UC Girls Win 6th Straight State Title. Boys 3rd!

The Union Catholic girls added to its remarkable resume and solidified its status as one of the greatest programs in state history with the most dominating performance in meet history when the Vikings racked up a record 189 points to runaway with its sixth straight State Non-Public A Track and Field title on Saturday in Neptune.

UC’s boys also had a very strong meet, placing third behind Christian Brothers Academy and St. Peter’s Prep.

In the girls competition, the 189 points by UC broke the All Groups meet record (all Groups combined) of 179 that the Vikings scored in 2019. With the victory, the Vikings completed another undefeated season.

To give you an idea about just how dominant and impressive the performance was by the UC girls, the maximum number of points that can be scored in the 18 events is 390. That means the Vikings scored 48.5 percent of all the possible points.

How did they do it?

For starters,Union Catholic won nine of the 18 events!

The Vikings swept all three relays, senior Aliyah Thomas won the high jump (5-0) and long jump (18-5.75), sophomore Ajanae Thomson led a 1-2-3 finish in the high hurdles by winning in 14.32, Asydiah Pray-Brown won the 400 hurdles (1:06.24) and ran on the winning 4×400.Junior Jada Mia Puryear captured the shot put (40-5.50), and sophomore Alexandra Bonn (36-7) won the triple jump. Thompson, a sophomore, also finished second in the 200 and third in the 100.

There were several other strong performances by the Vikings. Kaleigh Gunsiorowski finished second in the 800, third in the 1,600, and ran on the winning 4×800. Autumn Barge led a 2-3-4 finish for UC in the javelin. Morgan Williams picked up a third in the 800, and ran on the winning 4×400 and 4×800 relays. Maameyaa Nyinah placed third in the 400 and ran on the 4×400. Abby Granrath finished sixth in the 3,200 and ran on the 4×800. Daniela Peralta placed sixth in the pole vault and fourth in the javelin.

The UC boys were led by the dynamic distance duo of Shane Brosnan and Myles Plummer.

Brosnan and Plummer finished 1-2 in the 1,600 on Friday with Brosnan winning in a NJ#4 4:12.12, and Plummer second in a NJ#5 4:12.16 as both runners ran their personal best times. Plummer came back on Saturday to win the 800 in a personal best and NJ#4 1:52.55 to edge Edwin Klanke of St. Peter’s Prep (1:52.57), and also anchored the winning 4×400 relay. Brosnan came back to place second in in the 3,200 in a personal best 9:21.52.

Nick Givan also had a strong all-round meet for UC. The junior placed second in the 110 hurdles with a huge personal best of 14.57, ran 58.11 to place third in the 58.11, ran 51.67 to place sixth in the 400, and ran on the winning 4×400 relay. Also running on the victorious 4×400 with Plummer and Givan were Sam Hernandez and Connor Cooper.

The Vikings will be back in action at the Meet of Champions this Saturday at 12 p.m. at Frank Jost Field in South Plainfield.