2005 Penn Relays (Perrella)

Nobody saw it coming. Not the coach or the runner but with a lap to go in the 3,000 meter championship at the prestigious Penn Relays there was Westfield junior Jeffrey Perrella with a chance to win a race against the top high school runners in the country. Although victory eluded Perrella, his third place finish was astounding as was his time of 8:33.50, which smashed the Westfield school record formerly held by Blue Devil great Cliff Sheehan and the Union County record by Anthony DeBenedictis of Roselle Park.

“If I said I saw it coming, I would not be completely honest,” said veteran coach Jack Martin.
“ Jeff has been running great this spring. I thought a good time would have been 8:40. The best part is that if Jeff had more experience, he would have won the race.”

Perrella went into the race as the 22nd seeded of the 24 runners but went for the lead right away.

“I think everyone was afraid to take the lead at such a big race. I was nervous and scared, but one race is no different than any other,” said Perrella.

“I took it out at the speed I wanted to run through the whole thing and everyone else was just kind of scared.”

While pleasantly surprised with his performance, Perrella had been well prepared by Martin, who has coached runners like Matt Elmuccio, Andy Jacob and Sheehan to big race successes in the past. Only last fall, Perrella had his best performance in the biggest race f the fall, the Meet of Champions, where his sixth place finish vaulted him to the all state cross country team.

“It has a lot to do with training. Since I qualified for Penn, I
have been preparing myself so I would be able to run fast, and the
same thing with the Meet Of Champions,” said Perrella who was effusive in his praise of his veteran coach.

“Martin has us work so that we peak during those races and turn in our top performances,” said Perrella.
“He knows what the athletes need to do to run fast and he gets them to do it.”

In spite of everything the time was shocking and puts Perrella in rarified distance running air.

“I have been waiting to go under 9:20 since the beginning of winter track. Things just never went right for me over the winter and I turned in poor performance after poor performance. I have been training hard and smart and now, finally, things are starting to look normal again. I have my form back and I have built up my finishing speed,’ added Perrella.

“It has been a goal of mine to run a 9:09 3200 meter and a 9:13 2
mile, the school records. I know now that they are well within my
reach and I hope to shatter them both before the season ends..”

There were tow other notable performances by Blue Devil performers.

Despite the horrible, rainy conditions, Mike Woods jumped a personal best 14' 7" to finish in a tie for fifth place.

The Girl’s 3200-meter relay team missed its goal of making it to the finals but turned in a strong 9:34.7 performance..
Annie Onishi split 2:23.2 to lead off, and was followed by Miriam Backer-Cohen in a personal best of 2:26.4, .Meg Driscoll in her fastest time of the year 2:26.6.and Emily MacNeil anchored with a 2:17.9.
In their ninth appearance in the 4 x 800 in the last 11 years, it was the third fastest performance in Westfield history.
The 4 by 400 team ran 4:14.4, for 4th place in their heat,.

2005 Boys Union County Tennis Review

There was drama until the final match at the Union County Tennis Tournament as Westfield and record-breaking coach George Kapner wrested the title back from Summit for the first time since 1998 Friday at Donald Van Blake Courts in Plainfield. The Blue Devils, who earlier in the week had made Kapner the winningest coach in Westfield history, pulled out an 81-76 squeaker over the Hilltoppers on a victory by the second-doubles team of Andrew Levy and Jack Trimble. 5-7, 7-5, 6-3, over Summit's Vir Singh and Ben Sangree.

Westfield also got victories from freshman second singles
Kevin Shallcross and the first doubles team of Brian Kender and Lee Bernstein. as well as a second from freshman third singles Ravi Netravali. Both doubles teams defeated a Summit pair as the Blue Devils won two of the three head to head matches in the finals against their rivals to give Kapner his eighth and perhaps most gratifying Union County Tennis title.

“It’s extremely satisfying ,” said Kapner.
“Summit and Scotch Plains-Fanwood were very worthy adversaries so it certainly was not an easy task. More important to me, however, was that the team, all five positions, has been getting stronger and more confident in the last two weeks. It is very gratifying to see all their hard work come to fruition.”

Kapner was effusive in his praise for his doubles teams.
“As a high school tennis coach, there is only so much you can do with singles players in the short high school season,” said Kapner.

“But your doubles teams have to be put together from scratch and taught how to play doubles when their training heretofore has been almost exclusively in singles. I have to give most of the credit
to two seniors, Brian Kender and Andrew Levy, who took two underclassmen, Lee Bernstein and Jack Trimble, under their wings and made them top notch doubles players.”

Scotch Plains-Fanwood also had an excellent tournament finishing third with sixty points but the Raiders may have hoped for more after joining Summit as the only two teams to advance everybody to the semi finals. It set up a quasi-dual meet with the six time defending champions, which Summit took 3-1. The only SPF player to advance to the finals was freshman second singles player Ryan Krueger, who would lose in the finals to Shallcross for the second time this year but Raider coach Mark Cunnington was pleased with his effort.

“Ryan has definitely turned the corner ,” said Cunnington.
“The semi final match is a match he doesn’t win earlier in the year, but Ryan has toughened up and learned how to win the big points.”

After going 10-0 on Thursday, the Raiders appeared to be off to a great start Friday as both their double teams took early leads in their matches with Summit only to fall in close matches.

Seniors Billy Albizati and Jeremy Sanders would recover to finish third on first doubles, while senior Greg Leischner and freshman Scott Leyden would do likewise on second doubles.

Seniors Jason Kruger and John Altman finished fourth on first and third singles respectively.

The Blue Devils had started the week by upsetting eleventh ranked Bergen Catholic 3-2 to give Kapner his 740th victory, spanning six sports one more than legendary Westfield Coach Gary Kehler.

“It is certainly a milestone ,” said Kapner.
“ I have spent a great deal of time recently thinking back over all the wonderful and talented young people, many of whom are now
well past being called young, who I have had the honor of coaching over the last three decades at WHS. “

Kapner grasped the irony of breaking the record of another man with the initials “GK”.

“I am humbled by the thought that my name will forever be linked with the name Gary Kehler. He was a mentor to me in the late
1970's and 1980's as I was developing my coaching career and he is, without a doubt, not only the greatest coach in the history of WHS, but one of a handful of the greatest coaches in New Jersey history”

2005 Westfield Girls Outdoor Track Preview

After a nearly flawless indoor season when they won the Union County team and relay titles the Westfield Girls Track team moves outdoors where the addition of seven events figures to make repeating that feat more difficult.

Indoor Coach Jen Buccino, who was named area coach of the year by The Courier News, hands the head coaching duties off to veteran mentor Nancy Carpenter. Buccino, an assistant coach for 17 years handles the talented middle distance corps featuring state 800 meter champion Emily MacNeil.

MacNeil finished the indoor season strongly by running a personal indoor best in the Meet of Champions final and following up with a personal best of 2:13 as anchor of the four by 800 relay.

Along with MacNeil the entire relay group of senior Annie Onishi and juniors Meg Driscoll and Miriam Becker-Cohen return and should be one of the top relay teams in the state.

“Our outdoor school record is 9:27 and I do believe that they are capable of improving that time,” said Buccino.

“We just have to put it together on the same day.“

Individually, MacNeil, the indoor Group III champion is hoping for an outdoor breakthrough.
“I would like to run a 2:13 consistently and hopefully break that and get down near 2:10 if I can by the end of the season,” said MacNeil.

Augmenting the middle and long distance strength is sophomore Erin McCarthy, who ran on the county champion 1600-meter relay team and figures to run the 200, 400, and 800. depending on where she is needed.

McCarthy, MacNeil, Becker-Cohen and Onishi combined to win the 1600 relay at the Union County meet to give the Blue Devils the title. Onishi’s strength is in the 800 and 1600, while Becker-Cohen specializes in the 400 and 800. Becker-Cohen, McCarthy and
MacNeil were all key members of the Westfield Soccer team.

The Blue Devils also have several members of the section champion cross country team to handle the long distance races including Jen Danielsson, Caitlyn Berkowitz and
Rachel Barrett. Freshmen Stephanie Cortinhal and Catherine Cognetti add even more strength to the 400 and 800.

That overwhelming strength made the Blue Devils a formidable indoor team where they were strong in six of the eleven events.

“Our strength is definitely in the middle and long distances .” said Buccino.

The best all around performer on the team is high jumper Emily Perry, who is also a top sprinter and hurdler.

Some of the other leading performers include Christina Henry, Olena Borkowsky, Karolyn Cook, Kate Anderson in the weight events, hurdlers Lauren Nolan, Danielle Parkinson and Marlena Sheridan, jumpers JoAnn Mathew and Alison Rodino and sprinters Ali Fleder, Erica Ammermuller, Mathew and Sheridan.

Buccino and Carpenter are also hoping for some pleasant surprises among the 112 girls
who have tried out.

“The weather has made it tough to sort everything out ,” said Buccino.

2005 Westfield Boys Outdoor Track Preview

With a staggering total of 143 athletes competing for spots, veteran Westfield track coach Jack Martin is excited about the prospects for the 2005 edition of the Blue Devil track team.

“This is a young team with a lot of potential,” said Martin, who has coached track for 30 years and been the head coach at Westfield since 1994.

“It is great to have so many kids on the team,” said Martin.

With such a large team, Martin is hoping for the weather to improve so he can better sort out his small army of athletes.
“The weather has not affected us too much. because we have been doing early season base work ,” said Martin.

Martin can again count on strength from his distance runners and pole-vaulters although each group is currently missing a key component.

First team all state cross country star Jeffrey Perrella leads the deep distance corps but
the Blue Devils continue to miss senior Rob Broadbent , who had had leg problems since the indoor season. Broadbent was a top 800 runner last spring and figured to build on a great cross country season, which culminated with a twenty fifth place finish in the Meet of Champions.

“The team has great potential, but the story of this year has been injuries. A lot of guys have had injuries and it will make piecing together a relay team very difficult ,” said Perrella.

Fortunately, the Blue Devils have four excellent juniors, who along with Perrella should make Westfield one of the top cross-country teams in the state next fall. Kris Kagan is the top returnee and has excelled in both the 1600 and 3200. Ameer Rogers, Jay Hoban and
Raymond Chen excel in the distance events while senior Scott Steinberg is more of an 800 specialist.

Perrella is hoping to run under two minutes in the 800, 4:20 in the 1600 and 9:20 in the 3200.

“I am feeling good ,” said Perrella.
“My health is great. I have begun my morning workouts again and am lifting weights everyday to try and improve my speed.”

While senior Mike Woods is one of the top pole-vaulters in the state, Martin is hoping for the return of his other top pole-vaulter, senior Mike Gorski, who is currently injured. Both Woods and Gorski cleared 13 feet last year and Woods place fourth in the indoor meet of champions. The Blue Devils are fortunate to also have junior Alex Kao who would be the top pole-vaulter on many teams but will need a healthy Gorski to win the pole vault relay at the biggest meets.

Although the pole vault is clearly the strongest field event, Martin is counting on senior javelin thrower Jeff Pazdro to score in most meets and senior Tom White leads the shot put and discus.

In other events Senior Jake Brandman is the top returning sprinter and
Senior Tyler MacCubbin and Kao are the leading hurdlers while MacCubbin, Kao and Richie Scvialabba pace the jumpers

“We need to get experience as the vast majority of our runners are freshmen and
sophomores,” said Martin.

The Blue Devils hope to be at full strength for later in the year when they will battle such strong teams as Union, Plainfield, Cranford, Elizabeth and Scotch Plains for the county title.

“The county is getting very strong again. To compete we need to get healthy,” said Martin.

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