters , who finished 1-2 in the shot put,discus and javelin.

Also contributing mightily to the Raiders’ success was Aja Bundy who was secondin the 400 and anchored the relay, Mary Shashaty second in the 3200 and KateZaleski second in the pole vault. Also scoring points were AllieHoynes-O’Connor sixth in the 1600, and Meghan Kelley fifth in the 400intermediate hurdles.

Bobyack’s performance is even more amazing because she did not run track ineighth grade last spring and got a late start this spring, missing many earlypractices because of rehearsals and practices from playing in the pit band inthe school play.“Amanda ran a few sprint races for us in the winter and did fairly well. Sincewe have so few people on this team, we needed to fill out events, including thejumps. It only makes sense to take your fastest sprinters and try them at thelong jump ,” said Koegel who points to Olympic champion Carl Lewis as the mostfamous example of the synergy between sprinting and long jumping.

“I had no idea that I was able to jump that far, “ said Bobyack.“ When I first started this season I was only jumping 13 to 14 feet. Throughout the practices I got help from Mr. Hush on my form but I also gotadvice from Michelle Reggand Megan Kelly, who also long jump.” “She has continued to improve at the event, and we see more room forimprovement,” added Koegel.

“Currently, her landing needs work. She lands standing just about straight up,putting her feet down when she doesn't need to. We figure she could haveanother two feet on her jumps if she does this, which would put her in the18-foot range, which is more than respectable. Coach Lionel Hush has been andwill continue to be working on the finish of her jumps.”

Bobyack doesn’t have to venture far to practice her jumps. She can actually seethe long jump pit from her house and her mother frequently watches the highschool practices from her kitchen.“This has all happened so fast for her ,” said her father Mitch. “She wasactually amazed to get a medal for her performance ,” said the elder Bobyack. “It hasn’t sunk in about what she’s accomplished.

”Bundy’s anchor performance in the relay made up for a second place finish inthe 400, a race she led until the final straightaway. “She has struggled a bitlately to finish her races off. If she can get past this, I believe she has thepotential to split high-57 or low-58 ,” said Koegel,

Zaleski was a county gymnastics champion in the balance beam last fall who isalso in her first year of track. “I talked her into coming out an giving it a try, and she has done very well , “ said Koegel. “She has good body control and an excellent strength-to-mass ratio. She is also very coachable. .”

Shashaty battled a quadriceps injury and intense heat to finish second in the3200. “The heat was brutal on Saturday. What makes it worse is that theweather has been very inconsistent, so we have not gotten the chance to acclimate ourselvesto any one particular weather pattern. I would say the high temperatures couldhave added 15-20 seconds to her time. She is also coming back from a quadriceps injury that caused her to miss quite a bit of crucial training atthe end of April and beginning of May ,” said Koegel.Koegel noted that all the point scorers are underclassmen. Now if he can onlyfind some more “novices” like Bobyack.