Prepared by DAVID B. CORBIN

The Union Catholic Vikings boys track team captured first in the Union County Conference Watchung Division at Governor Livingston High School in Berkeley Heights on May 9-10. The Viking boys finished with a total of 143, followed by the Westfield Blue Devils at 110, while Scotch Plain-Fanwood took fourth at 74. The Cranford Cougars took third in the Mountain Division and the AL Johnson Crusaders took second in the Valley at 130.33.

On Day 1, ( Watchung) the Blue Devils ate up the 1600 with Ryan Daly at a meet record 4:21.44, Eamon Mason at 4:21.88 and Tage Mehta at 4:23.58 crossing 1-2-3. Blue Devil Max Cho won the javelin with a throw of 156-9, followed by Raider Noah Ricca at 154-7. Blue Devils Jeremy Cruz at 152-3 and Lincoln Meyers at 143-5 placed 3-6. Raider Zuriel Battle took top honors in the discus with a toss of 154-6 and Blue Devil Noah Rubinstein took fourth at 126-7.

Blue Devil Manny Gayanilo finished second in the 400 with a time of 49.74 and Raider Blake Jackson was fourth at 50.42. Raider Ian Hopkins placed second in the high jump with a height of 62, followed by Blue Devil Niko Lukis at 6-0. Raider Ameen Zubair crossed fifth in the 100 dash at 11.0 and also finished fourth in the 400-hurdles at 58.38. Blue Devil Tyler Pietrewicz finished sixth at 59.83. Raider Chase Hagler placed seventh in the triple jump with a distance of 40-9.5.

For Mountain, Cranford Cougar Ben Fossella won the shot put with a shove of 47-4 and teammate Christiano Pinto was fifth at 43-0.5. Art Hrycak won the discus with a toss of 131-10 and Fossella was third at 122-7. Chris Moroses placed second in the triple jump with a distance of 41-7.5. Moroses was fourth in the high jump with a height of 5-8. In the 400-hurdles, Charlie Otten placed third at 1:00.99, followed by Connor Perez at 1:02.52.

In the Valley, Crusader Kyle Gunsiorowski finished second in the 400-hurdles at 1:00.36. Brandon Brown with a throw of 129-9 and Ryan George at 122-10 placed 2-3 in the javelin.

On Day 2 ( Watchung), Blue Devil Alex Valencia finished first in the 800 at 1:55.59 and Jimmy Gildea was third at 1:59.23. Valencia, Kaleb Stoeckmann, Gildea and Pietrewicz finished second in the 4×400 at 3:31.4, followed by Raiders Anderson Pollack, Beckham Quinn, Max Handler and Blake Jackson at 3:31.82. Blue Devils Graham Korins at 9:50.39, Brody Toriello at 9:59.79 and Cole Varner at 10:01.35 finished 2-3-5 in the 3200.

Raider Battle placed second in the shot put with a shove of 48-3, while Blue Devils Rubenstein at 46-2 and Max Reissman at 44-10 placed 5-6. Raider Anderson Pollack took second in the pole vault with a clearance of 10-6, followed by Blue Devil Andrew Geocos at the same height. Zubair at 15.11 and Justice Larkin at 15.5 finished 3-4 in the 100-hurdles. Zubair was sixth in the 200 at 23.09. Raider Isaiah Williams took fourth in the long jump with a leap of 20-4.5 and Blue Devil Niko Lukis was sixth at 19-3.75.

For Mountain, Cougar Moroses won the long jump at 21-4.75. O’Keefe won the javelin at 146-9, followed by Alex Kessler at 146-3. O’Keefe was first in the pole vault at 10-9 and Nick Maloof was fourth at 10-6. Kylan Medard was fourth in the 100-hurdles at 16.95.

For Valley, Crusader Gunsiorowski took first in the 800 at 2:05.22 and Connor Sesely was fourth at 2:11.89. Gunsiorowski finished fourth in the 100-hurdles at 18:53.Emilio Menicucci at 23.8 and Spencer Prusakowski at 23.88 finished 1-2 in the 200. Mark Hanson with a toss of 127-10 and Brown at 114-11 placed 2-3 in the discus. Menicucci at 19-0 and Prusakowski at 18-55 placed 3-4 in the long jump. Art Xavier finished third in the 3200 at 11:41.69.