Kricheff and Hrbek qualify for Millrose pole vault by Paul Schwartz of The Record
Teammates Seth Kricheff and Tyler Hrbek, who have dominated the North Jersey pole vaulting landscape all season, will put their talents on display in a special Millrose Games vault scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 1 at the Armory Track Center.
The Northern Valley/Old Tappan duo both cleared personal bests of 14-8 at the January 10 Millrose Games Trials to finish 1-2 in the qualifying meet at the Armory Track Center, and Kricheff, who made the height on the second attempt to Hrbek’s third, was awarded the victory. Hrbek and Kricheff now share 7th on the all-time Bergen County indoor list and share the top spot among New Jersey vaulters this season.
Pascack Hills standout Liam Landau continued his breakthrough season, clearing 13-8 for 4th place, while a third NV/Old Tappan was 6th at 13-2. Braedon Fiume of Bergen Catholic improved his personal best to 4:26.97 in the invitational mile, finishing 20th.
Ridgewood Winter Games
One of the oldest indoor meets was also held on January 10 and the annual Ridgewood Winter Games at Rockland CC Fieldhouse in Suffern, N.Y. provided some very good performances on the less than speedy facility.
Maris Rodriguez of Holy Angels doubled in the 55 meters and the rarely run 300 yards, with the sophomore’s 38.3 clocking in the latter event the fastest run by a Bergen runner since 1997 and a time surpassed by only nine runners in county history. Lily Flood of Ramsey doubled the 1,600 and 3,200 meter runs on the unusually sized track, which is approximately 250 meters in circumference.
Passaic’s Luis Peralta warmed up for the Big North meet Monday by winning the 300 and 600 yard races in 32.5 seconds and 1:13.5, respectively. But even though the latter race is rarely run since the institution of 200 meter tracks in the early 1990s, Peralta’s clocking was remarkable, as only two North Jersey runners have run that time or faster – Bob Arvidson of Don Bosco (1:13.4) in 1985 and Joe Hurley of Don Bosco (1:13.5) 10 years before that.
River Dell’s Asim Greene became the third North Jersey thrower this winter to throw over 52 feet, winning the boys shot with a personal best toss of 55-5, third best in school history and 30th all-time in Bergen County to grab the seasonal lead from Glen Rock’s Kyle Patel, who had thrown 53-11 ¾ two days earlier. Hackensack’s Jack Stuart threw 52-8 a week earlier.
FDU Field Festival 1
January 10 was a very busy day as the first of four weekly field event meets was held at Rothman Center. North Jersey athletes won six of the eight events, including all four girls events.
Clifton senior Alenys Morales extended her own school record in the long jump by nearly a foot and leaped 17 feet 11 inches, third best in Passaic County history.
NV/Demarest sophomore Jada Sewell had a personal best of more than four feet indoors as she won the shot with a North Jersey leading 37-11 ¼. Teammate Cat Light was second, also with a personal best of 36-9 ¾.
Kalleen Rose Ozanic of West Milford won the high jump on misses at 4-10 and Sydney Shannon of Passaic Tech won the pole vault at 10-0.
Jadon Watson of Kennedy stayed unbeaten this winter by clearing 6-4 in the high jump and Adam Stavash of Hasbrouck Heights won the pole vault at 11-0. Manny Montoya didn’t win the long jump, but his third place finish of 21-5 ¾ was a personal best and second best in North Jersey this year.
High intensity long/triple jump
On January 9, Damon Washington of Don Bosco won the boys long jump at the first High Intensity Jumps meet in Fairfield. Washington jumped 19-10 ¼. Imani Durham of Passaic Tech was second in the girls triple jump with a personal best of 34-4.