Union Catholic Sweeps Union County Relay Titles, Smashes 2 Records
Written by: Jim Lambert
Union Catholic’s track and field teams swept the team titles and smashed a pair of records at the 79th Union County Relays, which concluded on Friday at Gary Kehler Stadium.
The UC girls continued their reign of supremacy by extending their winning streak to 8 in a row, and the UC boys overcame a DQ and received a clutch runner-up finish in the pole vault to edge Westfield by six points for their second consecutive title and fifth in the past six years.
The UC girls blew open what was a close meet after Thursday’s first-day of competition by winning four events on Friday, including a meet and county record performance in the 4×1600, to pull away for 112-74 victory over runner-up Scotch Plains-Fanwood.
UC loaded up the 4×1600 to race the clock and see how fast they could go.
The result was a 20:48.04, which is not only a meet record, it’s also a Union County record and is No. 9 in state history. UC sliced nearly a minute off the meet record of 21:47.59 set by UC in 2015 and crushed the Union County record of 21:21.15 set by Summit at the 2012 East Coast Relays. It’s also the fastest time by NJ team since Mendham ran 20:47.64 at the Morris County Relays in 2013
UC’s splits were 5:19.33 for freshman Ella Solorzano, 5:05.36 for junior Peyton Hollis, 5:12.77 for junior Courtney Kaiser, and 5:10.56 for Kaleigh Gunsiorowski.
The Vikings also reset its NJ No. 1 time in the shuttle hurdles by burning a 60.53, which is No. 2 in meet history behind the 59.46 that UC ran in 2017. Taylor Cox (13.9), Vonya Gould (15.3), Ebony Turner (15.8), and Alexandra Bonn (14.9) combined on the win.
UC’s other two wins on Friday came in the 4×200 as Taylor Aska, Taylor Cox, Leah Gould, and Natalia Thompson ran 1:41.03, tied for No. 7 in meet history, and in the triple jump where Bonn (36-10), Gould (32-2.50), and McKenzie Johnson (34-4.75) combined for a 103-5.75.
On Thursday, the UC girls won the DMR in 12:21.49, the 4×100 in 47.80, the SMR in 4:08.22, and the long jump.
Emmy O’Hearn (3:50.5), Jimmiea King (57.7), Victoria Urbaez (2:23.7) and Peyton Hollis (5:09.5) shared the baton in the DMR for UC. In the SMR, Maameyaa Nyinah burned a 56.1 400 and Kaleigh Gunsiorowski ran a very relaxed 2:16.2.
Alexandra Bonn (17-7), Vonya Gould (17-2), and Natalia Thompson (16-8) combined to win the LJ with a school record total of 51-5. Thompson also anchored the winning 4×100.
THREE-TEAM BATTLE FOR BOYS TITLE
The boys team competition was a good three-way battle between Union Catholic, Westfield, and Elizabeth.
With two events left, Westfield pulled within four points of UC after taking the meet record in the 4×1,600 when junior Eamon Mason (4:32.94), junior Alexander Valencia (4:29.31), senior Jack McCormack (4:33.01), and junior Avery Keith (4:21.61) combined to run 17:57.87. The former record of 17:58.51 was set by Westfield last year.
But UC picked up a key second-place finish in the pole vault when Matt Schutz equaled his PR of 13-0 and Aidan Reidy cleared 11-0 for a total of 24-0. That gave the Vikings an 88-79 over Elizabeth with Westfield third with 78 heading into the 4×400. Schutz also ran the 400 leg on the DMR on Thursday that ran a meet record and NJ No. 1 time of 10:12.71.
Union Catholic then finished fourth in the 4×400 to clinch the title, 92-86 over Westfield. Elizabeth was third with 85
UC, which overcame a DQ in the shuttle hurdles, picked up a three big wins on Friday to help the Vikings earn the championship.
In the 4×800, Leo Wisnefski (2:00.32), Jimmy Wischusen (1:54.86), Sean Wilson (1:57.83) and Ryan Cichocki (1:59.81) finished first with a NJ No. 3 time of 7:52.83, which is No. 4 in meet history. Wisnefski, Cichocki, and Wischusen also ran on the DMR on Thursday that ran a meet record and NJ No. 1 10:12.71.
UC also won the triple jump as sophomore star Noah Cooper (a PR of 43-1), senior Raheem Williams (42-2.50), and junior Max Gagneron (40-4) went 125-7.50.
The UC sprint squad made its presence felt with a victory in the 4×200 in 1:28.11, edging Linden (1:28.45). UC’s lineup consisted of Javon McKay, Avery Atexide, Al-Qamar Rojas, and Emerson McKindra.
In the eagerly anticipated DMR on Thursday, Union Catholic, coming off a subpar ninth place finish in the DMR at the Penn Relays last Friday, got the redemption it was seeking by slicing 10 seconds off its time from last week with the greatest DMR performance in meet history, stopping the clock at 10:12.71. That’s the No. 1 time in NJ this season, US No. 10, and it obliterated the previous meet record of 10:18.21 that UC ran last year.
The splits for UC were 3:07.9 for Cichocki, 51.2 for Schutz, 1:59.2 for Wisnefski, and 4:13.5 for Wischusen, who rallied from third-place to secure the win. Those were big PR’s for Cichocki, Schutz, and Wisnefski!.
Also on Thursday, Union Catholic picked up a win in the 400 hurdles as Marcus McCoy (a meet-best 56.10), Emerson McKindra (58.02), and Al-Qamar Rojas (58.52) teamed up for the Vikings, and placed second with a NJ No. 3 time of 3:33.18..Atexide split 48.2 and Wilson anchored in 1:58.1.
