The Bennett Center (a.k.a. The Bubble), home to all of New Jersey’s state track meets, saw the Westfield boys win their second consecutive Union County championship on Sunday morning.
Westfield had three finishers in the top 10 of the one-mile race. Tage Mehta nearly won with a strong 4:26 showing, losing by 2 seconds to Jonathon Dayton’s Colin Riley. Ryan Daly and Eamon Mason finished fourth and seventh, respectively, running 4:29 and 4:36.
In the half mile, Westfield placed second, third and fourth, with all three runners breaking two minutes. An impressive feat, but nothing to be surprised about, said third-place finisher Liam Maurillo: “We went in there with a plan and executed it to near perfection.”
Joe Pierro finished second in the 400 meters with an impressive time of 51.30, losing by less than 1 second to Union’s Gabe Rodriguez. Noah Petrassi and David Moreland followed up with times of 54.84 and 57.25.
In the shot put, winter track’s only throwing event, the team put three finishers in the top 10 once again, with Owen Paul and Jon Boufarah finishing second and third. Mason Marino rounded it out at seventh and said, “It feels great. Just got to keep the momentum going and try to perform even better in the coming weeks than we did today.”
Marino was alluding to the upcoming state meets, and he’s not alone. The Blue Devils are proud of what they accomplished but understand that it is just the beginning; all eyes are on recapturing another state title like they did last year.
“As a team, we’re doing really well,” said Mehta following his race. “It’ll be fun to see what we do in the upcoming weeks.”
