2006 Scotch Plains Boys Watchung Conference

After having dusted off their four conference opponents by an average of over 80 points per dual meet, the Scotch Plains Fanwood Boys Track Team should not have thought the Watchung Conference championship meet to be anything more than a warm-up for tomorrow’s Union County Championships..

After the Raiders were predictably easy winners in the two day meet held last Thursday and Friday at Kehler Stadium in Westfield, Coach Rich McGriff declared his team ready for this weekend and the important state meets ahead.

“We knew that we were better than our competition, but nobody took it for granted and we did a good job taking care of business ,” said McGriff after the Raiders outscored Westfield 233-104 to win the title for the 15th time in the past 16 years.

As has been the case all season, the Raiders received contributions from just about every event with their best efforts coming from their two superstars, sophomore weight thrower Mike Alleman and Junior Hurdler and Jumper Kyle Rowbotham.

Alleman led 1-2-3 sweeps in the shot put and discus and Rowbotham won three individual events and anchored the winning mile relay.

“We have so much competition on this team that it pushes everyone to get better,” said Alleman.

The competition was especially cut throat in the discus where Matt Hazel and John Badala, who combined with Alleman to win the county relay title the previous weekend, were beaten out by Jason Boff and Joe Jacobi for the coveted spots.

“It was a pretty intense throw off for the discus spots and I expect another one for the county meet,” said Alleman

Alleman, Scotch Plains threw 144-9, Boff was second in 125-11 and Jacobi 121-11 for third. All three shot put contestants Alleman (56-4), Badala (49-5 ¾) and Anthony Nelson (49-0) produced career best performances. Alleman has already added ten feet to his freshman marks and seems to improve every week. Alleman's throw is the second best in the state this year, behind Hanover Park's Steve D'Arcy (58-1).

“This was a good meet for us but next week is the big one. We need to keep pushing each other to get better,” said Alleman.

Junior Greg Brand added to the weight dominance with a 149-5 victory in the javelin. Jacobi and Badala added a third and fifth as the Raiders piled up 66 points in the three weight events.

Not to be outdone, Rowbotham led a nearly equally dominant performance in the hurdles events. The junior, who took three firsts and a fourth last year, ran a season’s best (55.3) in the 400 meter intermediate hurdles with Tom Pennella (58.0) and James Alfano (1:00.9) taking 3-4. In the 110 meter high hurdles Rowbotham (15.0) edged Nehemiah Burney-Porter (15.1) and Pennella, Scotch Plains, (15.6) in a 1-2-3 finish. Rowbotham (44-6 ¾) also combined with Burney-Porter for a 1-2 finish in the triple jump. Rowbotham appropriately completed his perfect meet with a 50.0 split on a 3:31.8 team that also include Burney-Porter, Tom Ventura and Alfano.
“It felt good out there. I was especially pleased with my intermediate hurdles race ,” said Rowbotham, who will trade the relay for the long jump at the county meet.
“We are trying to maximize Kyle’s scoring potential for the county meet,” said McGriff.
“He is capable of winning the long jump. He has been hitting 22 feet in practice.”
Overshadowed in the excellence was a fine all around performance by Max Carow, who won the pole vault(13-0) , was second in the long jump (19-4), third in the 200(23.2) and third in the 100 (11.3). The Raiders scored heavily in the pole vault with Pennella third in 12-0 and James Sensor fifth in 11-6.

Although their young and improving distance corps was outrun by Cranford’s Kevin Brown in the 800 and Jeffrey Perrella in the 1600 and 3200, the Raiders scored heavily in all three events.

In the 3200 senior J.Z. Zinman was second in 10:13.0, followed by sophomores
Dan Sapienza (10:28.7) and Patrick Doliber(10:30.9). Adam Biner ran a personal best 4:27.9 for third and Zinman hit 4:39.4 for fourth in the 1600. Biner and Mike Miller ran 2:00.3 and 2:01.7 for second and third in the 800.

Jason Zelesnik added a third in the high jump and Ventura was second in the 400 as the Raiders got scoring from 23 different athletes.
Perrella repeated his distance double of a year ago by dropping his times to 4;23.6 in the 1600 and 9:20.8 in the 3200. Perrella was mostly running against the clock and trying to sharpen up for the next few weeks when the competition gets tougher.
“I fell way short of the school record but was pretty close to my personal best in the 3200,” said Perrella.
“What was especially good about my 3200 was that I had the opportunity to work in pick-ups and surges so I will be ready for them in the big meets.”
Westfield also got an outstanding performance from senior Tyler Maccubbin, who won the high jump(5-8) and added a second in the 400 intermediate hurdles(57.5) and a fourth in the 110 meter hurdles(15.9).