HAPPY HOSTS: The Golden Bear girls clearly enjoyed hosting the Lyndhurst Invitational, as they scored in every event except the pole vault.
Seventeen competitors earned gold medals in the meet, as Lyndhurst won six events. It dominated the distance events in particular. Grace Cappiello, Mia Luna, Taylor Sanchez and Jessica Failace combined for a 4:29.6 to win the 4-x-400; Failace, Kelsey Kearns, Amanda Fulcher and Ana Pimenta combined for a 10:45.1 to win the 4-x-800; and Lindsay Cirne, Alexis Gerbasio, Natalie Tague and Giana DiTonto combined for a 25:17.6 to win the 4-x-1,600.
“It’s great to host this meet,” said boys coach and meet director Tom Shoebridge. “And even though this weekend has become very busy with lots of meets, we still enjoy hosting and competing in it.”
NOT YOUR USUAL RUNNER: The Hawthorne boys have two mainstays of theirfootball team’s offensive and defensive lines enjoying excellent early-season success. Junior Darius Bunch, at 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds, is off to a great start in a more traditional spot for a lineman, throwing more than 144 feet in the discus – the best throw by a Bear boy since Mike Terrizzi set the school record with a throw of 157-7 in 1966.
But 6-foot-3, 215-pound guard/linebacker Liam Morrissey is making his mark in a decidedly non-traditional lineman event, the 800, leading off the Hawthorne 4-x-800 team. He also anchored the sprint medley team to a second-place finish in the B division race and helped the Bears to a second-place team finish behind Lakeland in the smaller school division.
“I really like running the 800,” says Morrissey, who is the probably the Bears’ top 1,600 runner as well. “I had some success when I started running those distances, and I just stuck with it.”
SCHOOL RECORD SET: Speaking of big guys chasing school records, Eastern Christian’s Trent Braen got his school record in the discus at the Boverini Passaic County Relays on Saturday at Passaic Valley, throwing 151 feet to take two-time state Non-Public B champ Ben de Waal Malefyt out of the record books.
LOOKING AHEAD: After a few field events held Wednesday at Ridgewood (Division A) and Mahwah (B), the 54th Jack Yockers Bergen County Relays gets under way today at River Dell with field events at 3:30 p.m. and running at 4 p.m. Defending champions are Ridgewood (two straight in A), River Dell (B), Hasbrouck Heights (two straight in C, six straight overall) and Emerson (D) for the boys and Northern Highlands (A), River Dell (two straight in B), Cresskill (C) and Waldwick (two straight in D) for the girls.
Also on the schedule is the Morris Hills Relays on Saturday and the 121st Penn Relays start Thursday at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.
