2005 Union County Boys Outdoor Track Review

For the second time in three weeks, Union’s star power outscored Scotch Plains’ balance as the Farmers grabbed the rubber match in their three meet season battle with the Raiders by winning the Union County Championship Saturday at Hub Stine Field Plainfield. Earlier in the season, the Raiders won a close dual meet, but the Farmers had outscored Scotch Plains-Fanwood in the Union County Relays.

Although disappointed at not winning the meet, Scotch Plains Boys Coach Rich McGriff was generally pleased with his teams’ performance.

“In track you can always say we should have scored more points in this event or that event, but everyone can say that. Overall, we did pretty close to as well as we could,” said McGriff.

“You have to give Union credit. They have some great individual talent and they all came through today.”

Leading the Raiders were their two all around standouts, sophomore Kyle Rowbotham,
and senior Sean Smith. Rowbotham once again exceeded his personal best, soaring 44-5.25 to win the triple jump and also was tied for third in the 400 (50.7). Smith won the high jump (6-2), was third in the 110-meter hurdles (15.1) and second in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles in a personal best 55.4.

“I am very pleased with the way I hurdled. There was some very good competition. We could have won the meet but we did our best, “said Smith.

The Raiders went into the final event of the meet, the 4 by 400 relay, trailing 70-63 and could have won the team title with a first and fifth or worse by Union but the Farmers took command and won with 3:27.9 effort with Scotch Plains-Fanwood third in 3:28.6.

This was the first time this season that Smith and Rowbotham were running the relay, which also included Mike Miller and Rob Ventura.
Coach Jeff Koegel expects the quartet to improve for this week’s Group III Section II race, which begins today and continues tomorrow at South Plainfield

“Kyle just didn't bounce back well from the open 400 on Saturday. This coming weekend, the 400 is on Friday and the 4 x 400 is on Saturday,” said Koegel.
“We're looking to go3:24 or faster, with a slow leg in the low-52 range. Kyle could go under 50 when he is fresh.”

On the track the Raiders also got a third place finish from Josh Zinman in the 3200(10:15), and a sixth from Nehemiah Burney-Porter in the 110 hurdles (15.8). They received a fourth and fifth in the pole vault from Max Carow and Tom Pennella (12-0 each). The Raiders scored in each weight event with Marc Fabiano sixth in the discus (118-9), Greg Brand fifth in the javelin (153-0), and Ted Acosta and Mike Alleman
third and fifth in the shot put with throws of 46-0.25 and 45-8.25 respectively.

With Union competing in another group, the focus now shifts to the state sectional meet where the Raiders will see different teams but should be a contender for the team title.
“We can get big points from Smith and Rowbotham and our 4 x 400 can score high. We need solid contributions from the rest of the team if we are going to make a run at the title.

We can't just rely on those two to score all of our points,” said Koegel

Pole Vaulter Mike Woods of Westfield cleared 15 feet for the first time to upset favored Anthony Abitante of Governor Livingston and give the Blue Devils their only first place finish. What made the achievement more unique was that Woods had borrowed Abitante’s pole because he thought the pole was better than his was at clearing the height.

Westfield finished with 24 points, sixteen from the pole vault where Mike Gorski finished third in 14-0. Junior Jeffrey Perrella, running with a sore hamstring, finished a close second to Kevin Brown of Cranford in a personal best 4:22.7.
“I gave him a little too much room, but considering the way my legs feel, I’ll take a second in a personal best,” said Perrella.