By Bob Badders - Senior Writer
EGG HARBOR -- She lists Chuck Norris and Anthony Hopkins' character of Hannibal Lecter as her favorite movie stars and the Southern Regional coaching staff describes her relentless attitude with a simple yet telling phrase: 'Dog will hunt.'
So you can say that when she grabbed the baton trailing by 15 meters on the third leg of the South Jersey Group IV 4x400 relay, Rams sophomore Chelsea Cox had her opponents right where she wanted them.
Needing a win in the day's final event to clinch Southern's third straight sectional championship, the sophomore ran a 56.6 400 split to give the Rams the lead heading into Jill Smith's anchor leg. Southern finished in 3:51.59, ahead of third-place Lenape to pull ahead of the Indians and capture the South Jersey Group IV championship, 83.5 to 80.
"Chelsea loves to go hunting and that's why we put her third," said Rams head coach Brian Zatorski about Cox' propensity for closing the gap. "As soon as I saw Chelsea get the baton, even trailing by 10-12 meters, I knew we had a great shot. And when she gave it to Jill with the lead, well, anytime she gets the baton in the lead you're going to be hard-pressed to catch her."
"I was just thinking about running a strong first 100, keeping it close through 200 and then giving it my all the last 200," Cox said. "I knew with the lead, with Jill doing what she's capable of, we were going to win."
Senior Julia Beekman opened the relay with a 58.8 split and kept the Rams close during Lenape's fastest leg, run by senior Miya Johnson. Freshman Taylor Jennings followed with a 60.2 leg before handing off to Cox. After her 56.6 lap, she handed to Smith, who closed in 55.99 for the Rams' second-fastest time in school history.
"I've always tried to build a team around a 4x400 team and we've had a good one for years now," Zatorski said. "With the meet on the line I was very confident we were prepared."
"After all of us being multi-eventers just to get points for the team, we didn't want to throw that all away," Smith said. "We wanted to come out on top and everybody did awesome. Chelsea can just run on guts, and Julia and Taylor did awesome jobs. It takes four."
While winning the team title required contributions from up and down the Rams' roster, it's obvious that a third straight sectional championship would not have been possible without a record-breaking triple by Smith. After winning the 1,600 on Friday, Smith captured the 3,200 in 11:09 and earlier in the day won the 800 in 2:07.26. Her 800 time broke her own Shore Conference record of 2:08.80 set at last year's Meet of Champions and broke the South Jersey Group IV record of 2:10.54 set last season by former teammate Danielle Tauro and also the overall meet record of 2:09.2 set by Haddonfield's Erin Donohue in 2001.
Once again Smith made things look easy in both races. She stayed toward the front of the pack in the 3,200 before making her break over the final two laps to win convincingly. In the 800, Smith went out fast and never let up on her way to another dominating performance.
"When I saw the time in the 800 I was pumped up," Smith said. "I take a lot of pride in every race because you never know how you're going to do."
"Not many people get to see the human side of Jill Smith," Zatorski said. "She's a regular, goofy 16-year-old kid, but when she gets out on that track she's scary. She's pretty amazing. She never seems to wear down and I'm certainly not looking to get to the bottom of that well."
Depth in the track events and some crucial performances in the field events also played a large role for Southern. On Saturday, Cox finished fourth in the 800 to give the Rams 14 points in the event and Kate Armstrong placed sixth in the 3,200 for an extra point. The field events saw Jessica Carlson place sixth in the long jump, Grace Bohn finish third in the shot put and Alexis Wachter take second in the high jump.
Zatorski was especially pleased with Bohn's effort in the shot put because it was an event he had penciled in as 10 points for Lenape and zero for Southern. Bohn, a senior, had been battling an elbow injury all season but came through with a throw of 37-8. Lenape took fourth and sixth, but Southern took six points from the event to five for the Indians.
"I'm so happy for her because she's a senior and she's been injured but she just went out there and let it go," Zatorski said.
On Friday, the Rams got victories from Smith in the 1,600 and Beekman in the triple jump (36-0 1/2). Also placing and picking up valuable points were Cox in the 400 (57.85, third) and 400 hurdles (1:05.28, fifth), Carlson in the long jump (34-4 3/4, sixth), Barbara Simovic in the javelin (109-5, fifth) and Katherine Wymbs in the pole vault (9-0, tied for sixth).
Southern wasn't the only Shore Conference team that had a champion crowned, however, as Toms River North's Maureen Laffan followed up her win in the discus on Friday with a shot put championship on Saturday. The Mariners senior had a throw of 43-5 1/2 to win by almost five feet over Absegami's Dana Keister (38-8 1/2).
"I feel very confident and very good technically right now," Laffan said. "I was aiming to start getting better towards the end of the year and right now that's where I'm at."
Also placing in the top six on the track on Saturday to advance to the Group IV meet was Lacey's Stefani Zabilowicz in the 100 hurdles with a time of 15.48 for third place, Toms River North's Angela Rugino in the 3,200 (11:17.68, fourth) and Toms River North in the 4x400 (4:02.97, sixth).
South Jersey Group IV place-winners from Friday's action included Toms River North's Amber DiGiore in the 400 hurdles (1:05.05, third place) and Rugino in the 1,600 (5:08.49, fifth place), Toms River South's Nakia Leach in the 100 (12.8) and Lacey's Hannah Campbell in the 400 (59.81). On Friday on the field, Toms River North's Erin Schweiger jumped 35-2 in the triple jump to place fourth while teammate Deanna Tiplady took second in the javelin with a throw of 113-11. Toms River South's Christine Gorczyca was sixth in the javelin with a distance of 104-10 and her teammate, Lauren Bednarz, won the pole vault at 10-6 inches. Toms River North's Jessica Cyr was third in the pole vault by clearing a height of 10 feet.
In South Jersey Group I, Point Beach was the only Shore Conference team in the section and had three girls advance in five events. Casey Mulshine took fifth in the 400 hurdles with a time of 1:12.29 and also fifth in the 100 hurdles at 17.64. Alexandra Maas was fifth in the 1,600 with a time of 5:48.75 and second in the 3,200 in 12:20.7 and Kathryn White finished sixth in the 400 in 1:02.47.
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