Going into the 1,600-meter relay, the final event of the weekend, the girls Group 4 standings showed Hillsborough on top with 46 points, Washington Township with 43 and Eastern and Pennsauken with 40 each.
Washington Township didn’t have a 4-by-4 team entered and Pennsauken had a very good team lined up but Sianni Wynn was out of events after she won the 100, 200 and 400 and anchored the winning 400-meter relay.
Realistically, the meet was going to come down to Hillsborough and Eastern.
Eastern had to score at least seven more points than Hillsborough to win the meet outright or six more points to tie and win a share of its first state title in 21 years.
It’s amazing that after 17 events and two days how many track meets come down to the 4-by-4.
Eastern went into the 4-by-4 as the No. 1 seed based on its 3:53.42 at sectionals and Hillsborough was the 8th seed at 4:01.39 but clearly capable of going faster.
Union had won the 2nd of three sections of the Group 4 1,600 in 4:00.69 and West Orange had run 4:00.88 in that race, so that was also something to keep in mind. Those times could potentially benefit Eastern if Hillsborough ran slower than 4:00.69.
Eastern had to stay in front of Hillsborough – and several places in front of Hillsborough – but you also can’t race worried about another team.
Eastern leadoff Lomaria Tengbeh got the Vikings started off with a nice 60.58 split and Eva Sprewell followed with a 60.94, but at the second handoff Eastern was sitting in 4th and Hillsborough 6th.
But Eastern has two hammers at the end of its 4-by-4.
Junior Samantha Osei-Kyei, who PR’d with a 2:15.70 for 5th in a hot 800 meters on Friday, moved Eastern from 4th to 2nd behind only host Franklin Township with a 57.27 split while Hillsborough came through three legs in 6th, some 4 ½ seconds back.
Hillsborough has a very good anchor in senior Sabrina Sardar, who had just run 56.77 in the open 400. And she anchored Hillsborough with a 57.09, moving her team up from 8th into 4th.
But Eastern has sophomore Natalie Dumas, who had just PR’d with a 54.74 in the open 400, placing 2nd to Wynn. And she wasn’t going to let anybody get in front of her. Her 54.55 split brought Eastern across the line 1st in 3:53.32, and when Franklin finished 2nd in 3:55.53 and Piscataway 3rd in 3:58.05, Eastern had clinched at least a share of the state Group 4 championship.
Sardar split 57.13 and Hillsborough finished 4th, less than half a second off Union’s winning time in the previous section.
So Eastern got 10 points for a final total of 50 and Hillsborough got four points for a final total of 50, and for the first time in 24 years the girls Group 4 meet finished in a tie. Washington Township and Pennsauken wound up 3rd and 4th.
The last tie in Group 4 came in 2000, when Washington Township and Trenton both scored 33 points at Egg Harbor Township. The last tie in any group was in 2015, when Winslow and Northern Highlands both scored 62 points at South Plainfield.
Co-champs are still champs, and Eastern’s clutch relay running had clinched a share of the 3rd state title in school history. Eastern also won Group 4 in 2002 with Jenelle Wilson winning the 400 and Caitlin Cielo the javelin and and in 2003 with Jennifer Jackson winning the 100 and 200.
Also for Eastern, Dumas won the 400-meter hurdles in 1:01.83, senior Zoe Goldberg won the javelin at 140-9 with senior teammate Aniyah Smith 5th with a 119-3 throw,
Eastern also placed 2nd in the 4-by-8 (behind Hillsborough), with freshman Theresa Albertson, Osei-Kyei, junior Emi Loverdi and Dumas running a school-record 9:31.32 on Dumas’s blazing 2:11.27 anchor. Previous school record was 9:37.81 at the 1998 East Coast Relays at Morristown.
Washington Township was led by senior Dahlia Beasley, who won the high jump at 5-6 on a tiebreaker over Williamstown junior Addison Inge, placed 2nd in the long jump at 18-10 and ran 3rd in the 200 in 25.08 for 24 total points. Soph Cali Lacovara placed 2nd in the pole vault at 10-6 and junior Dakota Jones ran 14.84 for 3rd in the 100-meter hurdles.
We wrote about Wynn, but her ridiculous quad win was 11.52, 23.79, 53.45 and an anchor on Pennsauken’s 47.72 relay win. Yikes.
Other Group 4 highlights: Cherokee’s 4-x-1 with sophomore Rylan Cieslik, senior Madison Van Haren, junior Veronica Ashcraft and junior Morgan Shank placed 2nd to Pennsauken in 48.38, and Rancocas Valley senior Lauren Fadairo popped a big 38-7 ¾ triple jump for 2nd place.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 