By Rich Chrampanis
The Meet of Champions is the pinnacle of New Jersey track and field and, for two local seniors, their high school career ended with the ultimate result.
Red Bank Catholic’s Tara Zeni picked the perfect time to earn her personal best in the long jump. The Caseys senior leaped 19 feet, 2 inches to give her individual gold by a safe margin of 7 inches. Zeni finished just short of a Non-Public “A” state final just a week earlier, finishing second, but her final high school jump was fittingly her very best. Remarkably, the former gymnast did not begin her track career until her freshman year at RBC. She ends her high school career as New Jersey’s best long jumper and will take the next step in her athletic and academic career at Quinnipiac University.
“Ending my high school career winning the Meet of Champions is something I will never be able to put into words,” Zeni said. “I couldn’t be happier that I was able to give it all in my last meet representing RBC. It means the absolute world to me.”
Middletown South’s Mark Anselmi had already experienced the feeling of a Meet of Champions gold medal in the high jump in the winter. In the final jump of his high school career, Anselmi soared and cleared 6 feet, 8 inches to take home the gold. Anselmi has the perfect ending to his high school career and will take the next step in the Ivy League at the University of Pennsylvania.
“Track has become such a big part of who I am today so it means so much to finish my season on top,” Anselmi said. “I’d like to thank my coaches, teammates, family and friends for their tremendous support because they’ve always encouraged me to do my best. I’m very excited to continue my education and track career at the University of Pennsylvania. I hope to achieve the same level of success at Penn as I did in high school.”
Anselmi and Zeni were not the only outstanding performances from local track standouts. Rumson-Fair Haven junior Lily Orr finished fourth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 55.93. With three seniors taking the top spots, Orr will be a contender for gold in 2020. The Bulldogs 4×400 meter relay team consisting of Lily and Maddie Orr, Campbell Devlin and Olivia Rehder finished third in the state.
On the boys’ side, Red Bank Regional’s Nigel Mitchell placed fifth in the 200 and CBA’s Tim McInerney posted an impressive pair of fourth-place efforts in the 800 and 1,600 meter finals. The Colts dominant track program was front and center at the Meet of Champions with a third-place finish in the 4×400 meter relay and four more top-five efforts, including Eros Bottino earning second place in the discus and Nicholas Morse getting a third-place result in the shot put.
