2005 Boys Union County Cross Country

Maybe Mother Nature didn’t know that Wednesday, October 26 was Jeffrey Perrella’s 18th birthday but the elements were not kind in Perrella’s last attempt to break the course record at Warinanco Park. A torrential rain on Tuesday had left the course muddy and the footing treacherous and a gusty wind in the runner’s faces made the open areas of the course “like running into a wall” according to Perrella.

Even so, the Westfield senior left the meet with his first individual Union county title and helped his team end eight years of Cranford dominance as the Blue Devils took the team crown with 46 points, easily outdistancing Summit which scored 95. Scotch Plains-Fanwood was a close third with 98 and the Cougars were fifth with 117.

“I am definitely happy with the race. I took a stab at the record even though I knew it was near impossible for me with the course as it was. If I didn't at least try I wouldn't be able to live with myself,” said Perrella.

A consummate team player, Perrella was more pleased with the performances of his teammates.

“The important thing was scoring the points for the team. I knew we would need every point possible to try and seal the victory. This title is very important for the team.”

“It was sloppy and windy out there today. I’m pleased with the way the team ran,” said veteran Westfield Coach Jack Martin.

Showing their remarkable depth, the Blue Devils got scoring performances from Senior Tyler MacCubbin and Sophomore Evan Friedman, who were the top two finishers in the junior varsity race at the Watchung Conference meet the week before.

Friedman was ninth, in 17:52 and MacCubbin was 15th in 18:08) finishing as Westfield's third and fifth runners, which compensated for an injury to number four runner, Senior Jay Hoban, who was forced to drop out after two miles.

“Our new people really stepped up and ran well today,” said Martin.
“We are fortunate to have a lot of competition on the team for the last few spots.”

Although the conditions were much better the previous week when Perrella just missed the course record with a 15:43, the race was just as one-sided. Unlike the last race however, Perrella’s former nemesis Junior Joe McKenney of Cranford was not runner-up, instead supplanted by Brian Guterl of Union Catholic in Scotch Plains who ran 16:37.

The second Westfield finisher was again Kris Kagan seventh in 17:37 and Ameer Rogers fourteenth rounded out the top five.

Perrella was alone as he cruised through a 4:53 first mile and a 9:50 two-mile just seconds off his conference pace. The final mile, nicknamed “The Alamo” takes the runners uphill into an open area where strong winds can be a factor.

“It was like running on a treadmill,” said JZ Zinman, the Raiders’ top finisher, eighth in 17:41.

Despite not getting the record, Perrella is still optimistic about the championship races in November.
“I hope that I will get some more, but time will tell. As long as I stay healthy and am able to train, I think I might be able to get one or two more.”

What pleased Perrella the most was to hopefully jump-start Westfield into regaining its county dominance that yielded eight straight titles between 1989 and 1996.

“I think we have enough good young runners to start up another streak that can last for a few years,” said Perrella.

Led by defending champion Laura Gallo, Cranford dominated the Girl’s race, placing all five runners in the top thirteen to swamp Westfield 38-88. The Blue Devils had their customary pack spanning from twelfth through 20th but all five Cranford runners finished before the first Blue Devil.

“Cranford ran a tremendous race in very difficult conditions. They are deserving winners,” said Westfield Coach Thomas Hornish.

“We ran well and I expect to keep improving into the state tournament.”

The top area finisher was again sophomore Cassy Valdes of Scotch Plains Fanwood, who finished sixth in 20:30. Competing without six of their top seven runners from a year ago left the Raiders unable to defend their county title and they finished far behind with 190 points in sixth place.

2006 Union County Boys Indoor

Although held in the same venue, the Union County Boys individual Indoor Track Championships had far less drama than the County Relays held three weeks earlier and that suited Scotch Plains Fanwood Coach Jeff Koegel just fine. Unlike the relay meet which came down to the final event, the mile relay, and resulted in a narrow second place finish, the Raiders won this one comfortably with a 53-37 victory over Rahway and Westfield.

Dominance in two events, the shot put and 60-yard high hurdles provided 36 points, nearly enough to win the meet. The Raiders distance corps added 15 points and the mile relay scored the other two. In the second event of the night, Junior Kyle Rowbotham, senior Nehemiah Burney-Porter and junior Tom Pennella finished 1-2-5 for twenty points in the 60-yard high hurdles in times of 7.5, 7.7 and 8.4 respectively.
Combined with Adam Biner’s impressive fourth place in the mile, the Raiders were off to a flying start with 24 points.

“The twenty points in the HH definitely made a strong statement for us after that,” said Koegel.
The Raiders might have swept the hurdles if Pennella, who had the fastest semi final time, had not clipped the second hurdle but the Raiders still had a big lead that they would not relinquish.

“We had figured it would take low-40's to win the title, and we knew we'd be able to get big points in the shot put and the two-mile. We figured that at best, we would be getting 16 points in the shot and that at worst, we would get 6 points in the two-mile. We didn't want to have to rely on needing the mile relay to do something spectacular, which wound up being a good thing because we didn't run very well there,”

The Raiders other individual winner was also an underclassman, sophomore Mike Alleman, who threw 51 feet, 5 inches to win the shot put.
Alleman, who at 6’0 260 pounds is very aptly named, surprised the favorite, Oliver Haney of Johnson, by unleashing his winning performance on his second throw.

“I wanted to get a good one out there early. I was a little nervous coming in because I hadn’t thrown well in my previous meet (The State Relays),” said Alleman.

After not qualifying for the finals as a freshman last year, Alleman’s victory was not a surprise to Koegel.
“Mike is a monster. He struggled a little bit at the Group III relays, but his goal since county relays has been to win this meet. He was keenly aware of who his competition is and knew how he needed to perform to take the title,” said Koegel.

With only two coaches for 115 athletes, Alleman and junior John Badalia, third in the shot put, have become the coaches for the weight throwers.
“They are providing quite a bit of leadership for the rest of the shot putters,” said an appreciative Koegel.

The mild January weather has also helped the throwers get more outdoor practice time.
“We’re way ahead of where we were last year because of the weather,” said Alleman.
“I am also a lot stronger and quicker than I was a year ago.” On Sunday Alleman became the only Raider to qualify for the Meet of Champions by finishing fourth in the Group 3 Shot Put, held at Princeton’s Jadwin Gym.

Also qualifying for the Meet of champions, was Westfield’s Jeffrey Perrella, who pulled away from Chris Horel of Christian Brothers Academy to win the Group IV 3200-meter run Saturday in 9:30.32

Perrella was also a double winner at the Union county Meet. After missing the meet record in the 1600 meter run with a winning time of 4:34, Perrella was determined to finish his high school career with a record in the 3200. He obliterated the old record of 10:02 set in 1984 by Craig Anderson from Cranford by running a 9:54.

“Coach Martin mentioned the record ahead time and he didn't say that he wanted me to try for it, he just said that no one had ever broken 10 there before and just to think about that,” said Perrella.

“So, I thought about it and I was disappointed that I missed the mile record, by so little, and that I have been missing meet records and school records on a pretty consistent basis, so I decided to see how my legs felt and see what the pace was after the first half mile, then from there decided what I was going to do.”

Also impressive in the two mile was Raider freshman Martin Sweeney, who was fourth in 10:57.3 while running from the unseeded second heat.

“I told him he had to go out and run hard, work on lapping people, and then hope that when the seeded section was run later, that he would bump people. He went out and lapped the entire field. Then, when the seeded section came around, there were people with 10:30 seed times running nearly 12:00. He winds up beating seven of the ten people in that section,” said Koegel.

Sweeney combined with senior JZ Zinman’s third place to give the Raiders seven points in the 3200.Westfield was also strong in the distances with Kris Kagan and John Gagliano going 3-5 in the 800 and sophomore Evan Friedman adding a fifth in the mile. The Blue Devils also had a third in the high jump from multi talented senior Tyler MacCubbin, who cleared 5-10.

Had the meet been closer, Perrella was prepared to try and triple in the 800

“I wanted to do it, but Mr. Martin forbade me. I don't know how well I would have placed but I think I could have scored a couple of points maybe. We still got two guys in there which was huge and helped us place second,” said Perrella.