Glen Rock HS Girls Track & Field are Back to Back Sectional Champs!
Congratulations from everyone in the NJIC
-Story by Paul Schwartz of the Record Sports Department
Going into the 4-x-400 relay, the final event of the North 1, Group 1 sectional meet Friday at Bennett Center in Toms River, Kinnelon led with 47 points, followed by Mountain Lakes (45), defending champion Glen Rock (44) and Hasbrouck Heights (41).
All had entries in the event, but Kinnelon, with no time this winter, was in the unseeded heat.
The Colts put up a time of 4:28.75, meaning Glen Rock needed to finish at least second in its heat, beat Mountain Lakes, run faster than Kinnelon had and make sure at least other team ran faster than Kinnelon in the seeded heat.
All four things happened. Sarah Hutchins, who asked on to the relay, ran a speedy 62 second first leg, and Bella Smith, a surprise third place finisher in the 800 and Juliette DiMaria ran solid legs as the Panthers, Hasbrouck Heights and Mountain Lakes pulled ahead of the others in the heat.
Lindsay Burstiner then anchored the Panthers to a comfortable 10 meter margin over Mountain Lakes behind the winning Hasbrouck Heights team and Glen Rock had its second title, 52-51 over Heights and Mountain Lakes, with Kinnelon fourth, three points behind.
“We had our ups and downs today,” said Glen Rock coach J.P. McCarten after the Panthers’ win was confirmed. “But we knew it would be close, so close that I didn’t even bother trying to analyze the meet before it happened.”
Earlier in the meet it seemed that any thing that could go wrong did for Glen Rock.
Its top 400 runner was placed in an unseeded heat, its top hurdlers made the 55 final but did not score and its high jumpers were adversely affected by a scoring decision.
But there were surprises too. Karina Roze won the girls shot by nearly eight feet and soph Kaira Torres produced a personal best throw to take second place in the same event. Hutchins upset favored Rebecca Kneppel of Butler to win the 55 meters by .01 second and despite battling anemia, Mary Andreou grabbed an important by taking sixth in the 3,200, immediately before the relay.
“We really battled all day and I’m proud of the team,” said McCarten.
