2024 End of season recap

As the season winded down for the lady chiefs, things heated up both in the field and on the track. Let's look at what transpired from Sectionals to States to Meet of Champions to New Balance Outdoor Nationals.

4x100m Journey

The 4x100m relay team of Rylan Cieslik, Maddison Van Haren, Veronica Ashcraft and Morgan Shank started off by placing second at Sectionals running a new school record of 49.01. They followed that up, shattering that performance at the State meet running 48.38 to place second. On to MOC’s where they ran 48.98 to place 8th and become the first 4x100m relay in school history to make the podium. The season ended for them when they ran 49.14 at Nationals. This season they ran 5 of the top 10 times ever run in school history.

4x800m Journey

Sectionals saw the line up of Alyssa Surriano, Paige Wagner, Lainy Bromley and Nicole Edelman place 4th running 9:55.65. This team was without our top 4 8 girls as they were all concentrating on individual events, but what a great race they all saw. On to the state meet where Megan Niglio and Brooke Hibbs joined the team. Hibbs, Suriano, Niglio and Wagner dropped the time down to 9:40.96 to place 6th and earn a wildcard spot to MOC’s. At MOC’s the same four girls lowered their time to 9:32.63 to place 9th just missing the podium. Suriano 2:26.18, Hibbs 2:20.88, Wagner 2:24.97(monster pr for paige) and Niglio 2:20.62. Then on Friday night of Nationals after a rain delay, the team of Brooke Hibbs 2:23.74, Alyssa Suriano 2:22.74(#16 800 split AT), Maddie Meder 2:20.34(#7 AT Split), and Megan Niglio 2:20.35 combined to run 9:27.15. This was our fastest time of the year which is #10 AT.

Sprints

Maddie Van Haren had quite the sectional meet qualifying for States in the 1, 2, and 4. She is only the second girl in school history to do that behind Courtney Foster(class of 2013).  She ran 12.30 and 12.32 in the trial and finals of the 100m to place 4th. 25.44 to place 5th in the 200m and 59.58 to place 6th in the 400m. Rylan Cielslik also made the finals in the 100m at Sectionals placing 7th running a lifetime best of 12.58 in the trials and 12.78 in the finals.

Distance

Kerry O’Day and Maddie Meder qualified for States in the 8, 16 and 32. They finished 5th and 6th in the 800, O’Day 2:20.00 and Meder 2:20.83. Both the 32 and the 16 were very tactical going out slow and then dropping bigtime negative splits. In the 3200m Maddie ran a huge pr to run 11:08.77 to place 2nd.(#6 AT) and Kerry ran 11:10.16 to place 4th. The 1600m saw Kerry run 5:09.12 to place 2nd and Maddie run 5:11.86 to place 4th( a new pr for Maddie). At the state meet both Kerry and Maddie decided to run the 3200(Friday) and the 1600(Saturday). In the 3200, Kerry O’Day ran 11:02.89 to place 2nd earning an automatic qualifier for MOC’s and Maddie Meder ran 11:23.99 to place 10th. The 1600m saw O’Day run 5:07.25 to place 6th and Meder run 5:09.24 to place 8th in a new lifetime best. Meet of Champions saw Meder concentrate on the 1600 and O’Day concentrate on the 3200. O’Day unfortunately did not have the race she wanted to. A nagging foot injury crept up to bother her the second mile and she finished running 11:25.15 which was not the way she wanted to end her high school career(Luckily it wasn’t over yet). Maddie Meder ran the perfect race for her. Although the race went out slow for the girls up front, it was just what Maddie needed. It went out on the quick side, but then the brakes went on for the field.1:13.14 followed by a 1:19.93 put her through in 2:33.06. She then went through lap three in 1:15.87 and closed in 1:12.60 to drop a huge pr of 5:01.52 to place 10th. That time is #4 AT outdoors and breaks Lisa Burkholder’s sophomore class record of 5:01.73.

Field

We had all three girls in the vault clear opening height. Kiera Fronczak and Kaitlyn Repsher both cleared 8 feet and Addie Wright cleared 9 feet to earn her way to the State meet by placing 6th. At the State meet she also cleared 9 feet placing 19th. Addie Lore threw 110-11 in the javelin to place 6th at Sectionals. She then threw 111-8 to place 10th at the State meet. She ended her season throwing 111-5 at Nationals.

Nationals ends the season

We had something going on every day at Nationals for Tub Gator Track Club. the 4xmile was Thursday Night. Kerry O’Day decided this would be her last high school race. Kerry Led off 5:11.05 and handed off in 9th place. Alyssa Suriano was next, splitting 5:30.76 handing off in 12th. Maddie Meder split 5:13.04 moving us up to 11th and Megan Niglio closed in 5:22.76 with us finishing 11th overall. They ran 21:17.61 for 4xmile which converts to 21:10.20 for 4x1600. That time is #3 AT in school history. Friday was the 4x800 which we already said ran #10 AT in school history. Saturday was the 4x100m relay which capped the end to a great run running the #6 AT in school history. Sunday we saw the DMR team and Addie Lore in the Javelin close out their seasons. The DMR once again did something extra special.We were in heat 2 of 4. Megan Niglio led off running the 1200 leg in 3:44.62 in 5th place. Maddie Van Haren ran her first ever sub 58 400 split. Clocking 57.94(#6 AT split outdoors) she moved us up to 3rd place. Brooke Hibbs took over for the 800m leg and clocked a 2:20.80. That was a lifetime best split for Brooke which is #9 AT on the split list. Maddie Meder then took the baton and ran a very patient race 3 seconds off the leader. It wasn’t until her last lap that she finally closed on her and passed her coming off the last curve going into the finish line. She stopped the clock at 12:05.01 to win the heat and place 12th overall. She split 5:01.66 which is the second fastest 1600m split outdoors in school history. Their time was #2 AT outdoors. SJ #1, NJ #2 and #4 All time in Burlington county history and #8 All time in South Jersey History.

The season ended with 3 new school records. The 4x100m relay of Rylan Cieslik, Maddie Van Haren, Veronica Ashcraft and Morgan Shank running 48.38, the Swedish relay team of Rylan Cieslik, Morgan Shank, Veronica Ashcraft and Sofia Recinto and the long jump relay team of Maddie Van Haren and Katie Zubrzycki. 14 individual top 10 All time performances on the track and in the field and 9 top 10 all time Relay performances. It was sad to see some girls compete for the last time as a ladychief. We were excited to welcome a few new tub Gators as we entered the 4th generation of Gators.We saw the spark ignite in a few new girls over the course of the season and look forward to what next year will bring. For now, we take a much needed break as we gear up for the 2024 cross country season.

Thank you girls for another exciting year.