Columbia HS track athletes enjoy solid efforts at Group 4 state meet

Columbia HS junior Keira Monagle poses after she took second place out of 21 runners in the 1,600-meter run in a school-record time of 4 minutes, 59.40 seconds at the NJSIAA’s Group 4 state championships at Franklin HS in Somerset. (Photo Courtesy of CHS Track and Field)

MAPLEWODO/SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Columbia High School track and field athletes enjoyed solid efforts at the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s Group 4 state championships at Franklin High School in Somerset on Friday and Saturday, May 30-31.

The following are the girls’ results:

Keira Monagle, a junior, took second place out of 21 runners in the 1,600-meter run in a school-record time of 4 minutes, 59.40 seconds.

Johanna Yarde, a sophomore, took ninth place in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:04.45. Yarde also took 14th in the long jump at 16 feet, ½ inch and she was 19th in the 400-meter dash in 1:00.99.

Senior Penda Fall was 15th in the triple jump at 34 feet, 8.5 inches. 

The 4×100-meter relay team was 17th in 50.44. The runners are junior Sara Marley, sophomore Sydney Kwan, junior Anna Cooper and sophomore Kuylyn Latney. 

Latney was 19th in the preliminaries of the 100-meter dash in 12.77.

The following are the boys’ results:

The 4×800-meter relay was sixth in 8:08.99. The runners are sophomore Julius Marshall, junior Christian Caravetta, junior Leo Klint and sophomore Levi Taber-Kewene

In the 800-meter run, Taber-Kewene was seventh in 1:55.44 and Caravetta was 21st in 2:00.83. Taber-Kewene’s time is ranked No. 3 all-time in school history and also is the fastest time this season for all sophomores in the state, according to CHS co-head coach Alex Simon.

Senior Earl Hart III was ninth in the 1,600-meter run in 4:24.90 and he was 16th in the 3,200-meter run in 9:44.93. Junior Nate Wack was 21st in the 400-meter hurdles in 57.67. Freshman Kobe Dubose was 16th in the triple jump at 40-11 ½.

Monagle automatically qualified for the NJSIAA’s state Meet of Champions that was scheduled for Wednesday, June 4, at Pennsauken, after press time. The other CHS qualifiers for the Meet of Champions are Taber-Kewene (800m), Yarde (400m hurdles) and the boys 4×800 relay team. The top two finishers in each event and the next-best 18 finishers in each event from all the groups combined earned Meet of Champions berths.