West Orange indoor track athletes victorious at Group 4 state meet; advance to state Meet of Champions

WEST ORANGE, NJ — West Orange High School senior Makhi Green and freshman Taylor Aska won the boys’ and girls’ 55-meter dashes, and WOHS senior Olivia Prescott won the girls’ shot put event at the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s indoor track and field Group 4 state championships at the John Bennett Indoor Athletic Complex in Toms River on Saturday, Feb. 26.

Green clocked 6.44 seconds to finish in first place out of eight runners in the finals, after taking third place out of 23 runners in the preliminaries in 6.55.

Aska also took third place out of 23 runners in the preliminaries in 7.26 before winning in the finals in 7.10 out of eight runners.

Prescott, who signed with Rutgers University to continue her track career, threw 40 feet, 8 ¾ inches to win the girls shot put, beating out 22 competitors.

The girls 4-x-400-meter relay team took 15th place out of 24 teams in the final in 4 minutes, 15.07 seconds, and Kourtney Adams took 11th place out of 15 competitors in the finals of the girls high jump event with a leap of 5 feet, for WOHS.

Green, who signed with Monmouth University to continue his football career, was the lone WOHS boys competitor at the Group 4 meet, which consisted of the top six finishers in each event from all the sectionals in the state.

Green, Aska and Prescott qualified for the NJSIAA’s Meet of Champions on Friday and Saturday, March 4 and 5, at the Bennett Indoor Athletic Complex. The top three finishers in each event from all the group meets qualified for the Meet of Champions. In addition, the top 12 performances in each event that did not place in the top three from the combined group meets qualified for the Meet of Champions.