BY PAUL SCHWARTZ – RECORD SPORTS

OLD TAPPAN – It’s not just about Gio Gutierrez at Saddle Brook.

While North Jersey’s top thrower had another spectacular weekend at the Red Littler Bergen County group championships, throwing over 60 feet in the shot put, and getting off a North Jersey best 168-8 discus throw under difficult weather conditions Saturday, it took a lot more than his 26 points in the three throws for the Falcons to claim their second Division D title in the last three years, 123-103, over defending champion Emerson.

The Falcons can point to strong performances from juniors Sean Roberts and Lance Trusty, who combined for four individual wins, a second place finish and half of the 4-x-400 relay victory that capped Saddle Brook’s winning performance.

“I’ve been coaching here 11 years and I can easily say that Sean is the most impressive athlete I’ve ever coached with the best work ethic I’ve seen,’’ said Saddle Brook coach Ed Ciccone. “He was definitely going to run the 100 and 200 for us and be on the relay, but after looking at the kids in the long jump and 400, we thought he had a better chance to be better in the 400.’’

So despite only have one dual meet under his belt, Roberts added the 400 title in a speedy 51.39 seconds to his 100 win on Friday and then ran a personal best 22.87 Saturday before helping the relay to an easy win. And his influence extended to helping Trusty start to achieve his potential.

“I challenged Lance during the indoor season when he was struggling to follow in Sean’s footsteps and work as hard as he did and since that time he’s been a knockout.’’

Trusty won the 400 hurdles, was second to Roberts in the 400 (Andrew Wellington completed the 1-2-3 sweep) and also took a leg on the relay.

“I thought we had a chance to win coming in and everyone did what we needed to take the title.’’

Glen Rock captured the C title, easily, 120-82, over Cresskill with the high jump still to be contested Monday at 3:30 p.m. at the Jacob Brown track at BF Middle School in Ridgewood. And the win came, the Panthers’ first since the 2003 Group 1 title, despite only five first place finishes in the 18 events.

“We had a lot of depth and all those kids rose to the occasion,’’ said Glen Rock head coach J.P. McCarten, whose team added the county group title to the league and Bergen Relays group titles won earlier in the season. “We had a lot of determined kids who went above and beyond what they had to do all season to put us in this position.’’

A 1-2 finish by Joe McCabe and Kevin Hargadon in the 800, Saturday’s first final, and later wins by Kyle Patel in the discus and the 4-x-100 relay team blew open what had been a close meet.

FULL RESULTS:

http://www.northjersey.com/story/sports/high-school/track/2017/05/14/track-results-bergen-county-c-d-e-championships/321435001/