2005 Watchung Conference Boys Outdoor Review

Sean Smith and Kyle Rowbotham of Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School were so dominant at last week’s Watchung Conference Boys Meet at Westfield that had they been a team, their 68 combined points would have finished fourth, ahead of Linden and Shabazz and behind their school, Westfield and Cranford.

Rowbotham, a sophomore took three firsts and a fourth and Smith won two events and had a second and a third place as the Raiders cruised to their 14th team title in the last 15 years, scoring 179.5 points to easily outdistance second-place Westfield, which had 115.
Coach Rich McGriff is hoping that the Raiders can use the momentum to succeed this weekend in the much tougher Union County Championships, which begin today and continue tomorrow at Hub Stine Field in Plainfield.

“It get a lot tougher now, but we can win this if we perform up to our abilities,” said McGriff. Although he doesn’t count out other teams, it is clear that McGriff figures that Union will be the biggest roadblock to a title. . The Raiders and Farmers have had two great battles so far this year in a dual meet won by the Raiders and the Union County Relays won by the Framers. The rubber match this weekend could be just as close.

Part of McGriff’s strategy is to reposition his top two stars into their four most efficient events. Smith will switch from the javelin, where he had little chance of scoring in the county meet to the 4 by 400 relay. He will be joined by Rowbotham, who figures to drop the 400 meter intermediate hurdles to join Smith, Mike Miller and Rob Ventura to form an imposing relay team that McGriff and Coach Jeff Koegel are counting on to score key points

“I think we can run around 3:25, which should place pretty high,” said Koegel.
Despite running in the second heat, Rowbotham was an easy winner in the 400 with a season’s best time of 50.6 and will be a strong contender in the County Meet.

“It was tough keeping my concentration in that heat, being so far ahead,” said Rowbotham.
Smith won the 400 hurdles in a personal best time of 55.9 seconds and figures to battle defending champion Brett Axelrod of Union. Smith won the 110 hurdles in 15.3 and will be contending with favored Chris Haley, also of Union

In his first year as a triple jumper, Rowbotham has the county’s top jump and hopes to top his winning Watchung Conference effort of 41-10.75. Rowbotham will need to improve his winning long jump (20 feet, 5 inches) to win against the tougher competition, which also includes Haley.
Smith, who finished second to Tom Planer of Cranford in the high jump, will battle Planer and Haley among others.

Another top scorer, who figures to place in the counties is Nehemiah Burney-Porter, a close second to Smith in the high hurdles, and second to Rowbotham in the triple jump.
Other Raider standouts who should place in the county included Marc Fabiano, who defended his discus title, Josh Zinman, third in a personal best 10:05 in the 3200 and Ted Acosta, second in the shot put and third in the discus.

Westfield senior Mike Woods broke the school record with a 14-9 victory, eclipsing Jeff Sherman's mark of 14-8, set in 1988. Fellow senior Mike Gorski, placed third with a personal-best height of 14 feet, giving the Blue Devils the first 14-foot tandem in the state this season.
Junior distance star Jeff Perrella was a double winner using a strong finish to out kick Cranford’s Nate Thompson in the 1600 (4:25.4) and the Cougar’s Kevin Brown in the 3200 (9:35.9). The Blue Devils may have swept the distances but 800 favorite Rob Broadbent missed the meet with an injury.

Other Blue Devils winners were the 4 by 400 team of
John Aleksandravicius, Jake Brandman, Erin Williams, Kris Kagan and javelin thrower Jeff Pazdro.