Mercer Relays bring excitement

It’s time for the Mercer County track and field community to start the most exciting part of the season.

It begins today when Robbinsville hosts the Mercer County Relays, the first of two major county-wide events it will host that start the road to NJSIAA championships.

The Mercer Relays and the Mercer Twilight Meeet on May 4 are the showcase events the Ravens will be hosting. For two of R’ville’s most successful athletes — Noel Janciewicz and Craig Hunter — its one more time to display the unique talents that have made them two of the county’s all-time bests and qualifiers for the second year in a row at next weekend’s Penn Relays.

High jumper Janciewicz, who has already signed to attend Penn, and 16-foot vaulter Hunter, who is heading to UConn — are two of the Colonial Valley Conference stars hoping the this morning’s rainy weather won’t interfere with their performances today.

There are no team championships at stake today at the relays, but there is plenty of personal satisfaction CVC athletes like the Robbinsville seniors, 400-meter runners Zyaire Clemes of Trenton and Jermaine Griffith of Nottingham, and super hurdler Paty Dziekonska of West Windsor North hope to enjoy.

What makes the Mercer Relays unique is that all competition is done on a team basis with the pole vault, triple, long and high jumps and the shot put, javelin and discus comprised of two athletes from each school.

On the track the 4x100 through the 4x1600 and the sprint medley, distance medley and shuttle hurdles feature four athletes on each team. The 3x400 intermediate hurdles feature only three athletes.

Trenton’s boys sprinter and hurdlers are favored to repeat last spring’s success when they won four events, setting records in each.

Ready to challenge them are a new cast of sprinters, jumpers and hurdlers from Nottingham and Hamilton who will be hoping to sharpen up for their big CVC showdown meet on Tuesday at Hamilton when the Hornets who have won four straight meets this month hope to defeat a Nottingham boys squad that has won 22 straight over three seasons.

“There is a great deal of excitement around the team,” said Hamilton boys coach Jerry Van Slooten, who has a potential medal winning pole vault led by 11-footer Will Dyott and a jumps team featuring 20-foot long jumpers Darryl Hardee and Nick Thompson.