By Bill Alden
As usual, the Wilberforce School girls’ track team brought a small contingent of athletes to the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) Non-Public B meet.
While the Wilberforce upper school only has about 100 students, the six Wolverines who competed at the meet in the last weekend of May at Buena Regional High School did some big things, scoring 69 points to help the squad take third in the competition won by Hudson Catholic at 112.
“That is definitely the goal of the season,” said Wilberforce head coach Lois Szeliga. “We train really hard, the kids get exhausted and then we taper down for the Non-Public meet. They were ready to go. It was really exciting, They really did as well as we hoped that they would in our best case scenario.”
Junior Stella Blanchard produced the best meet of her career, placing first in the 400 meters in 56:07, the 800 in 2:09.42, and the 1,600 in 4:54.63 and helping the 4×400 relay to victory.
“Stella is so fast; she did have huge improvements in cross country and then coming off of that into the winter season,” said Szeliga. “She is such a versatile athlete, she is very strong.”
Wilberforce got a strong performance from senior Laura Sallade who placed second in the 1,600 in 5:02.89 and third in the 800 in 2:20.08.
“She had a big day, she got her PR in the mile,” said Szeliga of Sallade, a Washington and Lee University commit. “It was really great because there were these competitors that she has been competing with that are really excellent. They go back and forth. It was a great race, they are great friends with each other.”
Szeliga’s daughter, senior standout Eve, who was sidelined earlier in the season as she recovered from a knee injury, helped the Wolverines achieve a 1-2-3 sweep in the 800 as she took second in that event in 2:16.28. She also took third in the 400 in a time of 58.76.
“She was only able to start running in March,” said Szeliga of her daughter who will be running at Wheaton College next year. “I think back to that first time trial that she did at the end of March, there was a lot of anxiety there. To see her confidence grow to where she is determined, I am so proud of her. It sets an example to the whole team just coming back in just one year. She feels great.
The squad’s 4×400 relay continued its dominance of the event at the Non-Public meet as it took first in 4:05.79, more than 10 seconds better than runner-up Hudson Catholic’s mark of 4:16.90.
“We were like, ‘oh boy, we have to defend our title. The girls definitely take pride in it,” said Szeliga of the quartet that included Blanchard, Sallade, Szeliga and senior Emily Prothero and went on to place eighth in the NJSIAA Meet of Champions last Wednesday. “It is their favorite thing to compete as a team, they got the school record and they are headed to nationals.”
As for the Wilberforce boys, sophomore Caed Wilson took fourth in the 3,200 in 10:37.96 to help the Wolverines take 12th at the meet. Junior Elias Edwards placed sixth in the 3,200 in 10:49.31 and junior Aaron Szeliga, another one of the coach’s children, finished sixth in the 100 in 11:27 and seventh in the 200 in 22.91 as Wilberforce had a team score of 14 in the meet won by Newark Academy with 82.
“It was really exciting to have the two medalists in the 3,200, it just shows that we have a nice pack of young boys that are going to be back,” said Szeliga. “Aaron is our first medalist in the sprints in the Non-Public meet. Considering that we don’t have a
track which is very critical for sprinting, he really
made so much progress. With the success of the
girls, it was exciting to also have these boys to have their medals.”
While Wilberforce may not have strength in numbers, the program continues to make progress.
“The kids really peaked right at the right time, it is really important to build out the program,” said Szeliga. “It is exciting, we had some hurdlers and a javelin thrower.”