Jackson girls revert to championship form
BY MIKE WHITE
Staff Writer

PRINCETON — Jackson High School girls indoor track coach Alton Johnson didn’t try to hide his displeasure with his team’s performance two weeks ago at the NJSIAA Group IV relays.

And he wasn’t making any excuses, either.

“We just didn’t get it together for that meet,” Johnson said. “We do have a very young team, and I think that was part of it. We just had too many things going wrong for us on that day.”

So, when the Lady Jaguars showed up for the NJSIAA Group IV championships last weekend at Jadwin Gymnasium, Johnson wasn’t sure what to expect from his youthful crew.

Jackson got back to business last Saturday en route to winning its second consecutive Group IV title. The Lady Jaguars compiled a total of 41 points to overcome a pesky East Orange High School squad led by Racquel Vassell, who captured three individual events.

“It was our team versus one kid,” Johnson said with chuckle. “I thought we performed much better this past weekend. We had a good week of workouts and came in a little more focused and prepared than we were the weekend before. I think it showed in the girls’ outcome. They were ready to compete.”

Indeed, the Lady Jags made their presence felt in just about every event. Jackson placed in six of the 10 events.

“When you can have that many places, you are going to score points,” Johnson said. “We’ve been talking about depth of this program for the past couple of years. We may be young, but we have a lot of talented kids here.”

In three of the six events, the Jaguars finished runner-up. Nicole Castronuova placed second behind Vassell in the 200 meters in one of the meets most exciting races. Castronuova finished in a time of 25.69, less than a second behind the winner. Running indoor had an effect on the outcome, Johnson said.

“She ran a great race,” Johnson said. “But there is a big difference between running indoors and outside. You don’t get a chance to open up on the straight away because they are so short. There are more turns to negotiate, also.”

Jenn Clausen finished runner-up in the 3,200 meters with a time of 11:25.48, while teammate Amanda Marino was second in the 1,600 (5:04.67). Marino ran second to Danielle Tauro of Southern (5:00.46).

Marino returned an hour later to place fourth in the 800 with a time of 2:19.64.

“That is a pretty solid meet for her,” Johnson said. “She put forth a couple of quality runs. She didn’t have a lot of time to recover between events.”

Jackson secured its second consecutive group title when Kim Menafra finished third in the 400 meters with a time of 59.67. At the time, Jackson clung to a narrow, two-point lead, but Menafra’s performance stretched it to 41-33.

“That was a key event,” Johnson said. “Things were starting to heat up at that point in the meet.”

Kelly Fortune finished with a pair of fourth-place finishes. Fortune placed fourth in the 55 hurdles with a time of 8.63, than cleared 5-2 to finish tied for fourth in the high jump.

Johnson cited Fortune’s increased strength for helping with her fine performance.

“We’ve now got the girls doing some weight training and I’m seeing a big difference,” Johnson said. “It is now becoming an important piece for these girls to continue to improve.”

Jackson is scheduled to defend its Shore Conference championship this weekend at Red Bank Regional High School. Johnson expects an extremely competitive meet.

“This one is tougher to win than the group championship,” Johnson said. “There are a lot of talented teams at this meet. We’ll need to run like we did at this last meet in order to hold off those teams. There are a number of teams there that are capable of scoring points in bunches, so we need to be ready.”