Fourth-place finishes by Abpadogo, Sasha pace four township MOC medal winners

Louis Abpadogo
Nottingham’s Louis Abpadogo sprints down the track in the Meet of Champions. Photo by Michael A. Sabo

By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com
June 11:
The good news for Hamilton Township is that four athletes from all three public schools placed in the NJSIAA Meet of Champions boys competition at Northern Burlington this past Saturday.

The better news is every one of them will be back next year.

Nottingham led the way with two medals, both from sophomores. Louis Abpadogo took 4th place in the 100 meters with a time of 10.91, while Dana Ridley was 6th in the 200 in 21.90. Abpadogo was seeded ninth entering the event, while Ridley was the 13th seed.

Hamilton West junior Richmond Sasha finished 4th in the triple jump with a mark of  46-05.25 after being seeded 2nd at 48-3.25 entering the race. Sasha also competed in the long jump and out-jumped his No. 19 seed by finishing 12th with a leap of 22-1/2.

Steinert’s medal winner was Terris Burton, who took 5th in the 400 hurdles in a personal best time of 54.03. Burton held serve, as he was seeded fifth.

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The township’s best chance for a girls’ medalist was Steinert’s Ashley Navarro. Unfortunately, the Monmouth-bound senior dealt with leg issues during her 800 race and finished eighth (two spots from a medal) in 2:15.11. Navarro entered the event with a seeded time of 2:12.70.

Other Steinert boys to compete were junior Matt Coulanges (12th, triple jump, 43-6) and senior Keon Cooper (21st, javelin, 164-0).

Also competing for the Hamilton boys were senior Barry Ndeh (17th, high jump, 6-4), Javon Porter(18th,  100, 11.20) and the 4×100 team of Porter, Bryon Hearst, Kevin Boswell and Brandon Muir (13th, 43.01).

Running for the Nottingham boys were junior Alix Oge (12th, 110 hurdles, 14.55) and senior Jonathan Torres (13th, 3200, 9:31.72).

The remainder of the girls competitors were both in the triple jump with Hamilton junior Isjae Wright taking 21st (35-2) and Steinert senior Tatiana Dorner finishing right behind in 22nd (35-1).

About The Author


Rich Fisher has been around the Hamilton Township sports scene for so long that he actually got Rich Giallella’s autograph when Giallella was still a player! Proud product of Hamilton YMCA and Lou Gehrig baseball leagues and former teammate of Jim Maher on a very average Barton & Cooney rec basketball team, Fish graduated from Nottingham Junior High and Steinert High school and has covered township sports since 1980. His goal in life is to convince Maria Prato that Jersey tomatoes are at least 100 times better than California tomatoes.