North Jersey Male Athlete of the Week jumps his way to the top
Often, Bergen County track and field athletes who win multiple medals in the county group meet will narrow their focus for the following week’s Bergen Meet of Champions. Most will concentrate on their one or two best events.
Or, if you’re Liam Paneque, you’ll go out and win three gold medals, with two of your events taking place simultaneously.
The Demarest junior had to run back and forth between the high jump bar and long jump pit at Hackensack’s Della Torre Stadium in order to compete in both. To save time, he kept on the shoes he uses for long and triple jumping, rather than changing into shoes made specially for high jumping.
“High jump shoes have heel spikes,” Demarest coach Mike Theuerkauf pointed out. “Those shoes have a significant advantage for a high jumper to properly plant his takeoff leg.”
“More so than just the shoes themselves, it’s more about what I’m used to,” Paneque said. “I’m more comfortable in high-jump spikes when I go in, and I feel more confident in myself planting.”
So, he only cleared his height (6-foot-3) rather than reaching a career best, which is three inches higher. His long jump was also “around a foot behind” his personal record.
When he didn’t have to worry about concurrent events and could focus on just one? He set a PR in the triple jump by three inches.
“It’s hard to compete in all three at the same time,” Paneque said. “And that’s something I’ve struggled with in the past, having to run from event to event throughout the night and making sure my body is still in shape… that I’m not hurt, or I’m just not ‘out of it’ when I’m jumping.
“I’m just happy that I was able to pull it off.”
The athletes who typically pull off doubles at the Bergen Meet of Champs are sprinters, who have time to rest between the 100- and 200-meter dashes. Throwers also have been known to double up, including Female Athlete of the Week Layla Giordano of Old Tappan.
Paneque placed fourth in the long jump at the 2022 BMOC as a freshman. Last year, he qualified in the long and triple jumps, earning gold and silver, respectively.
To attempt all three jumps is one thing. But to beat everybody at each of them.
“Liam won all three of his events in a fashion no other county champion had to face,” Theuerkauf said. “Has any athlete won three jumps at the BMOC before?”
Theuerkauf has coached at Demarest since 1997, so for no other name to jump immediately to his mind, that means Paneque possibly could be the charter member of the club.
Earlier this season – and when he garnered AOW in the winter – the Haworth resident competed in the shuttle hurdles. Earlier in his career, he also tried javelin, which was the specialty of his older sister Alysta (Demarest Class of 2019).
“When I was little, my sister said I’d be good at track, and so did my parents,” Liam said. “Then my mom signed me up for winter track. And I went out and had a pretty successful freshman winter season, so I decided to stick with it.”
Liam Paneque
Sport: Track and field
School: Demarest
Class: Junior. Age: 17
Accomplishment: Paneque won the triple jump (47 feet, 2 inches), long jump (22-11¾) and high jump (6-3) at the Bergen Meet of Champions, competing in the latter two events concurrently.
Also nominated: Alex D'Angelo of Ridgewood, Josef Kim of Leonia, and Troy Spinosa of Elmwood Park for baseball; Mike Napolitano of Hasbrouck Heights and Jaden Marchan of Leonia for track and field; Dean Wilke of Wayne Hills for lacrosse; and Noel Chavez of Bergenfield for volleyball.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Bergen Record Male Athlete of the Week: Liam Paneque, Demarest
