Oh Snapp! No she didn't! (Yes she did)

Photos Courtesy of Scott Anderson
TOMS RIVER -- If nothing else, Saturday's performance at the NJSIAA Meet of Championships showed that Oakcrest junior Nijgia Snapp could sprint better than she could bowl.

Arriving at the Bennett Center promptly for the original start of the state's final meet – but five hours too early for the snow-delayed start that had been rescheduled Thursday -- Snapp and the rest of the Oakcrest crew had to make use of their false start.

"We were going to go to the mall," coach Kim Nath said," but I thought staying at the mall for four-to-five hours would not be good mentally for somebody's who's running one of the biggest races of her life."

The obvious alternative then, decided Nath, was a couple hours of bowling mixed in with a few sessions of Dance Dance Revolution, a combination that proved to be the perfect warm up for Snapp.

The first of five champions from South Jersey Saturday, Snapp won the 400 in record fashion, breaking the 1998 meet mark of 55.45 in 55.19.

"We didn't do anything hardcore," Nath said. "It was just to take our minds off of the meet."

The junior credits her personal-best time, far from her 60-second performances of yesteryear, to a year-round training regimen that involves running track during the summer and cross country in the fall.

Whether it be sprinting on the track or jogging around her neighborhood, the Group 4 state champ said she hasn't taken a day off this year.

"The more long-distance running I do, the easier the 400 gets," said Snapp, who said she will compete at the Eastern States Championships at the New York Armory Tuesday. "It helps me with my endurance and mentally it helps you."

Snapp took the lead from Passaic Tech sophomore Amber Allen (55.74) after 100 meters and lengthened it with a killer kick. But not until the finish could she relax, she said.

"I was confident but there's a lot of good girls in my race so I couldn't be overconfident," said Snapp, the top seed. "I knew I had to go out harder today."

To win the high jump, on the other hand, Lenape senior Lindsey Walsh knew, after three failed attempts at clearing 5-6, the height that won her the Group 4 state title last week, one successful jump would be enough to escape the three-man jump off with the MoC title.

And coach Gerald Richardson knew Walsh had it in her to do so.

"She's the No.1 high jumper in the state, she was seeded first," coach Gerald Richardson said. "It was hers to lose."

After false starting in the 55 hurdles at last year's start championship, an automatic disqualification, Woodrow Wilson senior Samantha Sharper made her MoC debut a memorable one.

Sporting a hair color that matched the Lady Tigers' orange-and-black colors, Sharper bobbed over and blazed past the five hurdles in a victorious 8.09, a personal best.

Sharper was seeded third after clipping a hurdle last week but didn't let the unusual start rattle her.

"It really doesn't matter where I'm seeded," Sharper said. "Only the outcome matters. I blocked everybody else out and I just focused. Then it was just me and the time."

Eastern sophomore Eastern Gardner bettered her winning time in the 55-meter dash of last year with a 7.03, but so did Chatnam's Ogechi Nwaeri (6.93) and Immaculate Montclair's Dominique Booker (6.98), giving Gardner a bronze. Camden junior Assante Johnson placed fifth in 7.27.

The Winslow Township boys' 4x400 didn't run at the MoC last year despite qualifying for it, but the senior squad of Davis McNeil, Barry Cephas, Darin Washington and Gerald Stephens-Holland don't look back on the coach's decision with anger.

"Our best time was only like a 3:28," said Washington, the third leg. "We weren't good enough."

With a year under them, the seniors proved they belonged to be not just in the race, but in the front of it.

After placing third in the 400, Cephas, the second leg, took the baton and then the lead over the relays Camden (2nd, 3:24.64), Pleasantville (3rd, 3:24.83) and Highland (4th, 3:25.82). Washington and McNeil widened the gap to the 3:24.32 win, short of their personal best.

"We knew we could win it," Washington said. "Like today, everybody had a bad day. On a good day, nobody could see us."

West Deptford pole vaulter Dan Batdorf was the other South Jersey winner on the boys' side, clearing a personal-best 15-6 for a meet record and a one-foot victory.

Ocean City's John Oberg of 2006 and Governor Livingston's Anthony Abitante in 2005 previously shared the meet mark of 14-6.

National bests were set by two North Jersey athletes – Morristown shot putter Nick Vena, a freshman, with a hurl of 66-0.75 and West Windsor-Plainsboro South senior Brian Leung with a 3,200 of 8:59.77, a meet record.

Racing behind the back-and-forth blur of Leung and Gill Saint Bernard junior Doug Smith (9:01.86), the two fastest 3,200 runners in the nation, Shawnee sophomore David Forward fared well, placing fifth in a personal-best 9:28.34, one of the 14 runners to break 9:40.

"A lot of states don't have that [level of state talent]," Forward said. "That really pushes you each week … It kind of sets the tone for the whole state."

Ocean city senior Ryan Birchmeier, the Group 3 state champ in the 1,600, used a slow start to his advantage, conserving enough power to boost him from sixth place to second in the last 300 meters to finish in a personal-best 4:20.51.

Camden senior Matt Marshall, who anchored the Panthers' runner-up 4x400, placed third in the 55 hurdles in 7.53.

Notebook: Indoor NJSIAA Meet of Champions

Here's a weather prediction we can all get by: an overestimated amount of snow will plow back the start time of today's Indoor Meet of Champions from its original time of 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

While this gives every competitor four more hours to visualize themselves winning, Washington Township shot putter Kwabena Keene might find the wait hard to stomach: the Group 4 state champion refuses to eat before his event.

"I don't eat before I throw. Nothing. No food," the senior said. "I like to stay focused. I feel I can do better with an empty stomach."

Last Saturday's hunger strike lasted until the end of his event, or about 5 p.m., when the senior, standing 6-0 tall and weighing 220 pounds, threw a winning distance of 54-4.25.

Keene has reason for his regimen, recalling a time during his freshman year when he almost hurled before his, um, hurl.

"I ate so much that I almost had to throw up," Keene said.

Keene, the top thrower from South Jersey, will need a Herculean effort to contend with the likes of Scotch Plains senior Mike Alleman (63-8.5) and Morristown freshman Nicolas Vena (62-7.5), who rank No.1 and No.2 in the nation, but has a realistic shot at a bronze if he can match his personal best of 56-9.5, third best in the state.

Fast Forward

With his sophomore cotillion scheduled for Friday night, Shawnee sophomore David Forward has snow problem with the meet's late start.

The delay allows him to sleep in, possibly relive last Sunday's Group 3 Championship 3,200, a 16-lap race in which his "legs were on fire with four laps to go" and the fear of being lapped was as real as the preying pitter-patter of Brian Leung, the West Windsor-Plainsboro South senior who burned down the straightaway while racing to a national-best 9:02.61.

"Within the second lap, I couldn't even see him," said Forward, who, along with the rest of the top heat, let Leung take the race out by himself.

Fives laps in and Forward was feeling good until doing some quick math and realizing he was in sixth place, the last spot to move on to the Meet of Champions.

Aware of the talent in Group 3, Forward moved up, niching his spot of third.

"I counted it and I was just like, 'I'm on the verge of not even making it," Forward said. "I didn't want to be there. I know I have a good kick but I didn't want to save it for the end."

Unlike all but one other, though, Forward avoided being lapped by placing third in a South Jersey-best 9:28.94, the best time by a sophomore in at least Burlington County history. Northern Burlington junior Michael Bowden just missed the cutoff by placing seventh in a personal-best 9:38.69.

"I was feeling awful with three [laps left], but once I saw the clock I was feeling much better," said Forward, who stayed on his goal of breaking 9:30 by running the last 400 in 65 seconds.

Pretty good for someone who dreads the event altogether.

Forward talked coach Gary Hill into letting him run the 1,600 -- a distance he's enjoyed since his middle-school days -- at sectionals, but that didn't mean Hill was going to pardon him from the race he's enjoyed the most success in all season.

"Enjoyed" may not be the right word as Forward sees the 3,200 quite technically as two 1,600 races -- with the pain from one rolling over to the next. And others – like classmates – can't feel his pain.

"People ask, 'What's your mile time?" Forward said with a laugh. "It seems like no one cares about what your two-mile time is."

Hill said there're a lot of mile races to be run in the spring, but, for now, you got to put your best foot forward.

"I'm sure he can faster [in the 1,600] but you got to go with the hotter race," said Hill, a coach since 1992. "There's just times when one race is going better than the others. Sometimes there's no reason."

"Anything I think he might be able to do, he always does a little better than that."

In an always intriguing matchup, Forward will measure up against Haddonfield sophomore Boo Vitez, who won the Group 1 state meet by about 12 seconds in 9:35.03.

But the front of the race will most likely be decided between Leung and Gill St.Bernard junior Doug Smith, the possessors of the country's two fastest times in the 3,200 this season.

In telling interviews with Milesplit.com this week, Smith (9:06.05) and Leung agreed that a personal best was probably going to win it.

"Given the style that Doug and I race, I can't see why one, if not both of us, won't break nine minutes," Leung said. "Both of us like to keep the pace honest from the start, so it will be a great race."

Smith also added that his favorite band was Hannah Montana.

Chatting English

We might want to imagine a fierce rivalry between Eastern sophomore English Gardner – last year's MoC winner in the 55-meter dash – and Chatham senior Ogechi Nwaneri, holder of a state-fast 6.99 in the dash this season, but we'll just have to keep dreaming, Gardner said.

They're friends. And not just any kind of friends, but Facebook friends.

Gardner, whose season-best time is 7.05, messaged Nwaneri on the social Web site soon after the senior broke the elusive seven-second mark.
Seeking advice, Gardner asked how Nwaneri improved so dramatically since last winter when she placed 15th at the MoC in 7.53. Nwaneri's answer was a familiar one for Gardner: just hard work.

In the 55-meter dash today, Gardner is seeded first after winning the Group 4 state title in 7.08 and Nwaneri second after winning the Group 2 state title in 7.12. But the order of finish is secondary for Gardner.

"Whatever the race goes, we're both winners," said Gardner, who plans on competing at the Eastern State Championship on Tuesday. "I'm rooting for her, she's rooting for me. We're both winners."

Nice move, King her

Risking a poor seeding at – or even possible elimination from – the MoC, Kingsway sophomore Chelsea Ley raced the 1,600 before her signature 3,200 to give her team a few more points at the Group 3 Championships Sunday.

The selfless move luckily did not cost her as she racked up personal-bests in both: 5:04.16 for third in the 1,600 and 10:49.55 for first in the 3,200.

Ley will probably skip the 1,600 to concentrate on the 3,200, an event she's seeded fourth but has a great shot at unseating top seed Allision Linnell (10:48.33), a Colts Neck senior.

Welcome freshmen

As well as Ley has run, two freshmen have quickly closed her once gaping distance in the last couple races. Shawnee phenom Casey Doyle ran 5:08.56 in the 1,600 for fifth and Highland wunderkind Megan Venables placed fourth in the 3,200 by running 11:10.72.

Church and Byrd

Like Ley, Millville senior Chris Church lowered the best mark in South Jersey to a 6.54 when winning the Group 4 Championship's 55-meter dash, but still can't shake a certain freshman.

Timber Creek's Damiere Byrd took second in the Group 3 Championship in 6.56, the second best area time.

Neither is top seed, but both should compete in the fastest heat.

Going the distance

About three weeks ago Lenape junior Ryan Garvin winced while describing how he brought his 1,600 from the mid 4:40s last year to his then best time of 4:30.05.

Answer: it hurt in a way only runners and mothers could know.

But then what could have possibly kept Garvin moving to a personal-best 4:20.93 – a ridiculous 10-second drop -- for third at the Group 4 Championship last Saturday?

Garvin would like to know, too.

"I don't remember the end. It was kind of hazy," Garvin said. "I don't remember catching the kid from Hillsboro. I just remember coming down the stretch and collapsing."

Garvin was edged by Washington Township junior Xavier Fraction, who placed second in a South Jersey-best 4:20.73. Franklin's Jermaine Coore won in 4:18.35.

Local top seeds

Of the 20 total events happening between boys and girls at the Meet of Champions, South Jersey is representing six top seeds – three for each sex – including: Eastern sophomore English Gardner (55 dash, 7.08), Oakcrest junior Nijgia Snapp (400, 55.65), and Lenape senior Lindsey Walsh (high jump; 5-6) for girls; West Deptford senior Dan Batdorf (pole vault, 14-6), Camden senior Matt Marshall (55 hurdles, 7.56), and Winslow Township's 4x400 team of seniors Barry Cephas, Darin Washington, Gerald Stephens-Holland and Davis McNeil (3:25.16) for guys.

Pencil in Lenape girls for a state title

TOMS RIVER -- Forget about last week, Lenape girls coach Gerald Richardson told his team.

If everybody performs up to their capabilities, he said, the Indians can make up the difference they lost to Southern Regional at the group sectionals last week – 2.5 points – and leave the Bennett Center Saturday with their first state championship ever, a span of more than 50 years.

"Let's bounce back and show the state what we're made out of," Richardson told his squad. "Let's show the state that, hey, we're not just a group team who won the [NJSIAA Group 4 Championship]."

The girls certainly listened, winning the NJSIAA Group 4 Championship with 48 points, five more than Southern Regional.

And the bounce-back, fittingly enough, started with the high jump.

While Richardson was penciling in star athletes in their signature events, one of his elites, junior Danielle Ward, was coloring in Mr. Potato Head and Curious George in the high-jump area.

"It's just relaxing so I just do that for fun," she said of her coloring-book hobby.

With that warcry, Ward, one half of the Indians' amazing duo of high jumpers, leaped 5-4 for third place. Sometime during the two-hour duration of the high jump, senior teammate Lindsey Walsh landed the top height of 5-6, took second in the 55 hurdles in 8.45 and ate some peanut butter crackers.

Given their quirks, both jumpers still put more time in the event than anyone knows – anyone who wakes up after 6 a.m. anyway.

"If I can jump at six in the morning on the gymnasium floor, it makes it a little easier to come out here and jump late in the afternoon on a nice surface," Walsh said.

With the meet already in hand, the 4x400 team of juniors Katie Duffey, Mikki Livingston, seniors Brianna Beddall and Miya Johnson did not let up, running a season-best 3:58.58 for third.

Before officially making history, sophomore Caitlin Orr, in tough company, hung in the 3,200 for third place, running the 16 laps in a season-best 11:15.74. Being one of the top six finishers, Williamstown junior Maria Ruiz is also moving on to next week' Meet of Champions by placing fifth (11:28.74).

Against tougher company, say, All-American Southern Regional's Jillian Smith, Lenape senior Miya Johnson's second-place finish in a season-best 5:09.05 gleams in gold to Richardson.

"We weren't trying to beat Jill," coach Gerald Richardson said of Smith, the current holder of the national-best time in the mile (4:48.83). "Miya's a classy enough runner that she can run for second."

Eastern sophomore English Gardner, who was the 2007 state champion in the 55 dash and the 400 as a freshman, zipped to a 7:08 for the dash repeat and passed on competing in the 400.

"Just out of respect for the competition, we had to pick one or the other," Anderson said. "It would have been tough to come and make that double with that time frame.

In that 400, Oakcrest junior Nijgia Snapp improved upon last week's winning time with a 55.65, a new personal best.

With Old Bridge winning the boys Group 4 Championship with 28 points, Washington Township edged Absegami for second, by one point for South Jersey bragging rights.

While coming close to a state title last year, Washington Township senior Kwabena Keene won the shot put with a hurl of 54-4.25.

"He narrowly lost [ the state title] by two inches," Washington Township coach Rich Bostwick. "That's been with him for a year. It's nice to get that title out of the way."

While the heartbreaking loss ate away at Keene, the senior's stomach was empty up to his 5 p.m. throw, a result of his anxiety.

"I have to concentrate on one event the whole meet. I can't relax until the meet is over," the 6-foot, 220-pound defensive lineman said moments after his 5 p.m. event. "I like to stay focused."

Minuteman teammate junior Xavier Fraction placed second in the 1,600 in 4:20.71, edging Lenape junior Ryan Garvin's 4:20.93 who nipped Hillsborough's Jason Walton. The ending was a blur for Garvin, who bettered his personal record by nearly 10 seconds.

"I don't remember the end. It was kind of hazy," Garvin said. "I don't remember catching the kid from Hillsboro. I just remember coming down the stretch and collapsing."

Although he qualified for the 1,600 last week, Absegami Ford Palmer skipped it to concentrate on the 800, a decision that helped result in South Jersey's fastest time this season, 1:56.04, good for third.

Millville senior Elijah Jones placed fifth in the race in 1:58.13 while senior teammate Chris Church beat Absegami's Geof Navarro (6.6o) to win the 55 dash in 6.54.

Kenny Davis is Superman

TOMS RIVER -- Winning four events the week prior set the bar pretty high for Kenny Davis at the NJSIAA Group 1 Championship Saturday, possibly too high.

But even after delivering two superhero efforts in the 55 hurdles and the 400 , both personal bests, the Pleasantville senior walked from the high-jump area at the Bennett Center disappointed, his head bowed as low as the crossbar he knocked down.

"C'mon Kenny, there's only one Superman," coach Alan Laws pleaded.

But since no high jumper had cleared the given height, Davis found himself in a "jump-off" with nemesis Metuchen's Chris Pisano.

Given the chance to save the day and bring home Pleasantville's first indoor group championship since 1999, Davis turned around, ripped off his warm-ups and flew over the 6-2 height for the win, ultimately contributing 40 of the Greyhounds' winning 58 points.

"Maybe I was mistaken," Laws said. "Maybe there is more than one Superman."

Along with his three individual wins, Davis capped the meet anchoring the 4x400 slower than a speeding bullet but faster than everyone else, hustling his relay team of Raymond Wilson, Jamal Roberts and Larry Ramirez to a season-best 3:31.13.

But the Superman comparisons end there; Clark Kent doesn't usually calm his nerves with Pepto Bismol before a meet.

"When I first got here I was kind of nervous. My stomach was real upset," Davis said. "This was the first time I've ever been nervous."

Davis' grandma, Nellie Griffin, will mount his four new gold medals with the four earned last Saturday, a collage that's been growing across the playroom wall since his freshman year.

But you won't hear Davis say she's running out of wall space.

"He's very humble, he's not selfish. Everything he does is for the team," Laws said. "He must celebrate in the inside, because he holds in a lot. He must go home and break down."

Laws also credits Rameriz's second-place performance in the 800 (2:01.6) and Roberts's fifth-place showing in the 55 dash (6.73) as keys to victory.

Metuchen – the Central Jersey team that ran over the Greyhounds to win the Group 1 State Relays -- finished second with 47 points. Haddonfield placed third with 32 points, 20 of which came off of wins by sophomores Colin Baker and Boo Vitez in the 1,600 and 3,200.

Limited to running 40 miles a week because of a pair of stressed legs this winter, Baker still managed to catch Metuchen's Julian Fensterheim, a 1:57 half-miler, with 300 meters to go.

Baker sprinted to an indoor personal-best 4:28.71, outleaning Fensterheim by a mere .03 second. Senior teammate Dan Carreon (fourth, 4:31.21) and Pennsville senior Anthony Mowers (sixth, 4:33.64) will also move on to next week's Meet of Champions by finishing in the top six.

"Winning a state championship has been my goal all season so when I got to that the homestretch and saw he was that close, I just couldn't let him beat me," said Baker, who trains on a stationary bike three times weekly.

"I just thought about how hard I worked all season, and all the injuries, and how bad I wanted it."

Vitez stayed with a fast pack for the first 1,200 meters of his 3,200 before turning gears and turning the race to a game of Solitaire, blasting to a personal-best 9:35.03 and pairing his group title with the one he won in the State Group 2 Championship last fall in cross country.

Pennsville senior Mark Kearney captured second (9:47.12) and Haddon Heights senior Mickey Borsellino finished fourth (9:49.24).

Eastern's James Brown felt good sprinting to a personal-best time of 6.60 for second in the 55 dash.

On the girls' side, Haddonfield junior Greta Feldman helped her seniors strike group-championship gold for the first time in five years, winning all three of her races – the 400 (58.76), the 800 (2:20.92) and the 4x400 with seniors Athena Wright, Maggie Lupinski and Kirsten King -- in personal-best times.

Like they did for Davis, the internal butterflies got the best of Feldman.

"I was really nervous coming in this week," she said. "I never been in this kind of position with the titles on the line but I think I feed off my nerves."

Teammate senior Alyssa D'Orazio speeded to a personal-best 5:12.16 in the 1,600 and junior twins Elizabeth (11:27.89) and Jackie Sikkema (11:52.84) finished second and third in the 3,200.

Haddonfield amassed 58 points, 25 points more than runner-up Madison.

"We're where we thought we would be and a bit more," coach Mike Busarello said. "They were really focused the past couple of weeks. We didn't really talk of winning but that's what they wanted to do."

Snowboarding in JERSEY!

One wrong turn and a series of right ones.

Chris Cefalli was in the middle of that sequence, staring down a double black diamond and at the prospect of death.

If a double black diamond sounds more like a rattlesnake than an advanced alpine trail, you're not too far off.

Long, winding and suddenly dangerous, a trail on Vermont's Stratton Mountain had the 21-year-old snowboarder snaking between oncoming trees, narrowly avoiding the biggest splinter of his life by latching onto another.

``I thought I was going to die,'' the Mays Landing resident said.

Thanks to the tree hug, the only limbs Cefalli broke were branches.

Shedding much of its counter-culture stigma with its acceptance into the 1998 Olympics,shredding - as the kids call snowboarding - has since snowballed in popularity to now arguably dethrone skiing as the new national king of the hill.

Despite being flatter than road kill, South Jersey is home to a number of avid snowboarders and is within day-trip range of several mountain ranges.

Style for miles

It's hard to turn down a free ride, but as snowboard freeriding goes, Chris Sinclair, 22, would rather freestyle.

A snowboarder since age seven, when he started on the bunny slopes of Mountain Creek Ski Resort in Vernon, Sinclair knows double black diamonds here to Canada like the back of his mitten.

Still, the Voorhees resident, like one of the many surfer/skater crossovers, favors style over speed, opting to carve his credentials in both ice and air.

`I like to do a trick and get better at it,'' said Sinclair, a Rutgers-Camden junior. ``It's a thrill. Just the speed and the excitement is an adrenaline rush.''

While Mountain Creek's top top, Vernon Peak (1040 feet), is a mole hill compared to most mountains out west, the resort's park boasts the largest terrain park in the East at 60 acres, brimming with ramps, rails and pipes.

Here Sinclair tries to perfect a switch 540 - one and a half aerial rotations from his weaker stance - during the weekends between mid-December and mid-March, the peak months.

Unless competing, don't expect any of the freestylers to know the score, said Joel Green, owner of the Eastern Mountain Sports store in Marlton.

``When they're in the terrain parks with each other, it's really laid back,'' said Green, 27, at his Maple Shade business.

``Everybody is just taking turns, having fun, pushing each other to go harder and go bigger.''

Participation in snow boarding has gone bigger from 1996 to 2004,jumping from 3.1 million Americans to 6.6 million, according to National Sporting Goods Association, a recreation industry trade group.

Green said the sport owes much of its popularity to one man.

``Look at Shaun White,'' Green said of the 21-year-old Californian who won the men's half-pipe at the 2006 Olympics. “Kids look up to him.

``Just 10 years ago, snow boarding was perceived as that rebellious, that down-hill counterculture. It's mainstream now.''

Snow pain

Half a moment after separating himself from the tree, Cefalli knew he was lucky.

Sore, sure, but after seven years on the mountains, Cefalli knows the risks of snowboarding.

It's X-treme. It's X-citing. It’s also X-rays.

Cefalli broke his left wrist, sprained the other and, oh yeah, suffered a concussion; Sinclair was dealt a concussion, his first from snowboarding but his fifth overall (surfing: 2), after falling on a rail headfirst.

Rosemary Camezzi, a Stockton classmate of Cefalli's, never thought her Christmas present from two years ago would put her in a cast on her 21st birthday. And, no, it wasn't a Red Ryder BB gun.

``I was out all of last winter,'' the Cape May resident said about landing a six-foot jump on her left arm, breaking it. ``It happened on my 21st birthday. I got sympathy shots out of it.''

Once down, Camezzi, 22, knows the best pick-me-up is a ski lift, having purchased lift tickets from both Blue Mountain and Jack Frost Mountain this winter.

``I was kind of nervous, but once I was riding again I was pretty good,'' she said. ``I started with a couple little jumps again, and I was back riding. You can't let the fear hold you down.''

Rather than shy away from the sport, Cefalli tries to introduce the sport to new friends.

``I don't think there's a much better feeling than flying down a mountain with the beautiful view and wind blowing past your face,'' he said.

Snow fight

Andrew Katz would probably agree with the above statement if not for one issue - Cefalli is a snowboarder.

``As a skier I'm not allowed to do that,'' said Katz, 22, a sales specialist at REI, an outdoors shop in Marlton.

While he was kidding, the historic relationship between is icy.

Seen as a threat to their safety and their skiing tradition, 93 percent of American winter resorts prohibited snowboarding in 1985. But due to stagnant skiing attendance, pressure from snowboarders and recognition by the Olympics, more than 95 percent of resorts are welcoming the $275 million industry, according to NSGA.

With the announcement of Taos Ski Valley in New Mexico ending its snowboarding ban for March 19, only three U.S. holdouts remain, according to Taos' Web site.

``It's not like there's this turf war going on, people on battlefields raising up their boards and skis,'' said Green, who's involved in out door retail for more than a decade. ``But 10 years ago, it would've been closer to that case.''

Katz has seen the acceptance of snowboarding manifest itself at the Poconos.

"In the last four to five years, snowboarding has picked up dramatically," said Katz, who's skied on Bear Creek Mountain, Blue Mountain and Camelback Mountain for 14 years. ``You used to see maybe a snowboarder or two a day and now it's mostly snowboarders.''

A recent trip to Veil, Colo. showed a greater ratio of skiers to snow boarders than that of the East Coast, Katz said.

Having collided with them before, Katz wasn't missing the local crowd; after all, these snowboarders are no snow angels.

``There seems to be a lack of awareness which could be from their blind spot,'' said Katz, referring to their inability to see behind their side-stance. ``It could be that they just don't care in general.''

Sinclair sees it differently.

``[Skiers] take up a lot of mountain space. They go from side to side and are just a little slower,'' he said. ``You're faster and you never know what they're going to do.''

Whomever is getting in the way, freeride boarders sometime pave it, ruining the mogols that skiers bob on. Other times, Katz sees boarders packing ice together, creating hazardous ramps and not always intentionally.

``When there's a steep downhill, the snowboarders will just scrap down, stopping sideways down, and that just makes a big sheet of ice. And it makes me very upset,'' the Drexel senior chided. ``Ice is not good.''

Above: Joel Green, store owner of Eastern Mountain Sports in Marlton. Photo courtesy of the Courier-Post's Douglas M. Bovitt

Get airborne

And you thought the double black diamond was steep.

Buying the mininum snowboarding gear - board, binding, boots - can range from $500to more than $10,000 while resort rentals usually range from $25 to $50.

Although recommended, a helmet typically comes separately.

Lift tickets - from hour to day to night passes - are treated as admission and can cost $30 to $70. Prices for both tickets and rentals are cheapest weekday nights; weekend days are the most pricey - and crowded - time to shred.

Although you won't tap the Rockies in or around the Garden State, Katz said a good time can be had regardless of your sleigh of choice.

``Out there you're getting 3[,000]-4,000 vertical feet. Here you're getting 800,'' he said. “But don't get me wrong, skiing here you're still getting out there. And to me that's what it's really about - getting out there.

``I rather get out there here, then not get out there at all.''

empathy for the lactose intolerant

So it seems I've been hanging around the wrong crowd. All my life, 22 years and counting, I've stayed within the same circles -- breathing the same air, drinking from the same cups, sleeping in the same beds -- until it was too late. One day I'm the prototype of humanity, the next I'm a Bronchitis monster.

Hi, my name is Steve W***, I'm sick and this is my story.

It all started about a week ago; I was prancing through virgin cornfields and such, admiring the butterflies and so, broke as a broken pocket, but my health was intact. I was happy. And then someone close to me – I'm not going to name names, partly because I don't know whom and partly because I'm a bigger person – betrayed me with the figurative kiss of mono. In that moment, my life would never be the same for the following two weeks.

It’s hard to recall life before Bronchitis, but before contracting this not-so-common cold, I embodied twenty-something normalcy. I kissed babies, brushed dogs, clipped coupons, you know, normal shit.

And on Jan. 1, I joined the billions in making a resolution, mine a pledge to cut back on caffeine. Don’t get me wrong; my coffee intake never took center stage at family interventions, but I knew my highs no longer were so high and my lows began in the Grand Canyon. I needed a new start.

Parlaying that resolution with my ongoing bid for Mr. Universe, I swapped the coffee for protein-rich milk. I’m not referring to some synthetic kind of milk, just your usual jug of one-percent cow juice. More protein, less caffeine: the balance in my little world had certainly shifted.

But work does not stop for resolutions -- my boss told me that. For background, my job is basically this: I write gold, clean toilets, pick up my boss’ soap bars, slowly scrub his floor, get paid, say thank you and remember to turn off the light.

Although my boss might say otherwise, nothing is harder than finding a dozen ways to spell ‘win’; you wring your mind for 12th-grade synonyms, but going along with the dumb down, you settle on trite ESPNisms, each sponging your soul little by little until it’s as empty and dry as the Grand Canyon. You tire quickly. So do I.

When the computer screen blinks more than I do, it’s time for a real jolt. Instead of coffee, though, I had milk, you know, the stuff mommies lactate when their babes can’t sleep. I don't know what I was thinking. Meanwhile, the wrestling roundup needed about 12 more inches – about 400 words – in 15 minutes and I was just trying not to nod off.

My stomach tightened around the milk -- one quart headed for my single utter, the other shooting a gaseous pinball up my throat -- the upshot being a cough, cute and innocent at the time, but portending something disastrous. One cough led to another, enough coughs led to an episode and enough episodes led to a short-lived CW television series, the perfect medium for viewers in search of schadenfreude behind a quarantine shield of glass.

So I was suddenly sick. And milk, well, didn’t do my body good. I could deal with the illness and the people who kept their distance – that was OK. But days derailed before they started; after all, what was I going to have with my breakfast cereal? Orange juice? I wanted milk dammit, in fact I wanted any form of dairy: cheese, ice cream, yogurt with extra live cultures. Anything.

And in my delirium, the mirror spun to face me and I saw who, what I had become: a transient lactose intolerant. Intolerant of milk as a dog is of vacuums, as a librarian is of kazoos, as a circle is of right angles. While my impotent indigestion puts the white stuff on hold for now, my libido rages on. And so does my fight.

An estimated 70 percent of all adults are lactose intolerant, according to Wiki. And the other 30 is intolerant of any form of compassion, whether it be for those who’ll never taste a Blizzard without upsetting their stomachs or for those who suffer taunts like “Fall in some tar, Bronchosaurus."

So until you spend an half-hour in a waiting room, forced to scribble private information for strangers, to overhear the latest celeb news that you don’t care about, to read outdated Highlights magazines, to suffer strangers who strip you with their eyes, you cannot begin to imagine what life with Bronchitis is like.

Go ahead, wish me well. You’ll still make me sick.