Raritan took home the Division I championship plaque.
The Ocean girls took home the Division II crown.
The forecast for Friday and Saturday was rain with expected accumulations over an inch or two.
No surprise there considering the Howell Rebel Relays were scheduled to take place both of those days.
Fortunately for meet director Kevin Dee and the 92 teams that took part in the fifth annual meet, Mother Nature was kind, supplying 61 degrees with partly cloudy to sunny skies all day.
“The curse is over,” Dee said with regards to the past weather experiences not repeating itself in ‘08. “We’ve had horrible weather, locust-type weather and this is nice to have great weather and good performances.”
Of those good performances, included the breaking of 15 meet records, seven by the girls and eight by the boys.
Out of the girl records set, four were set by Shore Conference school’s including the girls 3 x 400 meter intermediate hurdle relay. The Neptune trio of junior Jade Wilson, senior Kiana Anderson and junior Ashley Porterfield stopped the clock in 3:28.1, beating out Trenton Central’s old time of 3:29.3.
For their first year head coach Dawn Bowles-Fitch, it was a great way to kick off her first outdoor season campaign with the team.
“It feels absolutely great for my first year coaching here,” Bowles-Fitch said. “They are definitely stepping up since they know they are the juniors and seniors and what they have to do. They put their mind to it and they did absolutely great and they know how proud of them I am.”
Ironically, it was a last-minute decision by the Neptune coach to enter this squad into the race, as she found out that Anderson was an intermediate hurdler.
“I just decided at the last minute that we could run it,” Bowles-Fitch said. “I decided to tell them to just run it and see where they were at and they needed practice for Monmouth County and Shore Conference [Tournaments] anyway and they did well, exceptionally well!”
“It was tense,” Porterfield said, with regards to the atmosphere surrounding the meet and her team’s race. “I think everyone on the line was nervous, but once we got out there we just forgot about the nerves and just ran and we felt good.”
The 4 x 100 meter relay team from Jackson Memorial, Samantha Brady, Natasha Durant, Tylia Gillon and Chanel Rogers, came in with a time of 49.4, eclipsing the mark set by Neptune at 50.2.
In the sprint medley relay (400, 200, 200, 800), Freehold Township’s team ran a 4:19.8, beating the old record by nearly three seconds, set by the host school.
The biggest eye-opening mark of the day was set by the Brick Township trio of discus throwers, senior DeAnne Hahn, junior Lisa Stuto and junior Deena Haluza, who crushed the old relay mark of 328’-1.5” with a 348’-6” performance.
In Division I, Raritan took home the team trophy with a total of 70 points, which included first-place finishes in the long jump and 4x200m.
In Division II, Ocean won by 19 points over Barnegat, including first-place finishes in the javelin, pole vault and distance medley relay. Ocean had the meet record in the long jump at 31’0” but was bettered by South Brunswick’s 31’11” showing, taking care of the old Freehold Township mark of 30’-8”.
The Mariners of Toms Rivers North displayed their dominance in Division III, taking the team title with a total of 81 points, 30 points ahead of both Jackson and West Windsor-Plainsboro South.
New Girls Records:
3 x 400 IH - Trenton Central ran a 3:28.1 --> outdoing their own record of 3:29.3
4 x 100m - Jackson Memorial ran a 49.4 --> outdoing Neptune's 50.2
4 x 200m - Ewing ran a 1:48.0 --> outdoing Trenton Central's 1:49.4
Sprint Medley Relay - Freehold Township ran a 4:19.8 --> outdoing Howell's 4:22.4
Long Jump - South Brunswick jumped 31'-11" after Ocean beat the record earlier with a 31'0" two person combined jump --> both outdoing Freehold Township's 30'-8"
Triple Jump - South Brunswick jumped 64'-5" after Lakewood eclipsed the meet record with a 62'1" jump --> outdoing Manalapan's 62'
Discus - Brick Township dominated with a 348'-6" three person combined distance --> outdoing Brick Township's old record of 328'-1.5" by more than 20 inches!