UC Girls Roll to 9th Straight County Title!

The Union Catholic girls continued their remarkable reign of supremacy with the greatest performance in meet history as the Vikings rang up a meet record 122.50 points on the way to a ninth straight title and Jimmy Wischusen and Courtney Kaiser smashed records at Sunday’s Union County Track and Field Championships at the Bennett Center in Toms River.

In the girls’ competition, the Vikings won six of the eight events on the track, Courtney Kaiser broke a school class record, and the squad flexed its amazing depth as 17 different athletes scored points to lead the powerhouse program to the blowout victory. UC finished 77.50 points ahead of runner-up Westfield, and its 122.50 points is nearly half of the maximum number of points possible in the meet, which is 250.

The UC boys finished a strong second to defending champion Westfield, 85-64.

The winners for the UC girls were Taylor Aska in the 55 dash (7.17), Leah Gould in the 200 (25.97), Maameyaa Nyinah in the 800 (2:21.59), Kaleigh Gunsiorowski in the 1,600 (5:11.83), Taylor Cox in the 55 hurdles (8.10), and the 4×400 relay squad, which consisted of Gunsiorowski, Jimmiea King, Victoria Urbaez, and Nyinah, finished first in 4:09.10. Cox also finished fourth in the 200. Kaiser’s record came whem she finished second in the 3,200 in 11:05.93, which took down the school record of 11:08.94 that Jerika Lufrano ran to finish first at the 2018 Union County Championships.

The other points for the Vikings were scored by Ajanae Thompson, second in both the 55 dash (7.24) and 55 hurdles (8.20), Seton Dill, second in the pole vault (8-0), Emmy O’Hearn, third in the 1,600 (5:29.55), Urbaez, fourth in the 1,600 (5:29.62), Ella Solorzano, fourth in the 3,200 (11:33.47), Caitlin Toy, fifth in the 3,200 (12:02.13), Alexandra Bonn, fifth in the 55 hurdles (8.82), Ebony Turner, fifth in the high jump (4-10), Carmela LoStuto, fourth in the pole vault (8-0), and Natalia Thompson, fifth in the 200 in 27.20.
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On the boys side, Wischusen blasted a 9:22.89 to take down the meet record of 9:25.36 set by Avery Keith of Westfield last year. Keith was second to Wischusen in 9:26.39. Wischusen is No. 3 in the state this season, and No. 2 in school history, just behind the school indoor record of 9:19.38 that was set by DJ Thornton at the 2009 Meet of Champions.

There were several other outstanding performances by the Vikings.

Noah Cooper finished second in the 200 in 23.45, Al Qamar Rojas was third in the 200 in 23.60, Marcus McCoy finished fifth in the 400 in 52.76, Avery Atexide was sixth in the 400 in 53.18, Sean Wilson placed fifth in the 800 in 1:59.21, Caudell Cajuste was third in the 1,600 in 4:29.84, Evan Weber was fifth in the 1,600 in 4:33.15, Alessandro Alvarez-Tullo placed sixth in the 1,600 in 4:34.86, Ryan Cichocki finished third in the 3,200 in 9:27.83, Michael Devine placed fourth in the 3,200 in 9:45.37, Matthew Schutz finished third in the pole vault (11-6), Aidan Reidy placed fifth in the vault (11-0), and the 4×400 relay placed second.