2005 Scotch Plains Girls Outdoor Track Review

Before the season began Scotch Plains Fanwood Girls Track Coach Jeff Koegel called the 2005 edition of his team the deepest and most talented ever. It took a spirited mid season meeting and three sterling performances in May for the Raiders to prove him right.

The girls won both the Union County Relay and team titles as well as cruising to the Watchung conference championship. Balance in almost every event was the hallmark of the Raiders’ success and while Koegel will bid adieu to some of the most accomplished seniors in school history, the teams’ younger performers give him hope that next season will not contain a big drop off.

“The relay meet was important in that it showed the depth and balance we have as a team. We needed the conference championship to show that beating everyone in our division in the dual meets was not a fluke, and that we could begin the individual season with the same level of success that we ended the relay season,” said Koegel.

“ The county individual championship showed that we could still use our depth and balance to overcome teams that had a small number of superstars who could score a lot of points. Winning the county individuals also let our girls stake the claim to having done something that had never been done before in school history.”

Among the seniors that leave their legacy are distance runners Mary Shashaty, Laura Harrison and Liz Elko, who earned 36 letters between them and helped establish the Raiders as a distance running powerhouse. But Koegel will have plenty of distance talent back with Allie Hoynes-O’Connor, Sam Carow and freshman phenom Bridget Cornwell, who qualified for the state finals in the 800 meters.

“Mary graduates as the most accomplished distance runner in the history of the school,” said Koegel.

Another difficult member to replace will be Kat Berka, who won 14 of 15 dual meet events in her three weight throws.

“She was our MVP this year,” said Koegel, but the late season emergence of freshman Carlaya Jones in the shot put gives the Raiders a state finalist returnee and multi talented Erin Rossi should also step in, too.
Rossi also has huge shoes to fill in the pole vault, where Katie Zaleski made it to the Meet of Champions and won every major county event with a school record jump of 10-0.

The other key senior loss is hurdler and jumper Michelle Regg, who also qualified for the meet of champions. Sophomore Natasha Celius and freshman Tina Olsson showed tremendous potential late in the year and Meaghan Kelley succeeded Regg as county triple jump champion.

Kelley recovered from a mid season injury to give the Raiders a huge lift in late season meets. She placed third in the intermediate hurdles in the Union County meet and anchored a winning 4 by 400 relay team in the sectional finals.

The winning relay was entirely made up of underclassmen, all of who will also be key contributors next year. Leadoff Danielle Vena was a top sprinter and jumper this year. Sam Gates was talented in the 100,200 and 400 and Amanda Bobyack repeated as county long jump champion as well as being a top sprinter.

Despite losing so many memorable athletes, Koegel is confident that the momentum will continue next year.

“This is the nature of high school sports. You only have people for four years, at most, and you cannot sign them to contract extensions or pick up free agents,” said Koegel