South Brunswick Girls Track Hopes to Stay on Right Path

The members of the girls track team are hoping to continue where they left off last year. Hey, that plan has worked before so why not try it again?

"The girls team had a great season last spring," South Brunswick Coach Stefan Moorhead said. "We won our sixth straight (Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament) and GMC Relays titles, both by large margins. We also won our third straight Central Jersey Group IV title. We have the same goals this year that we have had each year during our streak, which are to defend all three of those titles, while also being competitive at the state level."

Of course, there is one major obstacle standing in South Brunswick's
way. 

"We graduated some very talented athletes the past two years, but
I'm confident that we can maintain our success based on the performances we had this winter, when we won both GMC titles as well as the Central Jersey title." Moorhead said.

It's always nice to have athletes who have been to big meets before and
have had success. South Brunswick is very fortunate in this regard.
 
"We have a strong senior class, as well as some quickly improving
underclassmen, particularly in our freshman class," Moorhead said.
"We tend to be stronger during the spring season, when we get to compete
in more field events, where we are traditionally very strong.

"Our top senior athletes, who should lead the way, include Lindsay
Carbone (jumps), Alicia Osley (sprints) and Cayla Del Piano (distance). Each of them has won multiple GMC and Sectional titles in winter and spring track, and they should all have great senior seasons."

The other seniors on the team are seniors are Savanna Barton, Monet Hall, Kristen Huang, Melanie Huen, Emily Lane, Nicolette Mateescu, Alyssa McFarlane, Harshini Sahani and Kristin Tran.
 
According to Moorhead, the "top underclassmen include Danielle Padovano (throws), Julia Lekht (jumps, hurdles) and Aspen McMillan (sprints, hurdles). We have many other talented underclassmen who we expect to step up and contribute this season."

The juniors on the team are Archana Boyle, Lindsay Del Piano, Alexis
Delfia, Sanika Dighe, Neha Gehlot, Emily Giarratano, Manasa Gowda, Kelly Rose Harkness, Nateya Harris, Taiyana Madden, Gina Martinez, Victoria Monteiro, Danielle Padovano, Gopi Patel, Khyati Prasad, Karen Reyes, Arshi Shukla, Charlotte Thomas, Carly Trill, Rayal Vaghani and Stephanie Zheng.
 
The sophomores on the team are Dhanashree Bahulekar, Palak Bajaj, Lisa
Botros, Abha Chaudhary, Noelle Cordova, Zahra Dhanerawala, Monica Feldman, Mandy Fleischman, Lauren Giannetto, Jodi Hansen, Courtney Hess, Luisa Hill, Jessica Himmel, Zainab Jamali, Elizabeth Jasabe, Naeemah Jones, Sanam Kakkad, Georgina Keller, Rebecca Kilcoyne, Julia Lekht, Ashna Manhas, Isha Markale, Khadija McDonald, Milauni Mehta, Lakshimi Modugu, Akhila Narayan, Danielle Oakes, Nina Paranjpe, Prachi Patel, Rutvi Patel, Kristina Poon, Shifali Reddy, Shruthi Shankar, Miriam Shao, Thamara Thayalan, Patricia Tuquero, Rachel VanDemark, Nitika Yadlapalli, Merna Zekery, Christina Zhang and Melissa Zwiren. 

The freshmen are Nicole Cavett, Gowri Cheepurupalli, Brianna Del Piano,
Aliya Forcer, Danielle Hecht, Courtney Hendrickson, Casey Irizarry, Emily
Kaiser, Rosie Kojiem, Kristen Krier, Zenzali Lael, Rochelle McDonald, Elisa
McMillan, Elisa Meranchik, Amarqi Owens, Ruchi Patel, Jada-Rae Poku, Denise Porter, Layal Ragi, Rachel Rebello, Milana Richardson, Greta Rusbarsky, Nicole Sendner and Zyjira Thomas.

"One of the hallmarks of our team is depth, and with 99 athletes on the
team, we expect to be able to cover each event with multiple strong
performers," Moorhead said.

South Brunswick is scheduled to open the season on Apr. 3 when it hosts Piscataway and JP Stevens in a tri-meet. South Brunswick will get a chance to defend its GMC title on May 12. The CJ Group IV meet will be held June 1-2.