The Nottingham boys track & field team celebrates after winning the Mercer County Indoor Championships this weekend. The Northstars effort highlighted a big meet for all the Hamilton Township schools.
By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com
Jan. 27: Mercer County Boys Indoor Track & Field
The girls also had a gold medal winner as Hamilton West finished fourth overall.
With coach Jon Adams and his wife Elaine in the midst of a family crisis, the Northstars did their coach proud by winning three gold medals to finish ahead of Princeton in the team standings. Hamilton West finished fourth, while Steinert took seventh out of 14 teams.
On Saturday, Adams posted a team photo on his Facebook page and wrote “On a night when my heart is breaking my boys go out and do something special. I love these kids!!!”
Freshman Shamali Whittle took a first in the 55 hurdles (7.63) and second in the 200, while Dana Ridley won the 200 (22.69) and was fourth in the 55 and Louis Akpadago won the 55 (6.39) and was third in the 200.
Alix Oge took second in the 200 hurdles and sixth in the long jump, Jaier Nelson was sixth in the triple jump and Geordany Alexis finished third in the shot. The Stars 4×00 relay of Jalen Corbin, Ridley, Kernley Charles and Emilio Selesnick finished fifth.
Steinert senior Matt Coulanges defended his triple jump title by going a personal best 44-11.5 on his third and final attempt. Coulanges won last year with a 43-2.
“I was shooting for a 45,” Coulanges said while taking in the Spartan girls basketball game Saturday. “But I’ll take this for a win for the county. This helps my confidence a lot (going into states). It gives me a starting point I’ve never been at before. I’ve never been this high (of a mark) to start so now I can build on this and jump even higher.”
Coulanges already had the event won as he headed into his last jump, but said, “I needed that one as a confidence booster to dominate the whole competition.”
Coulanges also took second in the high jump.
“Matt is a hard worker, talented athlete, and an even better person,” coach Chelsea Pitonyak said. “He’s always being recognized for his sportsmanship and you can see him encouraging all the other athletes at any meet we go to. And he’s in the top 40 of his class.”
Terris Burton was second in the 400 for the Spartans.
Hamilton got a 2-3 finish in the 55 from Javon Porter and Brandon Muir. Porter was fifth in the 200, Ahmad White and DeAngelo Hill finished 3-5 in the high jump, while White took fourth in the long jump and third in the triple jump.
In the girls competition, Hamilton finished in fifth place, as senior Isjae Wright won the triple jump with a mark of 36-1, which was eight inches ahead of the nearest competition. Teammates Abigail Pfaff and Malama Toure finished 4-6 in the high jump. Nottingham’s Chadsity Molder took fourth in the 55 while Bailey Kiernan was fifth in the triple jump and sixth in the long jump.
