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.