Big wins for locals at Colts Neck Relays

PHOTOS BY SCOTT PILLING staff Above, Monroe's Katie Lepri hands off the baton to Nicole Ragucci during the 4x400-meter relay at Saturday's Colts Neck Relays. At left, Monroe's Scott Baron tosses the discus.

The Freehold District's distance running talent and depth was on full display at Saturday's Colts Neck Relays.

But some local GMC teams made their presence felt as well.

East Brunswick won the boy's 4x800 in 8:15.1. Dan Gilbert, Jannick Wood, Justin Geranit and Eric Sorkin, finished four seconds ahead of runner-up North Hunterdon (8:19.6).

Old Bridge's girls scored a trio of wins, in the 4x100, 4x100 hurdles and the triple jump.

The Knight's foursome of Christine Maravez, Brittany Gibbs, Melissa Williams and Ashley Gonzalez were the class of the field, clocking 50.0.

Things were much tighter in the hurdles where Melissa Kosakowski, Kira Forbest, Rebecca Dobiesz and Maxine Ho tied Toms River North for first place as both were timed in 1:10.0.

It was Gibbs and Ho who teamed up to win the triple jump by more than 6 feet, with combined jumps totaling 68-9 1/2. Gibbs had the best jump of the day, 36-8. Ho's 32-1 1/2 was the third best.

Edison won the girl's pole vault at 15-0, with Shana Cerullo (8-0) and Yasmine Doumi (7-0) joining forces.

The host Cougars won the girl's Distance Medley Relay (DMR) and the Boy's Sprint Medley, while Freehold Township's girls won an important 4x800.

Freehold Township's girls got exactly what they needed in winning the 4x800, a qualifying time for next week's Penn Relays. The Patriot quartet of Allyson Moskal, Megan Matza, Charlotte Walsh and Janel Parker had to run under 10:00 in order to get a qualifying mark for Penn. They shattered the 10:00 mark, posting a 9:37.8, led by Parker's big 2:19 anchor that settled the issue. Five teams in all broke 10:00 in the race.

Moskal ran a 2:22, Walsh 2:26 and Matza 2:29 as all of the Patriots broke 2:30.

The Cougars' Craig Forys "only" ran a 4:24 in the boy's DMR, where Colts Neck was fifth (10:48.4) to Northern Highlands (10:29.9), but he came back with a vengeance in the Sprint Medley, where his 1:57.1 anchor 800 rallied the Colts to victory in 3:37.6. Forys ran down the anchors of South Brunswick (3:37.7) and Cherokee (3:39.4) in the homestretch.

Evan Stivala opened the Sprint Medley off running a 52.4 400. The combined 200s of Tyler Talcott and Mike Moore was 48.1.

Howell and Freehold Township traded victories in the boy's hurdles event.