Westfield won a wild one over Union County rival Union to repeat as champion, Akshay Vadul of Edison hammered out a fast distance double, Gabriel Rodriguez was spectacular for Union, and Washington’s Yashahya Brown burned a hot time in the hurdles in a meet loaded with great performances.
Let’s start with the thrilling finish.
Heading into the 4×400 relay, the final event, Westfield held a 32-24 lead over Union.
In order to overtake Westfield and win the title outright, Union had to win the race and have Westfield not place in the top six. Union could also earn a tie for title by placing second and having Westfield not place in the top six.
Westfield, which got a slow seed time because of a fall in the sectional race, had to run in the first of the four heats while Union was in the seeded heat.
Westfield won its heat in 3:29.71 and then had to anxiously watch the remaining three heats to see if they did enough to score.
In the seeded heat, Union (3:29.28) was second behind Toms River North (3:24.85) to place second in the event to earn eight points. Westfield erupted in euphoria when they saw the live results of the race pop up on their phones, which showed it placed fifth for two points to edge Union, 34-32.
Westfield’s relay team consisted of Emanuel Gayanilo (53.5), Ryan Daly (53.0), Jonathan Scalia (51.7), and Joe Pierro (51.2).
Joe Pierro, who didn’t run the 4×400 at sectionals, was inserted back into the lineup and came through with a clutch anchor carry.
All of Westfield’s other points came in the distance races as multiple runners ran PR’s!
