Falcons' Faagi strikes gold in discus at MOC

Falcons' Faagi strikes gold in discus at MOC
Second places for RBR's Waite, Monmouth's Cox
BY TIM MORRIS
Staff Writer

PHOTOS BY ERIC SUCAR staff Ocean Township's Georgina Nembhard focuses on the task at hand while competing in the 100-meter hurdles at the June 6 Meet of Champions at South Plainfield's Frank Jost Field. Below, Red Bank Catholic's Erin Lunny nears the finish alongside New Providence's Kelly Cattano after competing in the 3,200-meter event.Champions are the ones who can overcome obstacles.In track and field, seldom are the conditions ideal for an athlete's performance. At the June 6 NJSIAA Meet of Champions, girls competing in the discus found the circle slick and the cage surrounding it offline at the Frank Jost Field in South Plainfield. That forced the throwers to make adjustments, and the thrower who adjusted best was Monmouth Regional's Elena Faagi.

The Golden Falcon's best throw, 122-9, edged premeet favorite Brick Township's DeAnne Hahn (who won the shot put title), who got off a 122-1 on her final throw.

"It feels good," Faagi said of her MOC title. "I wanted a big throw, but the ring was slick; I wasn't used to it."

Faagi had been on a steady upward swing, having won the Central Jersey Group III championship and finishing second in State Group III with a personal best of 129-0. Conditions at the MOC may have prevented her from improving on her personal best, but it hardly mattered after she won the gold medal.

The nervous Faagi admitted that she didn't watch Hahn's final throw, which landed perilously close to her best throw.

However, Hahn, who repeated as champion in the shot put with a meet record throw of 47 feet 6 inches, also finished second in the discus for the second straight year with 122-1, despite having to run back and forth to compete in both events that were run almost simultaneously.

Hahn's discus throw was eight inches behind Faagi (and over 16 feet shorter than her qualifying mark), and that precipitated Brick Township coach Bill Brunner's protest on behalf of his star thrower, who he claimed was the victim of poor event scheduling, on top of the subpar conditions of the discus circle.

"The whole meet was a disaster, it was a mess," said Brunner. "This was the biggest meet of the year and it was run the worst. It took the whole luster off the competition.

"I just want them to review it and look at it for next year, how it's run," added Brunner, who not only said he was doing it for the sake of all competitors but for his young athletes who all return next spring.

Brunner said he saw in online forums that other coaches shared his sentiments.

Brunner's complaints, however, do nothing to diminish Faagi's victory.

Simply put, Faagi was the most consistent thrower in the competition. She had the lead after the preliminaries with a 120-8 and improved on it by two feet in the final round, allowing her to win a title that wasn't on her mind when the season started.

"My goal was just to get a pb [personal best]," she said.

That pb stood at 119.

Faagi comes from a discus-throwing family - five siblings, four girls and one boy, who have all thrown the discus. Her father, Army Capt. Pila Faagi, was transferred to Fort Monmouth last November from Huntington Beach, Calif.

Faagi played forward for the Golden Falcons basketball team in the winter, and then showed off her talent for throwing the discus and shot put this spring.

The family personal best for the sisters is 149-0 by Alana, who finished fourth at the California state championships and is now throwing at the University of Hawaii. Elena may not have the sister pb, but she does have the state championship. Her brother Eki, who is competing in junior college in California, has the family pb at 163-0.

Faagi is looking to continue her throwing career in college, and wherever she goes, that school will be getting the 2007 New Jersey state champion.

A great season and career by the Falcons' Charles Cox ended in silver rather than gold.

The defending 400-meter champion was beaten to the tape for the second straight week by Willingboro's Antonio Abney. His 47.35 beat Cox's 47.50.

Chris Cox, Charles' twin brother, was 12th (49.16).

In the 200-meter dash, Charles Cox again took the silver as his 21.61 was bettered by Sabli Gonnet of Eastern Regional with a 21.46.

A disqualification in the 4x400 spoiled his final chance for gold.

Red Bank Regional's Dennie Waite was second in the boys 1,600 meters behind Colts Neck's Craig Forys, who used a 58.9 last quarter to run 4:09.59, while Waite clocked 4:15.59.

Waite achieved two goals in the race. The senior ran a personal best, and in doing so, he qualified for this weekend's National Scholastic Championships in Greensboro, N.C.

"I was happy with it," Waite said of his race. "I'm not used to going out that fast. The first quarter was 60-61 and the second 65-66."

Waite did not lose contact with the pack, chasing Forys despite the early speed, and found life in his legs over the last 400 meters to move up to second and dip under the 4:16 required to qualify for the nationals.

"I was looking to qualify for the nationals," he pointed out.

He was also aiming for a second MOC title this year. Back in February, he won the indoor MOC in Toms River. This time around he had national champion Forys standing in the way. It created mixed emotions for Waite, who will continue his

running career at The College of New Jersey, as his second place, in a way, confirmed his indoor title.

"I still think second place is OK, but second place is still second place," he pointed out.

Rumson girls lower 4x400 school record

A year ago, Melissa Bellin and her Rumson-Fair Haven teammates were running in the unseeded section of the 4x400 relay. They were awed by the times those teams were running and made it their goal in '07 to see if they could be good enough to be in that race.

Thanks to a State Group II championship and a slew of fast times that culminated in their 3:53.03 at the state meet, Bellin and teammates Gabriella Kelly, Jaime Carroll and Sara Robinson were front and center at the MOC.

"It meant so much to us," Bellin said of being in the seeded section.

The Bulldogs proved they belonged with the very best by again lowering their school record to 3:51.91 to finish in fifth place.

"Our coach [Dawn Bowels-Fitch] told us to get ready and run 3:52 [this year]," said Bellin. "Everyone worked so hard for it."

With every school record, the Bulldogs thought that "this is it," but Bowles-Fitch, a scholastic state champion herself while at Neptune, never stopped pushing, and the quartet entered territory they thought was beyond their range.

"We have such great chemistry," said Bellin. "We want to run for each other."

Robinson is the only senior in the foursome, and no doubt, the Bulldogs will be record chasing next year.

Kelly qualified for the 400 meters and finished 10th, circling the track in 57.52.

Georgina Nembhard's career will conclude without an MOC title, but it doesn't diminish what was an outstanding scholastic career. She fought her way back from a knee injury to be in the thick of things again. The senior, who will be running for the University of Georgia next year, was third in both the 100 hurdles (14.33) and 200-meter dash (24.35).

Red Bank's Kerone Rhoden was seventh in the 100 dash (10.89) and eighth in the 200 (21.89).

Monmouth's Kelly Fisher placed seventh in the boys long jump (21-9).

Rumson's Alex Smith was eighth in the high jump (6-4).

Monmouth's Edrick Alleyene was 10th in the discus (149-10), and teammate Brandon Catley was 14th in the shot put (50-9 3/4). Shore Regional's Derek Schultz was 19th in the 400 (50.60).