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.”