Boys & Girls Sweep County Championship!
The Union Catholic express rolled to another team title sweep behind several eye-popping performances at the Union County Championships, which concluded with a bang at the Milt Campbell Track and Field Complex on Wednesday at historic Hub Stine Field in Plainfield.
Union Catholic continued its remarkable streaks as the girls steamrolled their way to a ninth straight title, 171-53 over runner-up Oak Knoll. On the boys side, UC won a great battle with Westfield, 135-114, to capture their fourth straight championship.
There were several stunning performances produced by the Vikings.
Let’s start with the girls, who won seven of the 16 events, all by underclassmen.
Taylor Cox and Paige Sheppard were simply sensational as both smashed a pair of records.
Cox, a junior, won the 100-meter dash in a meet and Union County record 11.66 on Tuesday, the third fastest time in the state this season. Then on Wednesday, she broke her own meet record in the 100 hurdles by running a personal best 13.50. It’s the second straight year that Cox won the 100 dash and the 100 hurdles.
Sheppard continued her record-setting freshman year by winning the 1,600 in a meet record 4:52.38 to lead a 1-2-3 finosh for the Vikings. Then she came back the next day to take down the state freshman record in the 800 with a winning time of 2:07.11, the second fastest time in the state this season. The former state freshman record of 2:07.18 was set by 2021 Olympic 800 gold medalist Athing Mu of Trenton in 2017. Sheppard also owns the state freshman record in the 1,600 of 4:45.28!
Junior Taylor Aska won the 200 for UC with a big PR of 23.86, the No. 2 time in the state this season behind the 23.85 run by Sianni Wynn of Pennsauken. Freshman Cayleigh Kaiser put an exclamation point on UC’s runaway victory by capturing the 3,200 in 11:02.66. Kaiser, who hit the 1600 mark in 5:24.8, ran a very smart race as she methodically pulled away from Kent Place senior Addison McGoey to win by 18 seconds!
Freshmen Sydney Chadwick got things rolling for the Vikings when she won the 400 hurdles, the first event of the meet on Tuesday, with a PR of 1:02.
On the boys side, UC picked up three wins on Wednesday and key points from several different athletes to secure the team title.
Junior Avery Atexide, who won the 400 on Tuesday, won his second gold when he ran a PR of 21.89 to give UC a sweep of the sprints. On Tuesday, senior Dylan Williams won the 100 by running a PR of 10.86.
UC also picked up several points in the field on Wednesday. Freshman Andrew Smith matched his PR by clearing 11-0 to win the pole vault on misses over teammate Josh Hunsinger as the Vikings went 1-2. Senior Kevin Philistin soared 44-10 to finish first in the triple jump.
Another big star for the Vikings was senior Justice Hicks.
The FDU-bound Hicks racked up 20 points by winning the long jump with a huge PR of 23-0 (his previous best was 22-0), placing fourth in the high jump with a PR matching 6-0, and he finished third in the 400 hurdles in 57.08.
