For many on the Boy’s and Girl’s Track teams the end of the season comes as a relief, and for many seniors, a sad good bye. Junior male Spencer Scott described the season as going, “… by too fast. I’m really going to miss our seniors but we all did great and had a great finish.” Overall the boys team finished their duel meet season, that is when they go head to head against another team in their conference, with a record of 2-3. The meet scores for the boys are as follows: Fairlawn 73.6 West Milford 66.3, Wayne Valley 89 West Milford 51, Lakeland 68 West Milford 71, Wayne Hills 85 West Milford 55 and finally, a big win for the Highlanders, Passaic Valley 26 West Milford 114. Senior male Orion Aurand stated after the season, “I met my season goal and enjoyed every moment being on the track team.” Similar feelings were felt across the boys team with junior Kyle Liebau explaining, “We had a really great season overall especially our seniors, they had a good year and I’m proud of them, and they are all great athletes. We have a good team and we will come back even stronger next year.” Although the season is over, senior captain Zack Tynan stated, “Spending this spring season running track with all of my teammates was the best way to bring my high school year to a close.” After duel meet season, juniors St. Jacob Diodonet and Kevin Kane were tied for first place with the most points on the boys team. The top five are, Diodonet, Kane, James Hoffman (senior captain), Myshkoff, Matthew Johnson, and Justin Lombardo (senior captain). Junior Nick Rosone said the team was, “…lead by a group of great captains and coaches that pushed us hard everyday at practice or at a meet…”. Obviously that hard work paid off for many of the athletes. In our conference, Diodonet and Kane made first team, Myshkoff, Hoffman and Johnson made second team and Philip Federico made honorable mention. In our county Diodonet made first team, Myshkoff, Kane, and our 4×400 team consisting of Federico, Myshkoff, Diodonet, and Scott made second team and Aurand and Tynan made honorable mention. Freshman Robert Shaeffer described the season by saying, “[It] was a great learning experience for me and I can’t wait until next season.” In the end Diodonet made it the furthest on the team claiming the wild card spot for the 400 meter and making it to the Meet of Champions for the state of New Jersey. After hearing the news Myshkoff stated, “It isn’t often a runner makes it to the Meet of Champions, so when you do it’s something to be very proud of!” Lombardo says, “I am very happy how the season went. I honestly cannot believe my fours years of high school track are over and I cannot explain how much I will miss it.” Scott also begged to be quoted stating, “Lombardo hurdled those hurdles like a graceful deer in a beautiful pasture.”
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From that day on, if I was going somewhere, I was running!
June 9, 2014
After that lovely statement we now move onto the girls season, who was run (haha pun intended) by first time Head Coach Mike Rose. Senior captian Megan Chirichella states that, “In my four years of track we have had three different head coaches and while it can be challenging to adapt to a new coaching style, the team adjusted quickly.” After a rough season the girls finished with a 0-5 record in their conference. Senior captain Christal Torres states, “I’m really going to miss hanging out with the most determined girls in the entire school. From long distance girls to throwers, every girl inspired me to work my hardest every day.” Despite the hard competition, practices and team injuries captain Chelsea Gruber was able to stay positive and stated, “We worked really hard this year and it was incredibly fun! I’m definitely going to miss high school track and field.” The final meet scores for the girls against all five teams in their conference are as follows: Fairlawn 90 West Milford 46, Wayne Hills 117 West Milford 22, Wayne Valley 102, West Milford 29, Lakeland 88 West Milford 47 and their closest meet of the year came right at the end with the score being Passiac Valley 70 West Milford 69. For many athletes like senior Katie Kreutz, the season comes as a bittersweet end. “I can’t believe that my final track season is over! I had a lot of fun running this season but I’m definitely going to miss track in the future.” Even after a winless regular season many girls did go on to make names for themselves. On the conference level junior Haley Steele made first team, Samantha Fleming (captain), Michaela McLeod, and Madeline Pluta made second team and Nicole Epstein made honorable mention. In the county Steele made first team, Fleming made second team, and Pluta and Epstein both made honorable mention. Haley Steele was also the only girl on the team to make it to the Meet of Champions. In the end senior captain Rachael Janz states, “It was a learning experience for everyone but we made it through and I know everyone on the team reached or came close to their PRs (personal records) and I’m so proud of them! This was an amazing last track season and I couldn’t have spent it with a greater group of girls.”
So after it all, running across the entire state of New Jersey and coast to coast, even through piles of dog crap saying, “It happens”, we had run 90 days 15 hours and 8 minutes the teams agrees to say, we’re pretty tired…. we think we’ll go home now… (in their best Forrest Gump voices of course).
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