Friendly rivalry produces great girls track and field performances
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OCEAN CITY — The girls track teams from Mainland Regional and Ocean City high schools started off the season with record-setting performances last week.
Coaches Mike Colombo and Tim Cook, of Mainland and Ocean City, respectively, expect a lot from their teams but even they were impressed with what they saw in the friendly but intense competition on a Wednesday afternoon with fog hovering around Carey Stadium during the first half and sun shining down at the end.
“That was quite the high-level meet. I don’t know the last dual meet that I’ve been a part of with that many high-level performances,” Cook said, “and it was the season opener.
“We always laugh,” Cook said of himself and Colombo. “This has to be the first meet of the year. It would be nice if it were the closer, who was going to win the division. To start out with that is great because it brings it to another level from the beginning.”
The Mustangs won the meet, 76-64, but both coaches, who are friends, cited the caliber of the performances that saw school records broken. Some were credited to the competition between their “Swiss Army knife” seniors — Mustang Emma Crozier-Carole and Red Raider Elaina Styer — and others to Ocean City junior transfer student Sophia Curtis, who one assistant coach has dubbed “the franchise.” Curtis broke two school records last week after setting four during the winter track season.
Crozier-Carole and Styer both broke school records in the long jump, with the Mustang going 18’3” to break her own record from her sophomore year, and then Styer flying 18’5” to set the new mark at OCHS. Mainland’s McKenna Pontari was third at 16’8.5”.
“She had the Lisfranc injury last year,” Colombo said of Crozier-Carole, and couldn’t compete. “She couldn’t even be around us (last year) because it made her so sad not competing. Sometimes with that injury some people don’t come back to where they were, but she has come back and then some.
“She is such a competitor too. She jumped her best and set a school record,” he added, but after placing to second to Styer in that event “she said, ‘It’s all right, I’ll get her in the shot put. And then she had a huge PR (personal record) in the shot put to win the event.”
Crozier-Carole threw 33’2.5” for first, Styer was second at 32’5” and Raider Sophia Whelan was third at 28’10.5”.
Not surprisingly, in every event Crozier-Carole, Styer and Curtis entered, they either won or placed second to their counterpart.
“I’ve heard Mike (Colombo) describe Emma as a Swiss Army knife,” Cook said. “It’s the same deal as Styer. It’s the same thing. They compete hard against each other, they really like each other, they’re very similar athletes. They do whatever you need and they’re gamers and they step up when it’s time to compete.”
Crozier-Carole also won the high jump at 5’4”. Styer was second at 5’2” and Mustang Kalla Tocci-Rodgers was third, also at 5’2”.
Styer also won the 400 meters with a time of 1:00.5, with Mustangs Kasey Bretones second (1:02.5) and McKenna Pontari third (1:04.6).
“Elaina won our Iron Man Award last year for being able to do everything the team needs at all times. She is headed to Cornell University to be a multi. She will do the pentathlon and heptathlon,” Cook said.
“Here’s the perfect example. When I asked her how she felt about running the 400, she said, ‘Sure, I’ll run it.’ … She went and ran the 400 and did her personal best, 60.2.”
In a close meet, finishing second and third also was critical and helped put Mainland over the top.
“We talked in our meeting the day before and said there are two girls who are really good — Elaina Styer and Sophia Curtis,” Colombo said. “They’re exceptional athletes. We weren’t going to be surprised if they won all eight events they were in, so we talked about how big seconds and thirds would be in our meet. Our girls who got seconds and thirds were huge for us today.”
Curtis won the opening event, the 400 intermediate hurdles, with a school record time of 1:00.2, with freshman teammate Callie Duff second in 1:10.4 and Mainland’s Ava McDole third in 1:12.9.
Curtis and Crozier-Carole went head to head in the 100 high hurdles with the Red Raider nipping her at the finish, winning in 14.8 seconds to Crozier-Carole’s 14.9. Mainland’s Caitlin Lin was third in 17.2.
Curtis set another school record in the triple jump for outdoor track with her leap of 39’2”. Tocci-Rodgers was third at 35’1.5” and teammate Sienna Bodkin third at just over 32’.
Curtis was the anchor leg on the winning 4×400 relay with Duff, AnnaMaria Marczyk and Zoe Zammit. Their winning time was 4:19.
Cook said when his team went to nationals in the winter season, the shuttle hurdles relay team featuring Curtis, Styer, Duff and Marczyk finished 10th in the nation in the championship division. The shuttle hurdles is a 4×55 relay. Duff is a freshman and Marczyk a sophomore.
Before talking about Curtis, who transferred to Ocean City this year from Padua Academy and participated in multiple sports but didn’t start track until high school, Cook mentioned how Duff has started her own first year in high school as part of that relay and cleared 5’ in the high jump and ran 1:10 in the 400 hurdles in her first spring meet. “She is another newcomer to track,” he said.
At nationals, Styer competed in the championship high jump division and Curtis competed in the championship triple jump division. Curtis jumped 41’3”, second all-time in New Jersey — the longest jump in the state for a junior — and is ranked seventh nationally.
“She has had a big impact on the team, not just with her performances,” Cook said of Curtis. “She is super humble. The girls love her. She fits right in. She’s not an attention-seeking person. She just does what she does and is nice to everybody. It really helps reinforce the culture we have going.”
“I’ve been telling all the younger girls, between Elaina and Sophia, we have these two high-level track and field athletes, these high-level character kids. This is something you need to soak up. Watch what they do, emulate what they do and learn from them,” Cook said. “And the two of them are willing to work with everyone. We have about 75 kids on the roster and from No. 1 to No. 75, they’re nice to them, they’ll help them, show them how to do certain things. It’s a great example of high-level athletes also being high-level people and having high-level character.”
Mainland has its own quiet-but-strong competitors as well.
Junior Gillian Lovett, Colombo said, “is as tough as they come and she’s so unassuming. She’s a quiet storm. She doesn’t draw attention to herself and then she just goes on the track and lays it all out there.”
Against Ocean City, she did just that. Lovett won the 1600 meters in 5:29.7 with Red Raiders Maeve Smith (5:32.3) and Chloe Care (5:35.1) second and third. Care also won the 800 meters in 2:26.7 with Ocean City’s Zoe Zammit second (2:32.6) and Mustang McDole third (2:33.8.) Care also place second in the 3200 meters in 11:34, behind Smith, who was first in 11:30. Raider Frankie Ritzel was third in 12:28.
Mainland won the two short sprints. Kylynn McElroy was first in the 100 meters in 13.3 seconds with Sienna Bodkin second in 13.55 and Ocean City’s Marczyk third in 13.7.
Cam DeMorat won the 200 meters in 27.5 seconds with Bodkin second in 28.2 and Ocean City’s Jaida Dooley third in 28.7.
Mainland swept the pole vault. Lauren Crino was first, clearing 9’, Bodkin second, also at 9’, and Monica Todorov third at 8’6”.
Pontari and Bretones went 1-2 in the javelin with throws of 97’8 and 95’5”, respectively. Ocean City’ Whelan was third at 77’7”.
Whelan won the discus with a throw of 79’1” with teammate Sophia Smith second at 71’3” and Mustang Sydney Stokes third at 65’.
“We have solid kids at basically event event, especially on the track and in the jumps,” Colombo said. “Our throwers are young or somewhat inexperienced, but they are doing pretty well. Our strength is our depth.”
Pontari is in her first year throwing javelin and won the event right after racing in the 400 meters.
“She literally stepped off the track and went and threw the javelin,” Colombo said. “And she was third in the long jump. She is just a good, solid kid, a good leader. The younger girls like her and look up to her.”
He said multi-sport athlete Bretones, who set a personal record in the 400 meters and placed second in the javelin, splits her time between high level AAU ball and spring track. “We’ve had a pretty good working relationship with her the last two years,” Colombo said. “It’s tough on her, driving to Red Bank to play basketball at night, getting her homework done. Kudos to her for being able to balance everything. She’s another great competitor, a great kid.”
The coach also pointed out Bodkin, a junior, for her work across four events at the meet, placing in the 100, 200, triple jump and pole vault.
Colombo said Tocci-Rodgers, a senior, was third in the high jump and second in the triple jump, going 35’, and is the Mustangs’ best triple jumper outside of Camryn Dirkes, who graduated.
Cook pointed out Tricia Nicoletti, a senior who competes in multiple events, 100 and 200 meters, long jump and triple jump.
“She is another one who will do whatever she asked,” he said.
He also said Chloe Care and Frankie Ritzel are in the core of distance runners. Sophomore Zoe Zammit is in her first year running track and it’s sophomore Maeve Smith’s first spring season ever after playing soccer and rowing crew. This year she did cross country, winter and spring track.
“For Maeve, it was her first year running cross country and she made it to the Meet of Champions. In her first season of running indoor track, made it to the Meet of Champions. She’s having a nice little debut in the running world,” Cook said.
He’s also seeing promise in sophomore Madyn Rihl, who is doing long jump and triple jump, and freshman Scarlett Fletcher, who did triple jump and the 400 hurdles.
Friendly rivalry
“Tim Cook and I are friends,” Colombo said. “We were talking about the talent we have. There are five girls at 5’ high jumping. And in the hurdles, Emma and Sophia went under 15 (seconds). We had two girls (Emma and Sophia) go over 18’ in the long jump and two girls over 35 feet in the triple. And on the track in the 400, Styer was 60 (seconds) and Kasey was 62. There were a lot of good performances.”
“We almost can’t get away from each other,” Cook said with a laugh about the two teams. “We go to all of the same meets and we have the same mindset. We want to go and compete against the best. We want to go to nationals. We expect to be at the state level competing.
“We’re always pushing each other. We’re like, ‘What’s Mainland doing?’ And they’re like, ‘What’s Ocean City doing?’ Mike and I are always comparing schedules. It makes it fun. We have the same ambitions for the teams,” Cook said.
“Once we get past the dual meet season, it will be us and them at South Jerseys, states,” he added. “We actually laughed that we’re going to different meets for once on Saturday, April 15, which isn’t a bad thing. It’s also nice to see other faces too and run against other people too.”
Colombo gave a shout out to his assistant coaches Brandon Walters, Christina Mayrhofer, Andrew Monroe, Alex Weidman, Jaclyn Roesch, and his father Mike Colombo. For Cook, he cited assistants Trish Henry, Steve Hoffman, Mike Williscroft, Liza Barrick and Tom Tyrell.
The coaches agree on the importance of their assistants.
“Having that many hands helping out is huge. You only get so much time, especially with the shortened preseason. You cram so much into two weeks,” Colombo said. “They do anything to help our kids,” Cook said. “We definitely would not have the success we do without them.”
Colombo said his athletes set their goals before the first meet. One is to repeat as the Atlantic County champions and another is to win the Cape-Atlantic League. “Those are our two bigs goals and then to move into sectionals and advance as many kids as we can. Group III South is just loaded with talent. There will be kids eliminated in Group III South who would be No. 3 in other sectionals just because there’s so much talent with us, Ocean City, Winslow, Timber Creek and Delsea — just really good track programs.
“Mike and I always say Group III is just loaded,” Cook confirmed. “It’s crazy. Some of the best teams in the state are in the same group and the same section. We’re excited to have a good season. Good weather. Good competition.”
– PHOTOS and STORY by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
