Meet of Champions Results from Tonight

In the 3200 at the New Jersey Meet of Champions, Andrew Hanko ran second to the best distance runner in the nation (Craig Forys of Colts Neck) tonight, setting a Morris County record in the process. His time of 9:00.50 broke the existing county record by some four seconds (unbelievably efficient as always, the Morris County Track Coaches Association already has the new record posted, so I cannot give the exact prior record). As best as I recall, the prior record was over 20 years old. Andrew led for much of the race until Forys unleashed his potent kick to win.

Jared Hanko set a new PR in the 3200 as well, by some 18 seconds, as he broke 10 minutes for the first time, running 9:51.97.

The race was notable for four runners running under 9:05 and 11 under 9:20. Morris County was well represented, with our runners coming in second (Andrew), third (Princeton-bound Kyle Soloff of Morris Hills in a huge PR by 18 seconds in 9:01.76! [also well under the prior County record]), Tom Poland of Delbarton (heading to Columbia next year) in sixth in 9:13 (Tom, if you read this, I looked for you after the race but could not find you: Very nice race!), Zach Bahor of Randolph in eighth in 9:15, and James Grimes of Chatham in 11th in 9:19. Our friend, sophomore Doug Smith of Gill St. Bernards was fourth in a State Record time for a sophomore (9:04). He actually lives in Roxbury, so under the Ryan Grote rules of interpretation, we can include him as well, making six Morris County runners in the top 11 in the State. It was simply an incredible race. We were especially happy for Kyle who has been the real workhorse for the Morris Hills distance running dynasty, sacrificing personal achievements time and time again on behalf of his team and Coaches Sean Robinson and John Struck. Able to run this race and nothing else tonight (he often doubles and triples for MH), he came through in flying colors.

Our 4 x 400 relay team fell short of their goal of a school record, but ran a very nice time of 3:38.47 in our first Meet of Champions relay appearance.