The Manville Mustangs Track and Field Team recently competed against Pingry and Watchung Hills. The meet was hosted at Pingry High School on Wednesday, April 21st and started at 4.p.m.. This was a memorable first meet for the Mustangs particularly because of the cold weather and the excitement in the air that had been missing for so long. The Mustangs had to make sure their warm up was on point so they could properly fulfill their athletic duties. After, they were ready for their individual events. 

The first event of the meet was the girls’ 400 hurdles. Michelle Miga was the only individual to participate in this event and ran a 78.2 second hurdle. Up next was the boys’ 100 meter race, where Jason Brennan ran in the fastest time, at a speed of 12 seconds. After that, the girls’ 100 meter race began, where Siobhan Weskowski ran the fastest with a speed of 13.3 seconds. Long distance runners took their turn in the next event. In the 1600 meter race, Colin Weber finished first for the Mustangs in 5 minutes and 27 seconds. For the girls’ 1600 meter race, Anna Kantos ran the fastest time which was 6 minutes and 39 seconds. The next race was the 400 meter, where Colin Weber once again prevailed for the boys, finishing in 64.3 seconds. Additionally, Siobhan Wesiwoski had the fastest time once again for the girls’ 400 meter race, and finished at 66.8 seconds. 

Then the field events for the Mustangs started to take place. Unfortunately there are no girl jumpers for the Mustangs. The only field event for the boys that took place during the meet was a long jump. Jonathan Cox jumped a height of 18 feet 9 inches, Jason Brennan jumped a total of 15 feet, 5 inches and Vazah Jokhidza jumped a total of 14 feet, 2 inches. On the girls side of the field events, shot and disc took place. Jackie Zuza threw her shot a total of 23 feet, 3.5 inches, meanwhile, Emma Heywood threw hers at a total of 22 feet. After the girls shot, they moved on to the last event of the night; disc. Jackie Zuza threw at a distance of 67 feet and Emma Heywood threw a total of 60 feet. 

The Mustangs put in great effort and surely consider their first meet of the season a success. The proper motivation and drive that our Mustangs have is what makes these events so special and what gives Manville athletics such a good name. The Mustangs will be heading up to the ridge to show Somerset County what they have in store on April 24th.