New Jersey Report - By Ed Grant

[Nick]

Two national record attempts and the Millrose Games lie ahead for New Jersey athletes this week
as they mark time until the resumption of the state meet, still two weeks hence.

        The Millrose entry is the largest in years with two entries in the boys' mile, one in the girls and
three teams apiece in the Suburban 1600-meter relays.

      Two of the three mile entries were active during the past week, Bryan Scotland of St. Benedict's
doubling the 800 and 1600 at last Sunday's Essex County meet at Seton Hall University and Danielle
Tauro of Southern Ocean Regional taking the 800 at the Ocean County meet at the Jersey City Armory.
Anthony LaMastro, the other boys' entrant, took the weekend off.

 ?      Scotland coasted through the Essex 1600, running hard only on the final lap, but he put a little
more effort into the 800, running 1:57.97 and wound up the day with a 51-second anchor on the Gray
Bees' third-place 1600R team. Tauro had a 2:27.7 800 win on the notoriously slow JC Armory track
which is due to be replaced by a flat Mondo surface in March.

        The state's Millrose relay entry was enhanced when separate races were provided for Long Island
schools. Old Bridge was added to the boys' suburban race along with Seton Hall and Winslow Twp, while
Willingboro joined Franklin and Wilson in the girls' race. Franklin tuned up with a 1:41.2 800R win at
Wednesday's Metro Invitational at the New York Armory center.

      The record attempts will take place on Saturday during the collegiate festival at the NY Armory and
at Monday's Varsity Classic, also at the 168th St. drillshed. On Saturday, Janine Davis of Queen of
Peace will try to add the 1K record to her recently-set 600M mark. On Monday, there will be a special
600M, featuring Shaquan Brown of Paterson Kennedy, Marcel Van Eeden of Mendham and young Lionel
Williams of St. Peter's, Staten Island. (Scotland was invited to this one, but skipped it because he has
the Essex County Relays on Sunday at Seton Hall, the state prep meet Wednesday at Lawrenceville
School and the New Jersey Catholic Track Conference meet Friday at Fairleigh Dickinson's Rothman
Center in Hackensack.)

     Brown and Van Eeden both warmed up for this one with major victories at the NY Armory this past
week. Shaquan breezed through a meet record 1:20.5 at the Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League
meet on Monday (also winning the 300 in 35.9, the HJ at 5-10 and running a 47.3 anchor on a 1600R team).
Van Eeden took the 800 in 1:59.3 at the Metro Invitational and ran second in the 200 in 22.4.

        The Ocean County meet went pretty much as expected with jackson easily defending its girls' title,
while a 1-2-3-4 finish in the 3200 spurred Toms River North to the boys' crown. Jen Clausen of Jackson ran
11:17.9 in the girls' 3200, a race probably worth about 10:50 on the superfast NY Armory track. Defending
state hurdles champ Sonya Sullivan of Manchester Twp took that event in 8.2, a time matched by Trier
Young of Neptune in the Monmouth meet earlier that day. They meet this Sunday in the Shore Conference
meet at Red Bank Regional High School.

     The Monmouth titles went to Christian Brothers for the boys and Ocean Twp for the girls. The Colts
limited their distance stars to one race apiece in a 57-38 defeat of Shore Regional. Young doubled the 55
with the hurdles, running 7.3.

      Seton Hall and Columbia retained their titles at the Essex meet. Despite missing two middle
distance stars, Seton Hall managed to defeat Irvington, 78-68. Football star Jamar Cotton led Irvington
with a sprint double at 6.52 and 22.69 and the Camptowners had a 1-2-3 finish in the hurdles, (Camptown
was the original name of the community; it was changed when the Stephen Foster song shocked the local
burghers and re-named for the great author.)

      Columbia had the girls' meet won before a race was won as it scored 44 points in the morning field
events, led by frosh high jumper Bianca Stewart and junior weight-thrower Iman Johnson. Racquel Vassell
led East Orange to second with a triple at 7.30 in the 55, 26.13 in the 200 and 8.48 in the 55-meter hurdles.

      There were three double winners at the Metreo meet. Group III 55-meter champ Doug Cloninger of
Morristown won that event in 6.3 and the 200 in 22.2 (unfortunately, auto-timing is still a stranger to this
meet, as  well as the Varsity Classic). Anthony Pomo of Saddle Brook took the hurdles in 7.4 and the
LJ at 22-8 1/4.

      In the girls' meet, Jacqui Sendigoski of Mt. Olive won the HJ at 5-2 and ?ook the 55 in 7.3, an event
she has taken up seriously only in recent weeks.