Correction: CHS girls’ track team won the Essex County meet title for the third straight season.
MAPLEWOOD – The Columbia High School girls’ track and field team won five events, including two by senior Jordan Fields, to win the Essex County Championships team title for the third consecutive season.
The Cougars, under first-year head coach Chris Faraone, also won the meet title for the eighth time in the past 10 years. They finished second in 2012 and 2013, both times to Newark Tech. In 2013, they finished one point shy of Newark Tech.
This year’s meet was held at Woodman Field in Montclair, May 20-21.
The Cougars amassed a whopping 115 points based on the top-six finishes in each event. Montclair was a distant second with 80 points.
Fields won both the long jump at 18 feet-8 inches and the triple jump at 38-5 ¾. Sophomore Catherine Jordan won the high jump at 5-2; senior Jasmine Keegan won the discus with a meet-record 130-0 and the 4×400-meter relay finished first in 3:56.59.
Keegan had a strong meet. In addition to winning the discus, she took second in the high jump at 5-0; third in the shot put at 37-4 and sixth in the javelin at 98-9.
Isadora Egypt, a junior, also was impressive as she finished second in both the 800-meter run (2;19.51) and 3,200-meter run (11:34.64) and took third in the 1,600 (5:20.90).
Senior Cheyenne Trigg was fourth in the 100-meter dash in 12.51; senior Sienna Farrell was second in the long jump at 17-6 ¼; junior Dahria Lewis was second in the triple jump at 36-8 and fifth in the 200-meter dash in 26.00; senior Joanna Dennis took fifth in the discus at 98-9; and senior Nya Hughes was fourth in the shot put at 36-1.
On the boys’ side, CHS was led by junior Jared Pangallozzi, who finished fourth in the 3,200-meter run in 9:35.95, and the 4×400 relay, which finished in fourth in 3:26.69, for the Cougars’ top-six finishes in the meet. The Cougars finished 15th overall in the team standings. East Orange Campus won the team title for the second straight year.
Pangallozzi also was eighth in the 1,600 in 4:31.05. Senior Ozzie Williams and junior Jeremiah Richardson also finished eighth in the 110 hurdles (15.53) and 400 hurdles (58.06) respectively, and senior Roodly Ovil was 10th in the long jump at 5-10 for the Cougars.
The CHS boys’ and girls’ teams will gear up for the state North Jersey Section 2, Group 4 Championships at Ridge HS in Basking Ridge, May 27-28. The girls’ team took second last year at the North Jersey Section 2, Group 4 Championships after winning the sectional title in the five previous seasons (2010-14). The boys’ team also took second at the meet last year, just .33 shy of winner East Orange Campus.
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