Indoor Track – River Dell girls win third straight sectional title by Paul Schwartz of The Record
TOMS RIVER – The River Dell girls track team has enjoyed enormous success in the past few years, with numerous county, league and state sectional titles and even a state Group 2 indoor title last winter.
But the excitement level was never as high as it was Saturday night after a fourth-place finish in the 4-x-400 relay enabled the Golden Hawks to win their third straight North 1, group 2 sectional title with a thrilling 45-42-42 win over Sparta and Northern Valley/Demarest.
“This was awesome,” said veteran coach Mike Urso, who raced onto the track to congratulate his girls team when the result was official. “You never see me celebrate like that, but this was really something.”
The Golden Hawks didn’t win an event and took seconds in just two events, Kellie O’Donnell in the 3,200 and Miku Okada in the high jump. But the Hawks nickeled-and-dimed their way to points in eight of the 10 events to earn the title.
“None of us is great, but we’re all good and we all pull together,” said senior Melissa Dougherty, whose fourth place in the next-to- last event (along with O’Donnell’s second) enabled the Hawks to pull within a point of Sparta, which had won three events.
The Golden Hawks had a superior relay to Sparta, but with Ramapo (which set the meet record in winning the event), Pascack Hills and Ramsey all in the race, the two points they needed were not a sure thing.
“I haven’t had my best season in the 400 and I was disappointed not to medal tonight,” said senior Kim Lewis, who ran the third leg to assure the Hawks of at least a fourth-place finish. “And even though I’ve been on a lot of great teams, this is the happiest I’ve ever been winning a meet.”
In contrast to River Dell’s girls, Northern Valley/Demarest’s boys won half of the 10 events and breezed to a 67½-48 win over Mahwah, for its first group 2 title. (The Norsemen won the 2013 group 3 sectional.) But even there, senior distance star Blake Tirado had to overcome the disappointment and shock of false starting the 1,600 to win the 3,200 several hours later, capping the title run.
“I went outside and set my alarm for five minutes to think about what had happened and walk around,” said Tirado, who led a 1-2-5 finish in the event. “When the alarm went off, I was over it and I just wanted another chance.”
Before Tirado’s redemption, his teammates had reeled off top performance after top performance. Ty Miller won the 1,600 after Tirado’s false start and Josh Munoz won the 800. Jason Mezhibovsky cleared 14 feet for the first time to win the pole vault and Andrew Peterson finally broke the 8-second barrier in the hurdles, running a North Jersey best 7.91 to trounce a very good field.
“I knew this team could overcome some setbacks,” said head coach Mike Theuerkauf. “This is quite a group.”