Bergen Catholic relay win highlights Day 2 for North Jersey at 2023 Penn Relays
The second day of the 2023 Penn Relays kicked off on Friday, with several North Jersey athletes making news. Here are the biggest storylines of the day.
Bergen Catholic sprint team ignores the weather, produces a huge win
On a day where the weather seemed better suited for a late fall football game than a spring track meet, Bergen Catholic captured its most significant track victory in nearly a decade. But none of the members of the Crusader 4-x-100 relay team that won the Northeast championship title at the Penn Relays Friday cared about the cold and rain after they secured their big victory.
The team of Allan Hilton-Clarke, Kaj Sanders, Andrew Boakye and Logan Casey led from the gun to the finish line at Franklin Field in Philadelphia and easily defeated hometown favorite Roman Catholic in 42.37 seconds. It' theirs best win since the Crusaders' 4-x-800 team took the 2014 State Meet of Champions title.
"When you get into the moment like this you don't hear the crowd, you don't think about the weather, you don't think about the stage, you just get locked in,'' said Casey, the anchor runner who secured the win.
"It was nasty out there and while I was excited before the race, I just took a deep breaths, stayed focus and tried to do my job,'' added Hilton-Clarke. "And we all knew we had to execute better than (Thursday) for us to get the win.''
The Crusaders had qualified for one of four Saturday finals after finishing with the 25th best time of the more than 570 teams in Thursday's preliminaries. But their time (42.86) had been a disappointment, especially since it was more than a second slower than the Crusaders had run in winning its race just five days earlier at the Bergen County Relays.
"We had to fix some things and get better handoffs, and we worked on that in the warm-up areas before the race today,'' said Hilton-Clarke. "And our handoffs were much smoother today.''
Sanders agreed.
"Yesterday we weren't used to the track,'' he said. "It's larger and has longer turns so I was happy we were in lane 7 today instead of being in 9 on the far outside.''
The pass from Sanders to Boakye was so smooth that the sophomore was able to shoot by a pair of runners to his outside, essentially eliminating them from contention, and then his pass to Casey was flawless.
"I never got a better handoff in football or on the track,'' said Casey, a second team all-North Jersey football player. "I finished the race and for a brief moment I was able to look around at take it all in. There were so many things going on, people cheering, my teammates racing to congratulate each other. It felt amazing.''
Penn Relays: Schedule and results for North Jersey competitors
Paramus Catholic Advances to Northeast girls final
Veteran Paramus Catholic coach Bryan Durango has brought several 4-x-100 teams to the big stage at Penn Relays over the past dozen years, including the 2010 team that won the now discontinued large schools race and the quartet that finished fourth in last year's Northeast championship race.
So he knew he had to make a change after last week's upset loss to archrival IHA at the Bergen County Relays.
"I had to put my best runner, (senior Gina Rubio) back on leadoff and move our freshman (Gabrielle Snell) to the third leg so we had the best chance of having the lightning exchanges you need to succeed at Penn,'' said Durango. "Gina has such a good understanding of how to get us started that I knew it was the right move.''
Call it mission accomplished.
Rubio got the Paladins off flying, even though they faced Jamaican powerhouse Holmwood Tech in their preliminary heat. The rest of the PC lineup, senior Brianna DeSanto, Snell and junior anchor Sydney Dungey ran their best race of the season, clocking 48.48, the top time in North Jersey this year and the 19th best time among the 550 schools that competed in the event on Friday.
That qualifies the Paladins for their seventh final since 2009, the Northeast race, which goes off at 4:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon. The Paladins will go in as the third seed behind Union Catholic and Benjamin Cardozo of Queens, both longtime track powers.
"I'm really excited,'' said DeSanto. "The three of us who are back from last year have gotten a lot faster (The Paladins were 4th in last year's Northeast final in 49.30) and our freshman has fit right in.''
Snell was nervous for her first time at a big-time outdoor event, but received great experience being part of the PC team that set a Bergen County indoor 4-x-200 record and competed at Nationals. "Even though it's my first year in high school, I came here expecting to do well. I was nervous but as soon as the race started I focused on my race.''
"We have strong chemistry on this team,'' said Dungey, who ran with both Rubio and Snell in youth track in Hackensack and considers DeSanto her second sister. "We run for Paramus Catholic, we run for our old sprint club and we run for each other. We know we can do it together.''
"Our kids love to run on the big stage,'' said Durango. "It forces you to compete and find out who you are. Now a few tweaks and we're ready to go again.''
Day 1: North Jersey makes plenty of noise at Day 1 of the Penn Relays
Giordano's consistency makes her a major player in the discus
When Layla Giordano decided to do track in high school as a freshman, she figured it to be a side hustle that played third fiddle behind basketball and volleyball the sports she had excelled in for years and expected to continue to excel in.
She continues to excel in both sports, earning second team all-Bergen honors in volleyball and second team all-North Jersey honors in basketball this scholastic year, but she admits track may not be her favorite sport.
"It's really grown on me,'' she says. She's certainly grown on the sport.
Giordano took sixth in the Penn Relays discus Friday with a throw of 145-4, which would have set the Bergen County record if the Old Tappan hadn't already thrown further at three meets this season, including a 149-9 personal best at a dual meet against Demarest earlier in the week. But she wasn't too disappointed to just miss a medal in her first visit to the world famous meet.
"This was really cool being around so many great competitors,'' said Giordano. "I knew some of the other New Jersey girls and knew of some of the other throwers, but it was great to be part of this.''
Giordano threw a personal best of 139-6 to win the state group 3 championship last spring but had only thrown over 125 feet one other time. She came into this season wanting to focus on consistent and repeat her best marks.
"I'm still learning the technique and I'm mastering the little things I need to get better. I'm still waiting for a really big throw,'' she said.
It almost came on her final attempt Friday when she sailed one way over 150 feet but just wide of the legal sector that would have not only earned her a medal but might have gotten her a watch as the top American finisher behind three Jamaican throwers.
Keating is getting closer to another big vault
Emma Keating had competed at Franklin Field before. She finished second last June in the pole vault in the Rising Stars division at the New Balance Nationals held at the site.
"But today had a much different feel,'' said the Pompton Lakes senior after clearing 11-9 to finish sixth in the championship pole vault. "It was so exciting to compete with so many people watching and really paying attention to the event,'' said the reigning indoor and outdoor state champion. "There were so many great athletes there all shooting for the same goal.''
As they usually are in April at Franklin Field, conditions weren't ideal, with the normal strong winds buttressed by cold and occasional rain during the event. But like the other 17 competitors, Keating perservered, making 11-3 and 11-9 on her second attempts and just tipped off the bar at 12-3 1/4 on her final attempt, which would have earned her a medal. But the positive mindset that has made her a champion helped her look at the bright side of even that miss.
"I got on a bigger pole and had a higher grip,'' said Keating. "Those are the kind of things I need to do to jump higher. And there's plenty of season left.''
She's already met the standard for the championship division at Nationals this year, which will be held at Franklin Field on June 16. Maybe it won't rain.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Penn Relays 2023: Bergen Catholic NJ relays wins on Day 2
