The Hamilton West 4×100 Relay Unified team proudly display their gold medals after taking first place at Saturday’s Meet of Champions at Northern Burlington High School. The team members, from left to right, are Marty Barchue, Mark Harmon, Aniyah Blount-Davis and Edith Barchue (Photo by Erin Wolverton)
By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com
June 12: The Nottingham High boys’ track & field team was involved in the first and last events of the day at Saturday’s NJSIAA Meet of Champions, with one other Northstar competing in between.
And Nottingham turned every event into some hardware.
Nottingham High School Senior Boaz “Superman” Madeus takes flight at the Meet of Champions competition. Photo by Michael A. Sabo
Senior Boaz “Superman” Madeus completed his New Jersey scholastic career with a silver medal in the 400 intermediate hurdles, which kicked off the competition at Northern Burlington High School. The 4×400 relay team took sixth in the day’s final competition, while senior Jonathan Torres took a 7th-place medal in the 3200.
As for other Hamilton Township qualifiers, Steinert senior Lauren Miller was 11th in the 3200, Spartan junior Ashley Navarro was 17th in the 800 and Hamilton West senior James White was 24th in the shot. Steinert’s 4×800 relay team finished 23rd.
For Madeus, it marked the highest MOC finish of his career after he overcame injury issues last spring. Going against East Orange’s Cory Poole, who has the fastest time in the country, Boaz broke his own school record with a second-place time of 52.25. Poole ran a 50.72.
“I wanted to come out and give it whatever I got, and to finish (the race) strong,” Madeus said. “I knew that would be the strong part of my race today. Cory’s a great competitor, I knew he was gonna get out on me from the start. I was giving my best effort to close the gap. I gave it my all. It’s just a blessing to see everything come together as it was supposed to.”
“He got out kind of slow but remember he was chasing Poole, who’s number one in the state,” Stars sprint coach Jon Adams said. “I thought he ran a smart race. He kind of conserved things. A lot of people went out early and then he came back strong in the second phase. He’s a real strong young man.”
Madeus, who finished fifth to Poole last year in a time of 54.48, felt that while winning is always the ultimate goal, he just felt blessed to have the opportunity to go against someone with Poole’s talent.
“It definitely is cool,” Superman said. “I’ve been watching him from afar since sophomore year. I remember sophomore year we were 1-2 in those standings in the 400 hurdles but we never really got to race each other because of injuries and stuff like that.”
The two have one more high school race against each other at this weekend’s New Balance Nationals in North Carolina.
“It’s been a blessing knowing the guy you’re gonna see at Nationals, you have to handle at states first,” Madeus said. “I was saying this week I’ve got two national meets in a row. I’m going to see number one at the state meet and then I gotta run down to North Carolina and take him on again. It’s really a blessing because it’s the only competition at the end of the day that pushes you to new heights. I’m one of the luckiest people.”
Madeus was also part of the 4×400 relay, which ran a 3:19.98, just .04 off its school record. David Viah, Godfred Akuffo and Kenley Souffrant rounded out the foursome.
“Pretty freaking AWESOME!” Adams said of their effort. “Over the past two years I had very high hopes for this group. When we added David Viah to the existing group, I knew we could finally challenge the ‘Big Boys’ in the state. Our winter sprint medley has been number on in the Group Three State Relays two years in a row After watching David this winter, we knew we had something special. We only ran this group in the big meets late in the season because Dave had to wait the 30 days (due to transferring).
“To see that performance at the Meet of Champs and last week at the Group Three meet was something special. I am so happy for Bo, G-Fred and Kenley because they are classy young men with tremendous futures ahead of themselves. David fit right into the group and is a fine young man as well. I love those guys like they were my own!”
Torres, who gained wild card entry into the MOC, made his first appearance count as he ran a 9:23.81 for his 7th-place medal. The senior’s time broke his PR by three seconds.
The next best finisher from Hamilton was Miller, a wild card qualifier who was three spots from a medal. The senior’s time of 11:08.57 was 3.5 seconds off her personal best, and it was less than seven seconds from an 8th-place finish (top 8 receive medals).
It was a tough day for Navarro, whose time of 2:18 was 2.83 seconds off her personal best. The junior just chalked it up to a bad day.
Steinert’s Ashley Navarro carries the baton during her leg of the 4×800 relay at Saturday’s Meet of Champions (Contributed photo)
“It was a very tough day,” said Ashley, who set the school record in the 800 one week earlier. “From the start of my day it was just off. Looking back, my superstitions that I usually follow for my race day prep weren’t the same. Not to say that would have changed the outcome of my performance.
“Some people have on days and off days and yesterday was my off day for whatever reason. I wished my off day wasn’t yesterday because you wait your whole season to run at Meet of Champions, where you want your performance to be at its best.”
In looking at the positives, Navarro entered the race ranked 20th in the state and finished three places higher than that.
“To me, that’s still a big accomplishment,” she said. “It is not what I had hoped for but all I can do is work harder day in and day out and just leave the race behind me. I can’t wait for the upcoming season and what my future has in store for me. I am determined to make it my best running season ever and I will never give up.”
Navarro was also part of the 4×800 relay team that ran a 9:53.77. Although that was 13 seconds off their personal best, the group over-achieved this year just by making it to the MOC. Rounding out the team were Miller, senior Aidan Sheehan and junior Samantha Woolf.
In the shot, White just missed his PR by 2.25 feet with a throw of 49-10.75.
James White from Hamilton West launches the shotput at the Meet of Champions. Photo by Michael A. Sabo
James was not the lone Hornet on hand at the event, however. Two West unified relay teams had a day to remember as the 4×100 Relay Unified won a gold medal and the 4×400 claimed a silver.
Running in the 4×100 were Aniyah Blount-Davis, Edith Barchue, Marty Barchue and Mark Haramont, who finished in a time of 59.24. The 4×400 team clocked a time 4:47.13 behind Elvis Alicea, Vernon Jean, Ayofumi Carter and Mary Ruble.
An expanded story on the unified team will be posted on Fish4scores on June 13.
