It was blowout win for Verona High School boys track at the Super Essex Conference Championships yesterday–and a come-from-behind victory for VHS girls track, too.
The boys finished the meet with 162 points, almost double that of the second-place team. Isaac Skrivanic is the SEC Colonial Division champion in both shot put and javelin, and Skrivanic also placed and medaled in discus. Mike Maglione captured first in both the 1600 meter and 3200m races, while Vincent Hogan is the 400m hurdle champion and Owen Fogarty got the big win in pole vault, clearing 13 feet.
But the winning didn’t stop there. PJ Jordan took second in javelin, and Nick Giuliano won second in high jump and fourth in the 110 hurdles. David Navarro and Amon Rosenzweig doubled as well, with Navarro taking second in the 1600m and fourth in the 800m and Rosenzweig finishing second in the 400m and sixth in the 800m.
Chris Robinson took third in both the 400 hurdles and the 800m, and also lead the 4×400 team (Robinson, Navarro, Rosenzweig and Vincent Hogan) to a third-place finish. Griffin Jordan placed third in both javelin and discus, and threw a personal best in shot put. Cole Martin got third place in pole vault, and Sean Carney finished third in both the 1600m and the 3200m.
Rounding out the win for the Verona boys was Harry Mastrogiannis with a fourth place finish in the 3200m, Dwayne Lawson with a fifth place in shot put, and Joey Visone with sixth place in both high jump and long jump.
“Each and every boy that competed came to win this championship meet, they left nothing behind and gave everything they had!” cheered Coach Laura Palmerezzi by email. “This win was pure TEAMWORK! Throwers, jumpers, and runners all came together to get this win and become the SEC Colonial Division Champions! There were many personal bests too! We took home 30 medals in the process! I am such a proud coach right now!”
As the meet neared its end, it didn’t seem that VHS would go home double champions. The girls track & field team was in second place to Caldwell, 95.5-84, in a field of nine teams with only the discus and long jump remaining. Then the Verona girls in discus gathered 16 total points, with freshman Aimee Griffin getting second (84’), followed by Gillian O’Donnell (79’6”) and Gigi Petti (77’11”) in fourth and fifth place respectively. Chelsea Gruskin ended the night at Newark Schools Stadium by winning long jump with an incredible jump of 17’ 2 1/2” to secure the third consecutive SEC track & field championship for Verona’s girls.
In the running events, Lauren Kobernick took first place in the 400m hurdles with a time of 1:09.38, while Gruskin earned fifth place with a time of 1:13.71. Cayla Okafor was third in the 100m at 13.38 and Bridget O’Donnell finished third in the 1600m with a 5:41.81 time. In the 400m, Kate Ashley was the champion with a time of 59.09 and Alex DeVivo was sixth in 63.56. Brianna Rigney took fourth in the 800m in 2:34.07 and O’Donnell was third in the 3200m in 12:35.53. The 4 x 400m relay team of DeVivo, Kobernick, Rigney and Ashley finished second with a time of 4:17.19.
In the other field events, Verona swept the pole vault. Erin Petrino won first with a height of 9’7”, Lily Benanchietti was second with 8’6” and Rebecca Katsios was third at 7’6”. Gillian O’Donnell took first in javelin with a throw of 104’2”.
Francesca Valle and Faith Fauerbach competed in the 100m, and Fauerbach also competed in long jump. Okafor competed in the 200m, Kobernick was in the 400m field and Olivia Vogel went out for the 800m. Julia DiGeronimo competed in both the 1600m and 3200m, DeVivo was in the 400m hurdles field, and Rigney and Natalie Romanyshyn competed in javelin. Jenna DaRin, Selena Caraballo and Abby Cleary were in the shot put competition, and Amanda Caldera and Hannah Maida were there for high jump.
