UC Sweeps State NPA Titles!
The girls rang up 187 points on their way to a historic ninth straight championship, which is the most titles in a row for a girls team in any group in meet history. UC had shared the girls meet record with Notre Dame, which captured the Non-Public A championship 8 straight years from 1993-2000. The Vikings are now tied with the Glen Ridge boys for the most consecutive titles by any team. Glen Ridge won nine in a row from 1959-67.
On the boys side, UC won a great battle with defending champion Christian Brothers Academy, 114.666-99. It’s the second title in three years for the UC boys and its fifth overall.
Union Catholic was the only program to win both girls and boys State Group Championships this weekend among the six total championship meets as both squads completed the season undefeated and should both finish the season No. 1 in the state in the final rankings.
In the girls’ competition, UC simply overwhelmed the field with a flurry of victories and record performances as the Vikings outscored runner-up Immaculate Heart Academy, 187-65.50.
Freshman Paige Sheppard and senior Taylor Cox each won two individual titles and smashed records.
Sheppard broke the meet records in the 800 with a time of 2:08.08 and the 1,600 in 4:43.48. Both of those times lowered her own State Freshmen records, and the 4:43.38 is No. 1 in NJ this season and No. 4 in NJ history, not including converted mile times.
Cox broke the Non-Public A meet record in the 100 dash (11.68) and also won the 100 hurdles in 13.83.
Junior Taylor Aska won the 200 (24.36) and was second in the 100 dash.
UC’s other winners were Emma Muir in the javelin (114-7), Natalia Thompson in the long jump (18-5.75, and the 4×400 squad of Abriyah Thompson (57.5), Leilani Gibson (60.8), Isabella Murray, (55.9), and Sydney Chadwick (56.2).
“It’s unbelievable,” Union Catholic coach Mike McCabe said. “I’m super proud of the girls. We have a lot of talented girls who want to get better, and our goal is to help them make those progressions and have fun doing it.”
In the boys’ competition, UC had its best meet of the season to dethrone arch rival CBA.
“The end game was getting here and squaring up, and I told them if we came and compete the right way, we could do it”, added McCabe. “I’m really proud of them because these guys won everything. They won a conference, county relay and county championship, and then they came here and won the Non-Public A title”.
Several athletes leveled up for the Vikings, who swept all three relays, running a meet record 41.93 in the 4×100, 7:58.72 in the 4×800, and 3:21.98 in the 4×400.
Avery Atexide, who ran on the 4×100 and 4×400 relays, won the 400 (48.24) and finished third in the 200 ( 21.92).
Al-Qamar Rojas (55.96) and Marcus McCoy(56.34) placed third and fourth in the 400 hurdles.
Justice Hicks came up huge in the absence of injured jumper Noah Cooper..
Hicks won the long jump (22-10¼), finished tied for fourth (6-0) in both the high jump and triple jump (43-3) and was fourth (15.44) in the high hurdles.
“We lost Noah a week ago, who was probably good for 12 to 14 points, but we had guys step up”, McCabe said. “Justice was huge. He stepped up real big without Noah.”
Kevin Philistin also had a big meet in the jumps, placing second in the triple jump (44-9¾) and tied for fourth in the high jump (6-0)
Senior star Jimmy Wischusen led a strong performance by the UC distance squad.
Wischusen finished second in the 3,200 out of the unseeded heat in 9:06.71, and finished third in the 1,600 in 4:11.54.
“Having Jimmy back was awesome”, McCabe said. “He’s been back, but then he got real sick before the county meet, so he was out for a week, and then it was cool to get him back and for him to go 9:06 and 4:11.”
McCabe was proud of the way his team responded to the challenge.
“I knew getting this win was going to be a challenge,” said McCabe. “We scored 12 or 14 guys, so I’m super happy with what they did. It was really a complete team effort. We did really well in the sprints and jumps, and we scored in the distance events. We had a really good meet”.
