EAST ORANGE (updated Sunday June 5, 11:39 a.m.) – The East Orange Campus High School boys’ track and field program cemented its status as one of the best in the state.
The Jaguars finished second overall in the team standings at the state Group 4 Championships at Egg Harbor, June 3-4, based on the top-six finishes in each event. EOCHS had 48 team points, just two points shy of winner Old Bridge. The meet consisted of the top six finishers in each event from the state sectional meets the previous weekend.
Leading the way for the Jaguars was junior Cory Poole, who won both the 110-meter high hurdles and 400-meter intermediate hurdles each for the second year in a row. Poole ran 13.73 in the 110 high hurdles to set the Essex County record. That time also is No. 12 in the nation this season. He ran 52.52 in the 400 intermediate hurdles.
Poole was on the winning 4×400-meter relay that concluded the meet to give the Jaguars the second-place finish in the team standings. The other runners on the 4×400 were sophomore Immyouri Etienne and the Lindo brothers – Akeem, a sophomore, and Willesley, a senior. The foursome ran 3:16.99.
In the 400-meter dash, Poole took third (48.38), Eitenne was 11th (49.37) and Willesley Lindo took 12th (49.41).
Akeem Lindo took second in the 110 high hurdles in 14.20, right behind Poole. In the 400 intermediate hurdles, Akeem Lindo was fourth in 54.47 behind first-place finisher Poole, while sophomore teammate Ibrahim Fobay was 13th in 56.56.
EOCHS head coach Lance Wigfall was proud of his team’s performance after taking fourth in last year’s Group 4 Championships.
“Just to be able to score 48 points this year after placing fourth last year at this meet means a lot and it shows the growth of the team, and it also gives us something to focus on for the 2017 outdoor track and field season,” said Wigfall in a text to the East Orange-Orange Record-Transcript. “I was always taught by my college coach, Cyrus Jones of Lincoln University, Pa., (that) you must know how to win humbly and lose graciously and that’s how exactly we held our head high as we walked out of the stadium in Egg Harbor Township High School.”
On the girls’ side, the Jaguars were led by the 4×100 relay team of seniors Adelia Francis and Mary Pierre-Louis; sophomore Kevaray Gilette and freshman Mellica Gordon, placing fifth in 48.88. Gordon also was fifth in the 100-meter dash in 12.53.
The top six finishers in each event, plus wild-card berths, at the Group 4 meets qualified for the state Meet of Champions at Central Regional HS in Bayville on June 8.
The EOCHS boys’ team this season swept team titles at the Essex County Relays, Super Essex Conference-American Division Championship; and Essex County Championships and tied for the team title with Elizabeth at the state North Jersey Section 2, Group 4 Championships.
Wigfall, a 2003 EOCHS graduate, was 400-meter champion at both the state indoor Meet of Champions and outdoor Meet of Champions in his senior year.
The Jaguars also will gear up for the New Balance Nationals.
East Orange Campus HS boys’ track and field team finishes second at state Group 4 Championships, led by Cory Poole added by Joe Ragozzino on
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