Trenton caps indoor season with 4th-place finish at Meet of Champions
While much attention was focused on Trenton High’s historic boys basketball season this winter, the school’s boys indoor track & field team also flourished.
The Tornadoes capped a decorated season Sunday at the Meet of Champions by finishing fourth place in New Jersey in the 4×400 relay behind only Pennsauken, Seton Hall Prep and Toms River North.
Their time of 3:22.18 is the best Trenton indoor mark since Milesplit began keeping records in 2000 — and possibly all-time.
The team of Deshawn Allen, Vangamun Sheriff, Rabiah Free and Gabriel Truehart broke their personal record of 3:29.30 from the Group 4 championships Feb. 18 in Toms River.
“They work out hard,” head coach Ron Butka said. “They’re a good crew.”
Also representing Mercer County at the MoC on Staten Island was Robbinsville’s Maxim Rychkov, who won the 55-meter dash with a time of 6.45 and finished 13th in the 400-meter dash with a 49.73.
“The guys are looking forward to outdoor (season),” said Butka, who has coached at Trenton for nine years. “I think they’ll do well in outdoor with the 4×4. That’s their main relay. I’ve got three or four quarter-milers. The kid from Robbinsville is phenomenal … has a lot of speed. It’s not gonna be a cakewalk by any means. The CVC is tough. You’ve got Ewing that has a nice little sprinter (Mekhi Stafford). I’ve got a solid group of quarter-milers and hurdlers.
My hurdle crew is really a very good crew. I’ve got four good hurdlers.”
Trenton won the team title for total points at the Mercer County Championships on Jan. 22 in Toms River and the CVC Open on Jan. 16 in Hightstown.
The Tornadoes also had some impressive individual results including Sheriff taking sixth in the 55-meter hurdles (7.75) at the Group 4 championships, Free taking fourth in the 400-meter dash (52.24) at the Central Jersey Group 4 sectional championships, and Tyler Tard taking fifth in the high jump (5-10.00) at sectionals.
Truehart (51.52), Free (52.00) and Sheriff (54.18) all finished in the top 10 in the 400-meter dash at the Mercer County Championships. Allen was third in the 800-meter run (2:07.24), and Leo Sanders won the 55-meter hurdles (7.74).
Butka’s assistant coaches are Jordan Green and Bryan Fox. Daniel Grady, the husband of athletic director Sharon Grady, is a special assistant who works with the hurdlers.
“I have more of an oldschool philosophy on training,” Butka said of his ladder workouts. “I have an assistant coach
who used to run for me (Green), so he understands how I think, how I train. And then he’ll talk to me about different training styles and stuff like that. Or different intervals, what we could do, and we work things out.”
Tard and Sanders both rotated in on the 4×400 team while Allen was in Trinidad for a month, and that was Trenton’s most impressive unit all season.
Allen, Sheriff, Free and Truehart will be the spring team and look to build on their historic Staten Island performance.
“The guys peaked at the right time,” Butka said.