The Blue Devils competed in the North 2, Group 4 sectional championship meet on Feb. 16 and were able to take gold in not only numerous events, but also in the entire meet.
Starting off the day was senior Tyler Pietrewicz who claimed fifth in the 400-meters with a time of 52.32 seconds.
Directly after the 400 was the 1600, where the Blue Devils saw their first sectional champion of the day from senior Ryan Daly who ran 4:20. Senior Kaleb Stoeckmann came closely behind in third place with a time of 4:22. This resulted in a huge 16 points for the Blue Devils early on in the meet.
With not much recovery time, Daly and Stoeckmann took the track once again for the 800 where Daly took first place with a time of 1:58.80, followed by Stoeckmann in second place with the time of 1:59.19. Rounding out the 800 was junior Christian Buonopane who ran 2:01.95 and got fifth place. Similarly to the Union County championship meet, the 800 was where the Blue Devils saw the most points.
Following both of his exciting races, Daly said, “Winning two events was great. Just being able to win one event was great, but having the ability to come back and run a good enough 800 to win makes me really confident going forward with the [Group 4] meet next week.”
Then came the 3200, where junior Brody Toriello placed second with a time of 9:46 and senior Cole Varner placed fifth with a time of 9:50, earning crucial points for the Blue Devils late in the meet.
Right around this time is when the pole vault ended where all three of the Blue Devil participants scored points and qualified for the Group 4 championship meet. Senior Liam Morris took the win with a height of 12 feet 6 inches. Seniors Andrew Geocos and Sam Braun got second and fifth with heights of 12-0 and 9-6, respectively.
Morris was extremely pleased with his performance as he has been working hard all season and was “happy to see his work pay off in winning the meet and being able to contribute key points to the team.”
It was also at this time that the shot put ended where senior Noah Rubenstein came in fourth with a distance of 50-9. As well as senior Brenton Hatch placing sixth with a distance of 45-0.
Despite all of the winning done by the Blue Devils, they still found themselves tied with Elizabeth with one event left: the 4×400 meter relay. Whichever team placed in front of the other, would end up winning the meet. And the team of senior Charlie Prieto, Daly, Bunopane, and Pietrewicz came through for the Blue Devils placing second to Elizabeth’s third in a time of 3:31, winning the meet for Westfield.
Head coach Christ Tafelski credits the 4x400m performance to the team’s depth. “Our guys were fresher because we were able to involve more guys in the events leading up to the relay. Our guys haven’t had to do as many events so they have more to give,” said Tafelski.
This was so crucial for the Blue Devils because everyone on Elizabeth’s relay team had already run two or more events prior, while everyone on Westfield, excluding Daly, had only competed in one other event, allowing for a recovery period and better performances.
Next, the Blue Devils travel right back to Toms River this Sunday for the NJSIAA Group 4 state meet.
