2005 Union County Girls Indoor Track

Westfield High School seniors Annie Onishi and Emily MacNeil were not going to let fatigue get in the way of concluding their indoor county track careers with a flourish. With each running their third
event of the evening over the rock hard Dunn Center surface, they combined with sophomore Erin McCarthy and junior Miriam Becker-Cohen to win the concluding mile relay and enable to the Blue Devils to defend their team title with 45 points Monday night in Elizabeth.

Westfield was able to outlast Rahway and their superstar La’Shonda Carter, who won three individual events, scoring thirty of Rahway’s 41 points on her own. Four weeks ago at the same venue the Blue Devils had won the Union County Relays with many of the same cast of characters. Monday’s triumph concluded a dominant streak of major wins. The quartet, with Meg Driscoll replacing McCarthy had also won the Group III four by 800 relay and MacNeil also won the Group III individual 800 but on this night it was Onishi sharing center stage with her more celebrated teammate.

“Annie was amazing tonight,” exulted Coach Jen Buccino.
“It was not easy doing all those events but Annie knew how important her points would be towards winning the team title, so she hung in there.”

Onishi’s night started in the mile where she stayed close to the leaders before holding on for a third and six points. After MacNeil picked up a second place in the 440, the two were back in the 880, where MacNeil cruised to an easy 2:31 victory the fourth straight 880 yard title in her brilliant career. Onishi picked up six more crucial points by hanging in for third in 2:34.2. At that point Westfield and Rahway were tied with 30 points each.

Carter’s victory in the high jump brought Rahway to 40 points but
with Emily Perry adding a third in the high jump and Jen Danielson a sixth in the two mile to bring Westfield to 35 points, Buccino figured if the mile relay could finish first it might be enough to put the Blue Devils over the top.

“I was confident that our girls had enough left to finish first,” said Buccino.
“Our relay runners are a real team. Everybody knows their role and what they need to do.”

MacNeil led off with a powerful 65.3-second split that gave Becker-Cohen a healthy lead, which she held on to and handed off to. McCarthy.
Onishi had a small lead as she took the baton and was able to hold off her competition to win her heat with a 65.7 split. The time of 4:25.1 held up as the fastest over the two heats.


“I’m very happy for the seniors,” said Buccino.
“They were determined to go out on a positive note tonight.”

Led by senior Mary Shashaty, Scotch Plains finished with fifth with 22 points. Shashaty was second behind Cranford sophomore Lindsay Gallo in the two mile that was inadvertently shortened by one lap, when the officials miscounted the laps. The runners wound up running 110 yards less than
normal.

When they rang the bell, for the final lap I started yelling at them that they rang it one lap too early ,” said Scotch Plains Coach Jeff Koegel.
“Of course, I got ignored by everyone standing at the finish line.”

In addition to Shashaty’s eight points, sophomore Sam Gates was third in the 400 and also anchored the mile relay to a third place finish, which helped Westfield by their finishing ahead of Rahway. The Raiders’ other two points came from a fifth place finish in the shot put from Kat Berka.

2005 Union County Boys Indoor Track

The loss of key personnel proved too much for the Westfield and Scotch Plains Boys Track teams to overcome as they settled for sixth and seventh
respectively at the Dunn Center in Elizabeth.

Westfield was missing 800-meter favorite Rob Broadbent, who has a stress fracture and will be out until sometime this spring, a tremendously disappointing development for what may have been the state’s most improved cross-country runner.

“Rob will be out pretty much until we start spring. He will be able to begin
some cross training in a couple of weeks, for now he is lifting weights. It was a sudden surprise at the state relays that intensified at the group meet and then diagnosed the following day., “ aid veteran Westfield Coach Jack Martin.

In addition to the injury, Martin attributed the Blue Devils’ performance to his low-key attitude towards the meet.

”We had such an intense beginning that it was difficult to maintain that level
and we thought it would be for the best to back off. In addition to Rob’s injury, the rest of the fellows are in the middle of exams .” said Martin

Despite scoring only 19 points, Martin had much to be pleased with.
“We did the best we could and had some nice performances ,” said Martin.

Martin was impressed with John Gagliano and Ameer Rogers, who took fourth and fifth in the 880 yard run and Jay Hoban who was sixth in the mile, Defending mile champion Jeffrey Perrella finished second after Martin had rested him for the previous week following the state meet, where Perrella had qualified for the Meet of Champions in March,.

The Mile Relay of Jake Brandman, Sam Kim, John Aleksandravicius, and Freshman Alex Tarlow completed the scoring placing fourth.

Scotch Plains was missing multi talented Sean Smith, who figured to place in the high hurdles, high jump and 440 yard run but sat out with a sore hamstring. “I tweaked it in practice but it’s feeling better now ,” said Smith

“I could have competed but the coaches thought it would be better to be cautious ,” added Smith.
The Raider’s top scoring performance was a surprise third place in the two mile run by junior Josh Zinman, who was a mere six seconds out of first place.

“JZ's race was one of the best he has ever run. I knew going into the race that he'd be able to place, but was unsure as to how the race would actually play out ,” said Scotch Plains Distance Coach Jeff Koegel.

“All things considered, this was probably the best race I’ve ever run ,” said
Zinman.

“We were able to adjust his goals for this winter season as a result of this performance , “ said Koegel.
“I'm very proud of what he did. He was easily the highlight of the meet for us .”

Also contributing to the Raiders’ eleven point performance were fifth places in the high jump from Iceberg Bryant, the shot put from Ted Acosta and sixth place in the mile relay.

2005 Group III Boys Indoor Track

The Jets weren’t the only team that came agonizingly close to a big victory last weekend. Although they finished a strong third in the Group III State Championships at Princeton University’s Jadwin Gym Sunday, the Westfield Boys Track Team knows how close they came to winning the team title. Only Randolph and Morristown, which is coached by Westfield resident Paul Buccino, finished ahead of the Blue Devils’ 18 points.

Robert Broadbent finished a close fourth in the 800, all State Cross country star Jeffrey Perrella was third in the 3200 and Mike Woods was just edged out for first in the pole vault, finishing second with a jump of 13 feet.

“All three boys were in a position to win their events. They gave it their all
and came up a little short.,” said veteran coach Jack Martin.

“It's difficult for all the schools to be ready so early in the season, but that's the problem with the lack of statewide facilities ,” added Martin.

Perrella blamed a faulty strategy for his third place finish in 9:53.39.
“I know I could have won the race had I just stayed connected to the
leader (Geoff McGrane of Randolph) ,” said Perrella. McGrane won both the 3200 and 1600 to lead Randolph to the team title.

“The first and second place guys just got away from me with a
little less then a half mile to go, and I know if I had never let that gap form, I could have out kicked them.

“However, that isn't how it played out and I got third. Hopefully I'll get them come the Meet of Champions ,” said Perrella.

Broadbent will also be seeking revenge at the Meet of Champions after finishing fourth in the 800 in 2:02.84, but was just .35 out of second.. Broadbent made a huge improvement late in the cross-country season and should be one of the top 800-meter runners in the state.

Woods will join the two middle distance runners at the Meet of champions, finishing behind David McCullough of Toms River South who jumped 13 ‘ 6 to Woods’ 13 feet.

400 meter runner Scott Steinberg, 800 meter runner Kris Kagan, 1600 meter runners Jay Hoban and Ameer Rogers, sprinters Jake Brandman and Sam Kim, high jumper Tyler Maccubbin and Pole Vaulter Alex Kao also participated.

Multi-talented Sean Smith of Scotch Plains qualified in one event, the 55-meter hurdles, where he finished second to Tyrell Ross of Clearview. Smith qualified fifth in the preliminaries but improved on his time in the finals, running 8:10.

Smith also finished tenth in the high jump, clearing 5 feet 10 inches
and teammate Iceberg Bryant was tied for twentieth at 5 foot 6 inches.

1600 meter runner Adam Biner, 3200 meter runner Josh Zinman, sprinters Nehemiah Burney-Porter, Rob Ventura and James Alfano, 400 meter runner Kyle Rowbotham also competed.

2005 Group III Girls Indoor Track

When Emily MacNeil is feeling good at the 600-meter mark it is usually bad news for the other 800-meter runners. Taking command in the final 200 meters, MacNeil pulled away from a strong field to win the Group III 800 title Sunday at Princeton University’s Jadwin Gym.

It was MacNeil’s first individual indoor 800 title after finishing fourth the past three seasons It was also the first individual state title for a Westfield girl and came a week after MacNeil had anchored the Westfield 4 by 800 relay to the Group III Relay title at the same venue.

“I just wanted to go out hard and try and stay out near the front with the
girls out front and then kick hard for the last 200 “ said MacNeil.
“ I felt real good for the last 200 so I just ran hard and was able to pull it out.”

“I am very happy that after three years of fourth place finishes here, she finally pulled it off., “ added Coach Jen Buccino.
“ The best part is that it happened her senior year, with her fastest performance at this meet., despite the meet falling so much earlier in the season.”

MacNeil’s time of 2:19.65 was all more impressive since the first two laps of the four-lap race were run at a moderate pace.

”She got out a lot slower than we planned ,” noted Buccino.
MacNeil reached the 400 in 70.8 and was in a pack that included Stephanie Herrick of Wayne Valley, Chavanne Hubbard of Franklin and Lauren Gregory of Morris Knolls. MacNeil was the only one of the leaders to run her second lap faster, finishing in a blistering 68.8.

“I was pretty surprised to go sub 2:20 because I usually don't break that
this early in the season but I was really happy with the results ,” said MacNeil.

“I knew going into the meet that she was capable of going under 2:20 and that if she did it might be enough to win but. there is always competition at this level,” said Buccino.

Also finishing strong was Westfield senior Annie Onishi, who passed two runners in the final 60 yards to finish sixth, which also qualified her for the Meet of Champions. MacNeil and Onishi scored all eleven of the Blue Devil’s points as they finished eighth overall well behind the winner Franklin, which scored 48.

“I'm always happy, as every coach would be, to see seniors cap off their careers this way. Both of them are running very well and yes I feel that we are much stronger than we were at this time last year,” said Buccino.

The best finish for the Scotch Plains girls was senior Mary Shashaty, who was eighth in the 3200 meter run with a time of 11:48.46.

2005 Group III Relays

The Westfield Girls 4 by 800 relay defended its Group III crown Sunday at Jadwin Gym Princeton but it was far from the easy triumph of a year ago.

The Blue Devils, who cruised by seventeen seconds last year in 9:47.20 ran three seconds slower but their 9:50.96. was enough to edge Morris Knolls, which was second in 9:54.93.

“The goal was to win it again and to finish in under 10 minutes and they
accomplished that,” said coach Jen Buccino.

Westfield’s winning quartet featured three holdovers from a year ago with Senior Annie Onishi again getting them off to a solid lead with a 2:24.9 split. Another returnee, Junior Meg Driscoll followed in 2:32.3 and handed the baton to Junior Miriam Becker-Cohen, the only newcomer who ran 2:31.2 giving anchor Emily MacNeil a solid lead which she maintained through the finish line with a 2:22.4 clocking.

”Each of the girls did her job, “ said Buccino.
“We nearly replicated last year's splits despite the meet
coming earlier in the season.”

The big question mark coming into the meet was the fitness of Driscoll who had missed much of the cross-country season with a stress fracture.

“Meg is not 100% yet but she is getting stronger every day since she was in good shape in the fall. Her performance was very impressive yesterday when you consider she that she missed all of November for training, has been doing modified workouts, and working with the B group during track sessions ,” said Buccino.

The triumph helped the Blue Devil Girls to a fifth place finish in the team standings, well behind powerful Willingboro which tallied 46.

MacNeil,Becker-Cohen, and Onishi combined sophomore Gillian Kape to finish fourth in the 4 by 400 relay to provide Westfield’s other points.

The Westfield Boys concluded a busy week with a fourth place finish in the Group 3 Boys Meet. Earlier in the week the Blue Devils had swept the three distance relays en route to a fourth place finish at the Union County Relays.

Junior All State Cross Country runner Jeffrey Perrella, junior Kris Kagan and senior Rob Broadbent each ran on two winning teams at the county meet and combined with senior Scott Steinberg to finish third in the Group III distance medley in 10:56. Broadbent anchored the sprint medley to a third place finish. The first three runners were junior Tyler Maccubbin and seniors Jake Brandman and Sam Kim.

The top finish at the state meet for Westfield was the pole vault where the team of seniors Mike Woods and Mike Gorski finished second with a combined 23 feet 6 inches.

The Scotch Plains boys won both field events at the Union County meet to nearly win the team title. Multi talented Sean Smith and Iceberg Bryant won the high jump, while Ted Acosta, Mike Alleman and John Badala edged Elizabeth in the shot put as the Raiders scored 34 points Another strong Scotch Plains team is their shuttle hurdles quartet of Smith, Bryant, Nehemiah Burney-Porter and James Alfano which was second at the county meet and third in the state competition.