This was fun last year, so we’re going to do it again! Over the next few weeks, we’ll spotlight 30 athletes who excelled during the outdoor track season that we didn’t have a chance to write about extensively. We’d love to write about every athlete in South Jersey, but that’s not practical. But we will try to spotlight some who may have gotten overlooked over the past few months. We apologize in advance if we don’t get to you or your son or daughter or an athlete you coach.
Today: Gianna Shea, Mainland, Nina Fisicaro, Haddonfield
Shea and Haddonfield were tied for the No. 2 spot among New Jersey sophomore pole vaulters, each with a 10-0 clearance.
Shea had a PR of just 7-0 last year but cleared 10-0 three times indoors, including a 2nd-place at the South Jersey Group 3 Championships at the Bubble in February behind Toms River South senior Kendall Howe on fewer misses.
This spring, Shea cleared 10-0 when she repeated her 2nd-place finish at sectionals, this time behind Moorestown’s Hannah Byrd-Leitner (Moorestown is in Central Jersey indoors). Shea, the Atlantic County and Cape-Atlantic League champion, placed 11th at Group 3 states. Her 10-0 is best ever by an Atlantic County sophomore.
Fisicaro is also a sophomore but a 1st-year vaulter. She placed 2nd at South Jersey Group 2 sectionals, behind senior teammate Rebecca Hoover, and 3rd at states, behind Hoover and Ramsey senior Adrianna Graziano.
She PR’d with a 10-0 clearance at the Meet of Champions at Pennsauken, where she was the No. 2 sophomore, behind only Old Tappan’s Caroline Ognibene.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 