On Feb. 7, the boys track and field team took home the first-place trophy in the North 2 Group 4 sectional meet and, in doing so, completed a five-peat sectional win for the program.
From runs, jumps, throws and relays, Westfield scored points in a hefty variety of events that led them to score a total of 48 points, a whole 10 points more than second place, Watchung Hills Regional High School, which scored 38 points. Despite this nice-sized gap, head coach Christopher Tafleski reflected on this win, saying despite this being “our fifth [win] in a row, it was by far the grittest one.”
Although the Blue Devils had no individual first-place winners, a handful of boys came home with silver medals. On the track, 2nd place finishers include junior Nikos Davlouros in the 800 meter run with a time of 2 minutes flat, sophomore Lincoln Staiger in the 3200 meter, running 9:52, the 4×400 meter relay team consisting of junior Luke Scheiner, senior Christian Buonopane, junior Rocco Dena and senior Brody Toriello running a time of 3:34. In the field, sophomore Toby Bronsteen jumped 11-6 feet in the pole vault and junior Nicholas Dena threw 48-2.5 feet in the shot put, securing them top 2 finishes as well.
For Bronsteen, just competing at the section meet was an incredible opportunity, given that he is only a sophomore. He said, “It didn’t really matter if I got top three. I just wanted to get out there and get some reps in and also having fun is the most important thing about the sport.” In terms of being able to score for the team, Bronsteen said, “It felt great. Last year, I would have never believed I would be scoring this winter season, so it’s been awesome.”
Other scorers for the team included Toriello (2:00) and Buonopane (2:01), placing 3rd and 5th in the 800, and junior Luke Romano, who took 6th in the shot put (44-10).
Toriello credits the team as a whole for the win and his individual performances. He credits his teammates, saying that “It’s just so great to be able to be with them every day at practice and training with them, which helps the overall team win feel so good.”
This win felt great, but it didn’t come without stress, as Tafleski mentioned. He went on to mention how, “We were missing two guys off the bat, one had a religious commitment and one got hurt in Phys Ed class, so we’re down to key people before we even walked in the building. We [also] had a couple of events early on in the meet that didn’t go the way we wanted, and the kids were not deterred, and they just kept fighting.”
In all, this was an incredible first-place finish and helped continue just one of the very impressive winning streaks that the boys track and field program holds. All of the scorers of this meet will move on to the Group 4 championship meet on Feb. 21 at the Rothman Orthopaedics Sports Complex – “The Bubble” in Toms River.
