2009 Cranford Girls Sections

A powerful performance by sophomore Natalie Englese combined with the inclusion of the pole vault to give the Cranford High School Girls’ Track Team their best performance of the indoor season at the New Jersey State Sectional Group II Meet Saturday February 7 at the Bennett Center in Toms River. Englese took her signature event, the 400 meters, finished second in the 55 meters and anchored the 1600 meter relay team to second place as the Cougars finished third in a very strong section with 48.5 points. Their score placed them ahead of Union County and Mountain Valley champion Johnson as well as Union County rival Rahway, the first time Cranford has finished ahead of either of those teams this winter.

“It feels good to finish ahead of Johnson and Rahway since they had been beating us all season. Of course you get help from the other teams that cancel some points out, but regardless we did it. We finished third overall by 1.63 points and I think that really says something about this team. We are here to compete and work hard and we will only get better as the spring season begins,” said Coach Peter Kane.
It was also the first major meet that the pole vault was included, a good omen towards the outdoor season when that event will be included in meets. Junior Kelly Burke and senior Lilas Humen each jumped 9-6 and finished 2-3 in the pole vault, providing the Cougars with 14 more points. Kane, a pole vault specialist, while pleased with the overall result, realizes that his pole vault duo has merely scratched the surface of what they can accomplish.

“Kelly and Lilas have the challenge of competing in an event that we cannot practice very often indoors. We address pole carries and approaches. We work on takeoff as best we can in the hallways but unless you have the facility to actually vault you are at a disadvantage. Lilas has worked on getting deeper into the pit, which she accomplished this past weekend and we look to work on her jump at the top of her pole and Kelly has a monster take off so she is in very deep on the pit but we have to also address the final phase of the vault where she is inverted and has to turn and push off. The two girls are both very talented and have a good shot of advancing to the Meet of Champs,” said Kane.
Englese continued to build on her outstanding freshman season, where she became the county’s top sprinter. Using her typically strong finish, she won the 400 meters with a personal best time of 58.91 and was edged in the 55 by Emily Vargas of Johnson, running 7.58, also a personal best.

”Natalie had a long weekend with the passing of her grandfather Friday, and instead of letting that hold her back she used it to push herself further. Her 400 time puts her in the mix on contenders with fast people to push her. Her 55m time is a result of her getting quicker out of the start to work on form and technique for high end sprinting,” said Kane.
Englese finished impressively in the 4 by 400 with a 59.3 anchor as she moved the team from fifth to second place in the race with a 4:15.28. The Cougars used two promising freshmen Gillian Burke and Rebecca Shimonov and senior Claire Humen on the first three legs.

Also advancing to the state finals was sophomore Bridget Miller, who ran 11:50.78 to finish fifth in a very tough 3200 meter race that included the state’s top runner, Melanie Thompson of Voorhees.
Junior Jeff Sun had a remarkable all around performance to lead the boys. He finished fourth in the pole vault with a personal best 11-0 jump, while simultaneously competing in the 800 where he was sixth in 2:06.66. While Sun was waiting in line for the start of the 800 the Pole Vault bar went to 11'0 and he had to jump and missed his first attempt. While waiting for the 800 to start, he ran back and made his second attempt. Junior Roy Colicchio also qualified with a fifth place finish in the 3200 with a 10:28.11.

Sophomore Chinonye Uka was Brearley’s only qualifier. She finished second in the 55 meter hurdles and fourth in the 55 meters in the Central Jersey Group I meet.