Livingston High School’s boys’ track and field team competed in the Essex County Championships on Sunday, January 29. The Lancers were up against 30 other teams from the county.
Lancers’ varsity hurdlers, co-captain Matt Ho, Ray Oji and Nick Siao, competed in a qualifying race. Oji’s 8:07 time brought the team to the final race with a 7:92 second-place finish. Sophomore Ricky Romero ran a season’s best time of 4:45.64 to place ninth overall in the 1,600-meter. Shane Lyons (5:00.70) and Kyle Viteri (5:04.63) also ran in the same race.
Next in the infield was the 55-meter dash. The sprinting squad included Chase Kaufman, Luke Petryna and Ethan Wang, who ran in the eightathlete final. Kaufman, who recently broke the school’s 55-meter record, placed second with a time of 6:60; followed by Petryna in fourth at 6:66; and Ethan Wang in seventh with his personal record of 6:77.
Lancer Chase Wade ran the 400-meter sprint at 53:27 for 14th in a field of over 60 runners. Lancer Corey Leavy ran at 55:98 followed by Hank Klein at 57:32.
Ho and Siao competed in the pole vault. Ho cleared the bar with his season’s best 11’6” to place second overall. Siao finished fourth with a height of 9’6”. Ho then cleared the high jump bar at 5’6” to finish ninth overall.
Daniel Wang, Ming Ma and Max Israel made up the 800-meter squad. Each boy finished with a season’s best time. Daniel Wang crossed the finish line at 2:08.96 to place 14th. Ma was 16th with his time of 2:10.27, and Israel finished 22nd with 2:12.11.
Both Ethan Wang and Kaufman made personal best times of 23:90 and 23:33, respectively, during the 200-meter dash. Petryna lowered his school record to 22:50 and took second place.
Jadiel Enchautegui and Grayson Alpert competed in the shot put for the Lancers. Enchautegui made a season’s best 45’2.25” and finished fifth overall. Alpert threw 30’5.25”. Lyons, Romero and Ryan Kropac competed in the 3,200-meter. Romero finished eighth with a time of 11:02.77. Lyons had a season’s best performance at 11:08.84 to cross the finish line in tenth place. Kropac ran 11:59.90.
The novice 4x4 was run by Varun Sohal, Gabe Lopez-Simpson, Matthew Burt and Gabe Hall in a time of 3:51.89 for sixth place. The novice 4x800 was completed by Marc Lewin, Liam McGuirk, Alek Kasperski and Jake Ferrans. The squad finished in 9:11.86 for second place.
The final event of the night was the 4x400 meter relay. Wade led Petryna, Ho and Oji to the second-place finish in the race at 3:29.40.
This round of races moved the Lancers to second place in both the Essex County Championships and in the Super Essex Conference, American Division Championships. The team will run in the NJSIAA state sectional championship on February 10.
