South Brunswick Girls Track Wins Sixth GMC Title in a Row

Get off the track. The South Brunswick High School girls track team is coming through and they have too much momentum to stop.

South Brunswick won the Greater Middlesex Conference Championship on May 14. It was the sixth straight GMC title for the South Brunswick girls team, which scored 137.5 points. South Brunswick won six of the events and placed girls in 14 of the 16 events competed.

"I thought the meet went about as well as I could have hoped," South Brunswick Coach Stefan Moorhead said. "We scored a lot of points and had contributions from many people on the track and in the field."

Janae Baker, Joy Spriggs, Alicia Osley and Cayla Del Piano won the 4x400 in a time of 3:56. This was part of a fantastic day for Del Piano, who won the 1600 (5:12.97) and 800 (2:13.85).

"Cayla was our individual standout," Moorhead said. "Her 800 was a jaw-dropping performance. She ran even with the field through the first 500 meters and then found another gear I hadn't seen her reach before. She absolutely blew away the rest of a strong field, and it was quite a sight. It was a personal best for her by over three seconds. She broke the previous meet record by 1.5 seconds, and our old school record by almost a second."

South Brunswick also had a very strong showing in the jumping events. Mariah Brown won the long jump (17' 10 1/2"). Julia Lekht added a fifth in the long jump (15' 10 1/2") and also was third in the triple jump (34' 10 1/2").

"I was very happy for Mariah Browne," Moorhead said. "She had sprained her ankle badly at Penn Relays only two weeks before, but she was very determined to get back for this meet, so she rehabbed diligently with that goal in mind. Despite a little soreness and some rustiness, she won her fourth straight title in that event, which is unprecedented in GMC history. We held her out of the triple jump as a pre-caution, but we are hoping she is back at full strength by sectionals in two weeks."

Lindsay Carbone cleared 9 feet and won the pole vault.

Brooke Sassman cleared five feet to place second in the high jump.

The strongest overall event for South Brunswick was the discus. Amber Brown won with a distance of 120' 3. Chloe Hall was second (112' 9') and Danielle Padovano was fourth (109' 8"). Padovano (third at 35' 7 3/4") and Brown (fourth at 34' 11') also placed in the shot put.

In the javelin, Kiya Strickland was second (105' 4"), Alyssa McFarlane third (103' 3") and Hall fourth (103' 1").

"As an event group, our throwers had a great day," Moorhead said. "They combined to score 50 of our points, which is a great total considering that 61 points was second place in the overall team standings. They are a hard-working, competitive group, and it was nice to see them shine."

In the sprints, Rachel Johnson was fifth in the 100 (13.1). Johnson was also second in the high hurdles (15.9). Baker was sixth in the 200 (26.13).

In the 400, Osley was second (58.16) and Baker fifth (59.48).

"We definitely performed at a championship level and I was proud of how we competed," Moorhead said. "We also had athletes from each grade score points. I was happy to see so many people getting season bests, even those who didn't score points."