2006 Scotch Plains Girls Union County Outdoor Relays

The Scotch Plains Fanwood Girls Track team treated the Union County Relays as a coming out party for some of their new talent and surprisingly defended their title Saturday at Hub Stine Field in Plainfield. The Raiders used their balance to rally in the last four events and outdistance Union and Cranford 68-49.

Sophomore Tina Olsson, probably the most improved member of the team, completed an outstanding all around performance with a career-best 17-0 3/4 to help the Scotch Plains girls win the long jump relay and split 1:01.3 to give the Raiders the lead for good in the closing 4x400 relay. Olsson also helped the team score a third and sixth respectively in the 4x200 and 4x100.

“Tina was a huge part of the victory ,” said Girls Coach Jeff Koegel.

“Her improvement in the 400 is amazing. This winter she ran 69 seconds and in this meet she took over the lead for us.”

“I have worked a lot harder this year and am taking the sport more seriously ,” said Olsson.

“She did a great job in making it easier for me ,” said anchor Meaghan Kelly, who poured it on with a 59.4 finish. Junior Sam Gates and sophomore Kate Johnson ran the first two legs in the 4:06.4 performance.

In addition to Olsson, the 4 by 200 participants were Danielle Vena, Gates and Kelly.
Olsson combined with two time county long jump champion Amanda Bobyack and sophomore Natasha Celius for a 49-4 ¾ performance in the long jump.

“Both the long jumpers and triple jumpers did a great job,” said Boys Head Coach Rich McGriff, who also coaches the jumping teams. Kelly combined with Celius and to finish third in the triple jump Thursday.

The Raiders, who scored in 12 of 16 events also got 18 points form their shot put and discus relay teams. After losing stalwart Kat Berka to graduation, the Raider Girls, coached by Ken Hernandez have made an impressive recovery.

“The girls were a very pleasant surprise,” said Hernandez.
“To get them all to throw well on the same day was very big.”

Sophomores Carlaya Jones and Erin Rossi combined with junior Lauryn Adams to win the shot put relay with a 101-6 ¾ effort and the same trio were second in the discus with a 283-0 total. The girls and boys combined for 38 of a possible 40 points in the shot put and discus, a testament to their hard practices.

“We work them out a long time but they realize you need to pay a price for success,” said Hernandez.


The Raiders also got a valuable six points from the 6400 meter relay when the foursome of sophomore Kristen Thompson, freshman Emily Carow, sophomore Cassy Valdes and freshman Brittney Veeck finished third in 23:25.

Veeck had an even better performance in the distance medley where she split a personal best 5:17.7 to bring the team up to fifth.

The Raiders added six more points in the sprint medley when freshman Whitney Adams, Celius, freshman Kim Shelus and sophomore Bridget Cornwell ran 4:28.5 with Cornwell outsprinting the Union and Union Catholic anchors to move up two valuable places. Overall the Raiders picked up 30 points in the final four events, a furious finish by any standards.

“Unlike the boys, this was in doubt to the very end,” noted Koegel,
After winning his first title a year ago, Koegel seemed to enjoy his second even more.

“This was better than last year because the boys also won,” said Koegel.

Westfield finished eighth with 37 ½ points. The top finishers were the 3200 meter relay (second in 10:02), the 6400 meter relay (second in 23:05.7), sprint medley (second in 4:24.3), distance medley (third in 12:47), and team javelin (fourth in 231-6).

Running on the 3200 team were sophomores Stephanie Cortinhal and Catherine Cognetti and freshmen Aileen Grogan, and Bridget Grogan. The 6400 meter relay members were Ravenna Neville, Rose Driscoll, Jen Danielsson and Jayne Ruotolo. The second place sprint medley team contained Erica Ammermuller, Alison Fleder, Christina Obiajulu and Ayn Wisler.

The Distance Medley team of Rose Driscoll 1200 (her 3:51 split was a PR by 25 seconds), Cortinhal, Meg Driscoll and Wisler had the second fastest time in school history with a brand new line up

Karolyn Cook, Lauren Brachman, and freshman Arielle Burns comprised the javelin team.

The 3 x 400 IH team of Tessa Schaaf, Marlena Sheridan, and Neha Limaye set a school record in addition to placing 6th. (they dropped the record from 3:43.8 to 3:37.3)

“We were very pleased with our performances. We scored more points than last year, and scored in more events than last year and set two school records in the process,” said Westfield Distances Coach Jen Bucino.