Cooper, Gould, Cichocki, Cox, Bonn, Schutz Star for Union Catholic T&F Team at Blue Devil Classic
Written by: Jim Lambert
The Union Catholic track and field teams broke two meets records, produced multiple NJ No. 1 times, and received several personal best performances at Saturday’s 33rd Blue Devil Classic at Gary Stadium.
Vonya Gould, a junior at Union Catholic, was one of the biggest stars of the meet as she opened her season in spectacular and record-setting fashion.
Gould, running over the high hurdles outdoors for the first time in her high school career, ran 15.8 on the second leg to help Union Catholic run a meet record and NJ No. 1 time of 61.00. The former meet record of 1:02.16 was set by Union Catholic in 2021.
Gould then soared a meet-best 17-4.50 to help UC break the meet record in the team long jump, and finished off her triple by running a big PR of 67.89 in the 400 hurdles, the fastest time of the day!
“I am very surprised with how I ran the shuttles,” said Gould. “I’ve been working really hard and was just hoping to break 17. To run under 16 is way faster than I was expecting. And in the long jump I was just five inches off my PR, and the 400 hurdles went well considering it was the third first time since my freshman year that I ran it.”
Also for the UC girls, Taylor Cox and Alexandra Bonn had strong performances.
Cox, who won the 55 hurdles at the Indoor Meet of Champions last month and is the state leader in the 100 hurdles (13.87), won the 400 in a NJ No. 1 57.33 and led off the shuttles with a 13.8. Bonn anchored the shuttles in 15.0 and went 17-2.50 in the long jump. Freshman Ebony Turner ran a 15.8 leg in the shuttles for UC.
In other highlights for the girls, Freshman Jimmiea King was fourth in the 800 with a personal best 2:14.30, junior Courtney Kaiser finished seventh in the 800 in a personal best 2:19.43, freshman Ella Solorzano was fourth in the mile in 5:21.06, and freshman Emmy O’Hearn finished fifth in the mile in 5:23.28. Emma Muir had the third-best javelin throw of the meet with a personal best 102-6, and the 4×200 squad placed third in 1:47.15.
In the boys competition for UC, senior Ryan Cichocki wasn’t very happy after he ran 4:27.22 in the 1,600 last week at the East Brunswick Invitational. He knew he was capable of running much faster, so this time he pushed himself to stay right near the front the whole way and then unleashed a 61.5 final 400 to win the Jack Martin Mile with a big PR of 4:17.95. George Andrus of Haddonfield was second in 4:19.36.
The Jack Martin Mile is named after the legendary retired Westfield T&F and XC coach, who was one of the state’s most successful coaches during his long run at the helm for the Blue Devils. Fittingly, Martin fired the starter’s pistol for the race named in his honor!
UC sophomore Noah Cooper of Union Catholic, one of the state’s biggest stars, had a huge day in the jumps..
In a rematch with Damarion Potts of South Brunswick, who defeated Cooper in the long jump on a tiebreaker at the Indoor Meet of Champions, Copper avenged that defeat when he soared 22-10.50, the No. 1 jump in the state this season! Cooper, whose PR of 23-0 came at the indoor Meet of Champions, has a great shot at breaking the school record of 23-4, set in 2016 by Perry Christie.
Cooper also went 42-9 in the triple jump, the third-best performance in the meet, to help the Vikings win the team triple jump.
UC senior Matt Schutz continued his strong season in the pole vault, clearing 13-0, the top mark in the meet, for the second time this week. Schutz and Aidan Reidy (10-0) teamed up to win the team pole vault with a combined 13-0.
Juniors Marcus McCoy and Al-Qamar Rojas had very impressive runner-up races, McCoy ran a personal best 49.47, No. 7 in the state this season, to place second in the 400, and Rojas ran a personal best time of 56.84 to finish second in the 400 hurdles.
In the 800, UC went 4-5-6-7 with Sean Wilson (2:01.12), Caudell Cajuste (2:01.52), Leo Wisnefski (2:01.72), and Gavin Devine (2:02.46).
