Mahwah’s Stern, Ramapo’s Katz battle at Varsity Classic by Paul Schwartz of The Record
NEW YORK — When the Armory Track Center reopened in the early 1990s after the renovation that turned the former homeless shelter back into one of the national showpieces for indoor track and field, the Bergen Track Association was looking to run a meet of high caliber late in the season to prepare teams for late-season championship events.
“We didn’t want to go against a weekend invitational that would go on all day, but we wanted a very good chance for teams to compete at a high level,” said Jacob Brown, one of the organizers of the event.
The result was the 168th Street Varsity Classic, shortened to the Varsity Classic, which celebrated its 24th anniversary Monday night.
The meet has remained high-quality and has evolved into a good chance for teams to get in a last preparation for this weekend’s group 2 and 3 sectional meets and for other teams to run fast 4-x-800 and distance medley relays to qualify for Eastern States and Indoor Nationals as well as early chances at qualifying for April’s Penn Relays outdoors.
And Monday night, it provided another opportunity for Lauren Stern of Mahwah and Amanda Katz of Ramapo to continue their friendly athletic rivalry that started more than a decade ago.
“We started competing against each other in gymnastics when we were about 5 or 6 years old,” said Katz, who took third in the triple jump with a jump of 36-5¾ and equaled her seasonal best of 10-6 in the pole vault. “And then when we got to high school, I started to pole vault, she started to hurdle and we both started jumping.”
Stern got the best of Katz in the triple jump Monday, retaking the North Jersey lead and defeating the state leader, with an indoor personal best of 37-5. State leader Dahria Lewis of Columbia was second at 37-0¼, followed by Katz.
“I could tell early on tonight that there was some very good girls here, and when we got to finals, I just did what I could,” said Stern, who also took third in the long jump at 17-3¼ and fifth in the 55 hurdles. “This was almost like a state meet indoors in the triple jump.”
Which was good, since the state meet indoors doesn’t include either the triple or long jumps, forcing Katz and Stern to concentrate on the pole vault and hurdles only at Saturday’s Group 2 sectional.
“That’s OK, because I like the pole vault equally as well as the triple jump,” said Katz. “You have to have confidence in yourself no matter what event you’re in.”
Stern agrees. “I really like to jump, but I really like to hurdle, too, and this way I can bring more energy and focus to the hurdles [on Saturday].”
And the duo can root for each other on Saturday.
“We never root against each other,” said Katz. “We just want to do a little better than the other one when we triple jump against each other.”