Fresh off their excellent performance at the Union County Championships, the winter track team looked to build off their success against some of the best prep schools in the state on Saturday. The team competed in the Prep A division and faced a tough test from teams like St. Benedicts, Lawrenceville, and Seton Hall Prep among a host of other excellent talent. But collectively the day would prove to be quite a success for the team, with PR’s across the board in nearly every event they participated in.

Their day began with the 55 meter dash where the trio of Kyle Fudenna, Warren Lee and Sadik Charles would each set personal bests in the event with times of 7.80, 7.72, and 7.55 respectively. Charles would come just short of the finals with his 16th overall finish in the prelims while Lee, in spite of his unorthodox standing start for the short distance, placed 19th overall as Fudenna was close behind in 20th. The deep sprinting core would not become content with their exceptional performances though and continued their streak of success in both the 200 and 400 meter dash. In the 400, Lee would return, this time with eyes on finally achieving the elusive sub 60 mark for the two lap race. Hot on his trail was emerging sophomore Nick Browne who had narrowly eked out a victory over Lee in their last contest together at the county championships. The result of this race would prove no different however, as Browne in a mad dash to the finish squeaked by Lee to finish 2nd overall in the race. But both runners would come out of the race with huge personal bests. Browne, running 58.93 and Lee stopping the clock at 59.29 as both would dip below 60 seconds for the first time in their track careers.

Lee and Browne would next compete in the 200 meter dash along with Sadik Charles.  Browne would continue his successful day by running yet another PR of 26.28 seconds, good for 16th overall. Just off him was Sadik who ran 26.71 and Lee who finished in 27.47 seconds. The sprinting team finished the day by running in the 4×400 relay race where they placed 6th and were boosted by performances from freshmen Matt Pavlik and Thomas Snyder who ran PR’s on their legs to help the team’s overall effort. The distance crew on the other hand kicked their day off with the 1600 meter run where senior Max Hubbauer and juniors Brendan Mooney and Chris Kelly had a tremendous showing. Hubbauer ran a PR of 4:47 to place 8th overall while Mooney also set a PR with a 5:13 mile and Kelly, battling illness, managed to run 5:40. The next event for the distance team was the 800 meter run where freshman Jake Noss had a great race with a time of 2:30, just short of his PR. Noss would later set a PR in the 3200 meter run along with Mooney who went on to run 11:12, a huge PR for the sophomore. The throwers also had an impressive effort in the shot put as junior John Batista was stellar, heaving the shot a whopping 41 feet and 6 inches to place 8th overall. Other notable performances were turned in by Brendan Murphy with a throw of 37 feet and 11 inches and Alex Pompetzki who threw 33 feet and 10 inches.

Overall, the team had a superb day with multiple personal bests in various distances and events and will look to continue this success at the state Non-Public B championships in Toms River this Saturday.