The New Balance Nationals begin Friday and continue through Sunday in Greensboro, N.C., with more than 60 North Jersey athletes already accepted before entries close at 6 p.m. today.
CHRIS PEDOTA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Greg Fuerte of Paramus took a sixth in the pole vault to help extend North Jersey’s successful run in the event.
While stars such as Lexi Del Gizzo of Tenafly, Kaitlin Salisbury of Hawthorne and Michael Thurston of Ridgewood will participate in the meet, most of North Jersey’s best ended their seasons at the State Meet of Champions on Wednesday at Central Regional in Bayville.
In many ways it was the most successful meet in North Jersey history. Local athletes won 51 medals, six more than the previous record set in 2015. It marked the fourth time in seven years North Jersey won more than 40 medals, although the five gold medals (two by Salisbury, one by Del Gizzo, NV/Old Tappan boys 4-x-400 and River Dell boys 4-x-800) fell short of the high of eight won in 2010 and 2011.
Here are some of Wednesday’s highlights:
SPRINT DOUBLES: Petey Guerriero became the first Lyndhurst sprinter to win a medal and he took two — eighth in the 100 and fourth in the 200.
Raheem Roberts of Eastside and Tyler Hayek of Wayne Hills became the first Passaic County boys to win medals in the same running event when they finished fifth and sixth in the 400. In 1974, the Eastside and Wayne Hills girls were third and fourth, respectively, in the 4-x-100 relay.
SURPRISED MEDALIST: Derek Anderson of Indian Hills wasn’t pleased with his Meet of Champions performance, missing his only three attempts at the opening high jump height of 6 feet, 4 inches. Then under windy conditions, he threw the javelin 172-2, nearly 5 feet less than his personal best. He was seventh in the first of two flights. With just eight advancing to the finals, Anderson thought there was no chance to advance, so he and his family left.
An hour later, Braves coach Brian Rodak, upon hearing a call for Anderson to report to the javelin, checked the tent and found that Anderson was eighth in the preliminaries and had made the finals.
"By that time he was halfway home and he couldn’t get back for the finals," Rodak said. "So he came in eighth and won a medal anyway."
KEEPING STREAKS ALIVE: The medals won by NV/Old Tappan’s Seth Kricheff (third) and Paramus’ Greg Fuerte (sixth) in the pole vault gave North Jersey its 16th straight year of medals in the event, tying the 16 straight years by boys discus throwers from 1998 to 2013. Both vaulters return next year in hopes of breaking the tie.
The five medals in the girls pole vault, led by runner-up Michelle Rubinetti of NV/Demarest, extended the North Jersey medal streak to 14 straight years, tying North Jersey’s streak from 1983 to 1996 in the 1,600 meters.
POWER TRIOS: There were five events in which North Jersey athletes won at least three medals besides the girls pole vault.
Will Daly of River Dell, Sean Sullivan of Rutherford and Colin Daly of River Dell went 3-5-6 in the boys 1,600, the first time a North Jersey trio had done that since 1976.
The three girls medalists apiece in the 100 and 3,200 were firsts for North Jersey, led by Salisbury (second in the 100) and Sam Halvorsen of Ridgewood (second in the 3,200).
Three girls also placed in the 800, with Del Gizzo’s win the 12th for a North Jersey runner in that event, easily the most of any event, boys or girls, in the nearly 50-year history of the meet.