UC Sweeps Union County Conference Titles
This latest sweep comes a week after the surging Vikings also captured both the boys and girls team championships at the Union County Relays.
The conference sweep by UC was another complete team performance as points came from everywhere. The sprints, hurdles, distance, throws, and jumps all produced points for the both the boys and girls.
The UC girls were led by double winners Alexandra Bonn, Jada Mia Puryear, Asydiah Pray-Brown, Daniela Peralta, and Peyton Hollis, record-breaking victories from Taylor Cox and Kaleigh Gunsiorowski, and a win in the 4×400 to steamroll their way to an eighth straight championship. The Vikings rang up a meet record 228 points to outscore runner-up Scotch Plains-Fanwood by 139 points.
On the boys side, the Vikings picked up two wins from Cameron Campbell, a huge PR victory from Ryan Cichocki, wins from Myles Plummer, Nick Givan, and the 4×400, and several other sparkling performances as the Vikings defeated runner-up Eizabeth, 122-99.
Let’s dig a little deeper into how the girls dominated the meet.
In the field, Puryear smashed the school record and took over the state lead in the discus with a winning throw of 139-1, and she also won the shot put with a 35-4.25. Bonn swept the horizontal jumps with a school junior class record of 17-8.25 in the long jump, and a 36-10.25 in the triple jump. And Peralta captured the javelin (113-9) and the pole vault (10-0).
On the track, Hollis came up with an amazing double, winning the 400 in 55.81, which is No. 5 in the state this season, and in her first 3,200 ever, she finished first by running a meet and sophomore school record 10:54.98, the No. 9 time in the state this season. Hollis is one of very girls to evre run under 11 minutes in the 3,200 and under 56 in the 400!
Pray-Brown also turned in an impressive double by winning the 400 hurdles in 1:02.80, No. 2 in the state this season, and finishing first in the 800 in 2:15.66.
Gunsiorowski, a junior, broke a meet record by winning the 1,600 in 5:11.52. Taylor Cox ran 14.11, the fastest time in the state this season, to win the 100 hurdles, and ran a school freshman record 12.14 in the 100 dash, which is the third fastest time in NJ this spring. Ajanae Thompson also had a great meet, placing second in the 100 hurdles in 14.51, the third fastest time in the state, and she was second in the 100 dash in 12.16, No. 4 in the state. UC also ran 3:58.84 to win the 4×400.
For the UC boys, Campbell, a senior, continued his sensational rookie season by winning the triple jump with a 45-6.25, which is No. 3 in the state this season. He also won the long jump (21-9), and placed third in the 100 dash in 11.09. Givan won the 110 hurdles in 14.75, and was second in the 400 witn a PR of 48.68, No. 4 in the state this season. Plummer won the 800 in 1:53.79, Cichocki dropped a big PR and meet record time of 9:25.03 to win the 3,200, and the 4×400 ran 3:25.62 to finish first.
Several other athletes came up big for the Vikings.
Noah Cooper leaped a school freshman record 21-8.75 to place second in the long jump. Sophomore Alex Saldana ran a big PR of 9:29.27 to place third in the 3,200. Al-Qamar Rojas (57.75) and Marcus McCoy (57.85) went 2-3 in the 400 hurdles, Emerson McKindra (42-9.50) was third in the triple jump, and Caudell Cajuste finished fourth in the 3,200 in 9:30.61.
