2006 Scotch Plains Outdoor Group 3 Championships

The spectators watching the Group III shot put gasped as the powerful Scotch Plains Fanwood sophomore threw the 16 pound metal ball further than anyone else, but the excitement quickly turned to groans as the officials ruled that Mike Alleman had just barely fouled.

The victory went to Lacey Junior Vinnie Elardo, who had trailed Alleman until his final throw of 56-01 nipped Alleman’s 55-05.75 effort.

“It was tough to lose after being ahead the whole way,” said Alleman.

“I thought the last throw was a winner.”

“Mike deserved to win the meet,” said Raider Coach Jeff Koegel.
“He had the most consistent series of throws of any athlete and his final throw was a winner, too.”

“Mike’s a tremendous competitor. He will definitely use the loss as motivation to beat that guy next time,” said Raider Weight Coach Ken Hernandez.

“Next time” was this past Wednesday at the Meet of Champions in South Plainfield where Alleman will begin as the fifth seed, pretty impressive for someone who threw 46
feet a year ago.

Alleman’s tough loss was emblematic of a snake bit two days for both the boys and girls teams. Alleman will be one of only two Raiders competing in the Meet of Champions, joined by senior Max Carow who finished fifth in the pole vault with a leap of 13 feet.

“Max had a good series of jumps. He just missed at 13'6", too. He was over the bar, but came down on it with his chest on the way down,” said Koegel.

The most surprising of the missing Raiders will undoubtedly be Junior Kyle Rowbotham,
who had qualified for the Group Championships in the Triple Jump, Long Jump, 110 Meter and 400 Meter Hurdles but failed to qualify in any of the events.

“He just had a sub-par meet and looked very tired out there. He fouled twice by less
than an inch in the triple jump trials. Both jumps would have been
good enough to make the finals, and probably place him high,” noted Koegel.

“He has been doing four events in pretty much every meet since the week before Christmas. That takes its toll on you,” added Koegel.

“Kyle did still qualify for nationals in the triple jump. We are giving him a few days
off to re-charge his legs and clear his mind and then (Head Coach) Rich (McGirff) will get back to basics with him. He only has one event to train for instead of four, so he will be able to get some good quality jumping in if the weather so permits.”

In addition to Alleman some of the top performances came from the strong girls’ weight team. Junior Lauryn Adams broke her personal best in the discus several times, ending with a 109'9" throw, finishing seventh in Group III and missed the last wild card qualifier for the Meet Of Champions by one foot with the seventh best throw of all of the
non-medal winners combined.

“This is a girl who we didn't even take to the state sectionals last year. She has improved a great deal this season, and I wish it was a few weeks longer, because I don't think
she's done developing yet,” said Hernandez.

Carlaya Jones just missed making the finals in the shot out and Hernandez was also
proud of her performance last weekend.

The third member of the Raider weight trio, Sophomore Erin Rossi, did not qualify in the weight events but had a personal best of nine feet in the pole vault.

“The silver lining was she got to do a lot of vaulting this week. We
were hoping for 10' (she cleared 9'6" in practice a few days prior),
but the conditions didn't really cooperate. It was near impossible to
keep their pole grips dry in that weather, and just as difficult to get
warm and stay loose,” said Koegel.

Freshman Brittney Veeck once again lowered her school record in the 1600 to 5:14.06, which placed her fourteenth in the ultra competitive Group III race. Veeck’s time would have won Group II... Veeck’s next race will be at the freshman mile at The Nike Outdoor Nationals. .

“She is really starting to learn how to run the race. Unfortunately for
her, we have a loaded group. She’s done very well for someone who has only been running the event since January. Her splits were a lot better this week than last,” said Koegel.

Summarizing the current state of Scotch Plains Track and Field Koegel said,
“Doing well at this level is about having stars. We think a lot of our young athletes made progress towards reaching that level next year .”

2006 Scotch Plains Boys Sections

Fresh from completing their season against county competition with dominating victories in the Union County championships last Saturday at Hub Stine Field in Plainfield, the best team, Scotch Plains and the top distance runner,Westfield’s Jeffrey Perrella expand their horizons when they compete in the New Jersey State Group III Section II meet that begins today at Frank Jost Field in South Plainfield.

After romping through the dual meet portion of their season with a 5-0 record, the Raiders won their third team title in three weeks by scoring 96.5 points to outscore Rahway with 75. Their total is expected to grow when the final event, the long jump was completed earlier this week. A problem with the runway forced the cancellation.

With a jump of 20-5 in the trials, Raider junior Kyle Rowbotham is expected to add a fourth gold medal in the long jump to the trio he won Saturday. Rowbotham won the 110 high hurdles (14.6), 400 intermediate hurdles (56.5) and broke his own meet record in the triple jump (46-0.5).

The Raiders’ other superstar Mike Alleman added a first in the shot put and a second in the discus and the Raiders also swept the first two places in the pole vault to help erase the bad taste that their close loss to Union last year left.

“It feels great to win this meet. I’m very happy to be a triple winner,” said Rowbotham.
“I’m very tired. I did a lot today but that’s why we have long practices. It gets you ready for these type of meets.”

“We expected to win this meet but they don’t give you the title on paper. You have to go out and earn it and that’s what we did ,” said Coach Rich McGriff.

“We think we have enough top performers to continue to do well in the state meets the next two weekends.”

Rowbotham will face his toughest opponent this year in the sections when he faces Ben Copeland of Montgomery in the 400 meter hurdles. Copeland has run 53.4, while Rowbotham’s best is 55.3.

“I made a few mistakes in the intermediates, “said Rowbotham.

“I have been working on using thirteen steps between hurdles. It takes some getting used to but it will pay off with faster times.”

Rowbotham's high hurdles victory was followed by a third from Nehemiah Burney-Porter (14.8) and a fourth from Tom Pennella (15.2) giving the Raiders twenty points/

Max Carow (13-0) and Pennella (12-6) added eighteen more in the pole vault and Pennella added a sixth in the high jump. Burney-Porter added a fourth in the triple jump with a 42-5 ¾ effort

Alleman had a terrific meet throwing the shot put (55-8) and taking second in the discus in a personal best (148-9).

“This was easily the best discus series I have ever had ,” added Alleman.

“It was a shame to just come up short but I put four throws out over 148, which I had never done before.”

“The difference in Mike this year is he now comes to the big meets ready to compete. Mike gets up for the competition,” said weights coach Ken Hernandez..

John Badala added a fourth in the shot put with a 48-4 and Greg Brand and Joe Jacobi finished fourth and sixth in the javelin. The Raiders other points came from JZ Zinman fifth in the 3200 (10:07) and Adam Biner fourth in the mile (4:34.2).

Perrella and Tyler Maccubbin combined for 36 of Westfield’s 45 points as the Blue Devils finished tied for third. Maccubbin was second in the high jump(5-10) and Adam Bergo (5-8) added a fourth. Maccubbin was also second to Rowbotham in the 400 intermediate hurdles (57.2).

Perrella’s titles were his first two outdoors. A year ago he skipped the 3200 because of an ailing hamstring and finished second in the mile. Perrella’s 4:22.2 mile and 9:34.6 3200 were well off his best but Perrella is looking ahead to the next eleven days where he hopes to win five races.

“Compared with last year, I am in much better shape and better spirits. I have been strong and getting even stronger. In the mile at counties I had a plan and stuck to it, I was extremely pleased,” said Perrella.

“ In the 3200, it was entirely too windy to try and push the pace alone so I relaxed and tried to maintain a gap I was confident enough in my finish to rely on it to pull away.”

2006 Scotch Plains Girls Sections

A remarkable performance by Ridge Sophomore Josefine Kvist proved too much for the balance of Scotch Plains Fanwood in the North Jersey, Section 2, Group III girls meet held Friday and Saturday at Frank Jost Field in South Plainfield.

Kvist won four events and distance runner Nicol Trainor added another 18 as Ridge outscored the Raiders 74-61, who also trailed defending champ Montgomery, second with 64.33

Raiders’ Head Coach Jeff Koegel was aware of Kvist’s prowess before the meet and was not surprised by her achievement.

“Kvist is an animal. I knew she would score 40 points. We're lucky
that they only let you do four events in high school, because I'm sure
she could have won another three or four events,” said Koegel.

“There’s no way to counteract that unless you have a few very strong stars. Trainor added quite a bit of support in her three events.”

The Raiders used their “nickel and dime” modus operandi to stay in contention and like last year took their only gold medal in the concluding event, the four by 400 relay.

The quartet of Danielle Vena, Tina Olsson, Kate Johnson and Meaghan Kelly edged Montgomery by less than a second in 4:08.90, a time that was almost topped by Matawan from the second heat. Kelly had to hold off a determined effort by Montgomery anchor Kandi Givner, who defeated Kelly in the open 400. Kelly was passed at the 200 mark but came back to win with a strong kick in the final straight away for the second straight year.

“She ran it in strong, which is what we needed because the winning time in the unseeded section was very fast,” said Koegel.

Despite the victory the team’s time will only get them in the second heat, with nine other teams posting faster times.

“We'll be much faster this weekend We're going to hold Tina out of the 200 so she is fresh for the 4 x 400. That should knock at least two seconds off our time. We're
not ready to compete with the very top teams,” said Koegel...

As usual, the Raiders received tremendous efforts from their strong weight trio.
Sophomore Carlaya Jones advanced to her second straight state final by finishing second with a throw of 37-3. Junior Lauryn Adams uncorked a toss of 36-1 ¼ on her final chance to move up from seventh to third. Adams has added nine feet to her top throw a year ago. Adams added a fifth in the discus in a personal best 107-9.

The third of the Raiders’ excellent weight trio Erin Rossi did not qualify in either weight event but equaled her top pole vault this spring with a jump of 8-6 that tied her for third.

“She had been struggling with the pole vault and got it together quite a bit on Saturday. She'll be able to concentrate on that this week and get herself ready to go next weekend,” said Koegel.

Junior Natasha Celius, the school record holder, added a third in the triple jump with a 35-1 ¼ leap and Olsson added a third in the long jump with a 16-11 ¼ effort

Kelly was the top track performer, finishing third in the 400 meter intermediate hurdles (66.24) and sixth in the 400 meters (60.37).

“We won't be running her in the 400. She'll come back and anchor our 4 x 400 on Saturday. Ideally, I would like her to be in a situation where she can chase on her leg, which is how she runs best,” said Koegel.

Olsson added to her long jump and relay efforts with a fifth place 25.95 in the 200.”
“She has become one of our top athletes this year,” said Koegel.

Freshman Brittney Veeck and sophomore Bridget Cornwell both qualified in the 800 taking fifth and third respectively. Cornwell qualified for the second straight year and Veeck bounced back from the county meet to also qualify with a sixth place in a fast 1600 (5:16.83). Veeck, already the fastest freshman miler in school history has been making great strides this season under Koegel’s tutelage.

“She'll keep knocking time off as she gets more training under her belt and she gains more racing experience,” said Koegel.

Overall the Raiders will take ten girls to the state finals, while Ridge will only take four, but superstars frequently beat balanced teams at this level.

“I think we should have taken second. We had a number of disappointments as well. We are still young and will have everyone back except Meaghan,” said Koegel.

“Unfortunately, Ridge will have Kvist and Traynor back as well. “