Nutley HS boys’ and girls’ track and field teams excel at Essex County Championships

NUTLEY – The Nutley High School boys’ and girls’ track and field teams enjoyed stellar efforts at the Essex County Championships held at Woodman Field  in Montclair, May 20-21.

Quinn and Goldberg grab medals to lead NHS boys

Sophomore Jimmy Quinn came away from the Essex County Track and Field Championships as the new owner of the NHS sophomore class record in the 3,200 after dropping a time of 9:38.31.  It was nearly a 30-second Personal Record for the rising  sophomore distance star.  In a race that featured two of the top distance runners in the state, Quinn was able to maintain a steady controlled pace and came home with the record and the fifth-place medal.

The meet was held at Woodman Field in Montclair, May 20-21.

Junior Tarrin Goldberg was also able to score for the Raiders in the pole vault.  He cleared a new PR of 11 feet to grab the fifth-place medal for the Raiders. In one of the most anticipated races off the day, junior Matt Dasilva found himself quickly boxed in during the 800 meters by a pair of runners from St. Benedict’s. It wasn’t until the last 250 meters of the race that Dasilva was able to break free. However, he was unable to make up the ground and finished in ninth place at 2:00.22. Junior Eric Vogler and sophomore Gerard Dimayuga both wound up running the PRs in the race at 2:06.08 and 2:06.33 respectively.

Many other Raiders ran, jumped or threw seasonal or lifetime PRs, however,did not score in the meet. Senior Lou Long in the javelin tossed the spear 145 feet-3 inches, but just missed the finals. Senior Luke Michels clocked a 10:16.39, which was his fastest time of the season.  Fellow senior Giancarlo Padilla ran his fastest 100-meter dash of the season at 11.54.

Jelley, DeFluri and McEnery lead NHS girls

During the action on Friday night at Woodman Field, senior captain Chloe Jelley ran a PR of 5:24.90 in the 1,600 and came home with the sixth-place medal. Junior Olivia DeFluri unloaded a monster PR in the javelin of 98-11 to score a fifth-place finish. Her throw was nearly a 10-foot improvement from her previous best. On Saturday, junior Sara McEnery cleared a lifetime best of 5-0 in the high jump to grab the final medal of the meet for the Raiders with a fifth-place finish.

McEnery wound up having back-to-back great days for the Raiders. On Day one in the triple jump, she bounded out to 33-8.25 which was over a 2-foot PR.  She made the finals, but was unable to grab a medal. Five of her six marked jumps were further than her previous best of 31-7.5.

Many other members of the team performed well, but just missed scoring for the Raiders. Julie Yang (7-0) in the pole vault, Chloe Jelley (12:05.31) in the 3,200, Hanna Simcsuk (4-8) in the high jump, Jaela Small (15-2.25) in the long jump, and the 4×400 (4:30.29) team of Maisie Jelley, Julia Eltzholtz, Jaela Small and Danielle Lohf all recorded top-10 finishes. Junior Samia Sabeil threw a PR of 81-2 in the discus, Nicolette Contella ran a PR of 13:36.18 in the 3,200, and junior Maddie Huelbig ran a PR of 2:42.62 in the 800 meters, freshman Danielle Lohf ran a PR of 6647 in the 400 meters.

Next up for the Raiders is the North I, Group III State Sectional Championships held at River Dell HS in Oradell.  The action starts at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, May 27, and 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 28.

  Nutley High School track and field