By Jim Lambert, May 18, 2012 11:45 p.m.
Illissa Blackshear was sitting in the stands at Millburn High School back in 2005 when she saw her sister, Illiana, win the Essex County title in the 400-meter run for West Orange.
“I used to go watch her run all the time,’’ said Illissa. “She was my role model. She inspired me and motivated me. I sat in those bleachers when she won and I remember wanting to be a county champion like her one day.’’
Seven years later, that day came for Blackshear, now at junior at West Orange. And it happened in dramatic fashion on Day 1 of the Essex County Championships yesterday at Woodman Field in Montclair.
Sitting in second place nearly five feet behind the leader, Erica O’Hagan of Cedar Grove, Blackshear came up with the biggest throw of her career as she sent the javelin a personal-best 119-7 on her first attempt in the finals to take the lead. O’Hagan responded with a 119-4, but she couldn’t catch Blackshear. Blackshear’s previous best was 115-10.
“I couldn’t even watch her last throw,’’ said Blackshear, who has verbally committed to play soccer at Seton Hall. “I was just praying that she didn’t have it in her to go past 119-7. When I heard I won, I just fell down. I was so ecstatic. To win my first county title and do something my sister did is such a great feeling.”
Blackshear was one of several athletes who sparkled on the opening day of action. The two-day meet resumes today at Woodman with field events at 10:30 a.m. and running events at 11.
In the boys competition, St. Benedict’s Prep won all three running events as the defending champions took a commanding 52-24 lead over runner-up Cedar Grove. For St. Benedict’s, Kalonji Foster repeated in the 400 hurdles in 53.89, Edward Cheserek repeated in the 1,600 in 4:11.35 and Naija Omari won the 400 in 48.90.
Cheserek, who will defend his 800 and 3,200 titles today, said he’ll be trying to break the 800 meet record of 1:51.90 set in 1988 by U.S. Olympian Rich Kenah of Montclair Immaculate.
Cedar Grove had a big first day as junior Ben Schumacher unloaded a big personal best of 188-11 to win the javelin, No. 5 in the state this season, and sophomore David Njoku cleared 6-6 to win the high jump. Schumacher’s throw was 13 feet, five inches better than his previous personal best.
Nigel Thompson of Montclair Immaculate continued his breakout season as he soared 21-9 3/4 to win the boys long jump.
The girls competition lived up to its hype as arch-rivals Columbia and Newark Tech, who tied for the Essex County Relay title two weeks ago, began its battle for county supremacy. Columbia is seeking its sixth straight title while Newark Tech has never won.
Newark Tech grabbed a 38-34 on the first day thanks largely to a 1-3-5 finish in the triple jump, led by Iana Amsterdam, who broke her own meet record with a 39-2¼ effort. Nichole Candelaria, the state leader in the 400 hurdles, picked up a win for Newark Tech in the 400 hurdles (1:02.84).
Amsterdam, who earned the top seed in today’s 100 with a 12.55 in the trials, said her team is confident it can win its first county title.
“We’re real fired up to win this,‘’ said Amsterdam, who will also long jump and run the 100 hurdles today. “This has been a big focus and we believe we can finally finish on top at this meet.’’
Columbia was led by super sophomore Olivia Baker, who repeated as 400 champion in 55.14 to give her 10 county titles in her career already. Baker will try to add to that total today when she runs in the 200, 800 and 4×400.
Another sophomore star, Amanda Corbosiero of Mount St. Dominic, ran a personal-best 5:04.00 to win the 1,600. It’s the seventh county title for Corbosiero, who is favored to repeat in the 3,200 today.
ESSEX COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS / Day 1
At Woodman Field, Montclair
All running events in meters
BOYS
TEAMS: 1-St. Benedict’s Prep 52. 2-Cedar Grove 24. 3-Seton Hall Prep 21. 4-Columbia 17. 5-Millburn and West Orange 12. 7-Newark Tech and Montlcair Immaculate 10. 9-Irvington and Glen Ridge 8. 11-West Essex 6. 12-Bloomfield 3. 13-Montclair Kimberley 2. 14-Montclair 1.
400: 1-Naija Omari, St. Benedict’s Prep, 48.90. 2-Phillip Gomez, Glen Ridge, 48.98. 3-Khalief Gravesande, Irvington, 49.16. 4-Dexter Valley, 49.22. 5-Kalonji Foster, St. Benedict’s Prep, 50.23. 6-Karl Cajuste, West Orange, 50.33.
1,600: 1-Edward Cheserek, St. Benedict’s Prep, 4:11.35. 2-Blake Udland, Millburn, 4:14.04. 3-David McCombs, Columbia, 4:21.46. 4-Robert Stone, Millburn, 4:23.12. 5-Jared Mason, West Orange, 4:28.04. 6-Victor Jimenez, Columbia, 4:28.63.
400 INTERMEDIATE HURDLES: 1-Kalonji Foster, St. Benedict’s Prep, 53.89. 2-Orane Morias, Newark Tech, 54.92. 3-Darien Edwards, St. Benedict’s Prep, 54.96. 4-Karl Cajuste, West Orange, 55.82. 5-Marc Desir, Irvington, 55.85. 6-Anfernee LaRue, West Orange, 56.08.
HIGH JUMP: 1-David Njoku, Cedar Grove, 6-6. 2-Kenyon Wright, St. Benedict’s Prep, 6-4. 3-Xavier McIntosh, Columbia, 6-2. 4-Mike Maduabum, Seton Hall Prep, 6-0. 5-Deron Jennings, Newark Tech, 6-0. 6-Christin Patrick, Seton Hall Prep, 5-10.
LONG JUMP: 1-Nigel Thompson, Montclair Immaculate, 21-9 3/4. 2-Clay Austin, Seton Hall Prep, 21-4 3/4. 3-Tyler Cooper, St. Benedict’s Prep, 21-2 1/2. 4-Xavier McIntosh, Columbia, 21-0. 5-Steven Taste, Bloomfield, 20-11 1/2. 6-Stephaun Marshall, Montclair, 20-8 1/2.
JAVELIN: 1-Ben Schumacher, Cedar Grove, 188-11. 2-Phillip Udeogu, Seton Hall Prep, 176-5. 3-Eric Maher, West Essex, 169-8. 4-Nate Philipson, Cedar Grove, 167-0. 5-Kieran Powell, Montclair Kimberley, 166-5. 6-Jeovan Santos, Bloomfield, 162-8.
GIRLS
TEAMS: 1-Newark Tech 38. 2-Columbia 34. 3-Livingston 28. 4-West Orange 21. 5-Mount St. Dominic 18. 6-Montclair Kimberley 14. 7-Nutley and Cedar Grove 8. 9-Blomfield 6. 10-Weequahic 4. 11-Montclair Immaculate 2. 12-Verona and Millburn 1 1/2. 14-Newark Academy and Belleville 1.
400: 1-Olivia Baker, Columbia, 55.14. 2-Nichole Candelaria, Newark Tech, 57.05. 3-Tonisha Beresford, Bloomfield, 58.54. 4-Britany Padmore, Columbia, 58.84. 5-Mirabel Nkenke, Montclair Immaculate, 58.85. 6-Maya Hinton, Columbia, 59.25.
1,600: 1-Amanda Corbosiero, Mt. St. Dominic, 5:04.00. 2-Ashlynn Fields, Mount St. Dominic, 5:09.14. 3-Shannon Kelly, Livingston, 5:11.86. 4-Eloisa Cusi, Livingston, 5:12.42. 5-Shanika Dessein, Columbia, 5:17.11. 6-Kristy Bono, Belleville, 5:9.49.
400 HURDLES: 1-Nichole Candelaria, Newark Tech, 1:02.84. 2-Brittany Padmore, Columbia, 1:03.49. 3-Josie Mitchell, West Orange, 1:06.48. 4-Aliya Barnes, West Orange, 1:06.77. 5-Sabratina Rojas, Newark Tech, 1:07.29. 6-Christy Cadeau, West Orange, 1:07.38.
TRIPLE JUMP: 1-Iana Amsterdam, Newark Tech, 39-2 1/4, record; former record, 38-2, Iana Amsterdam, Newark Tech, 2011. 2-Kayla Richardson, Columbia, 38-6 1/2. 3-Sabratina Rojas, Newark Tech, 35-8 1/2. 4-Amenza Uhunwango, Weequahic, 35-6 1/2. 5-Brionna Singleton, Newark Tech, 35-6 1/4. 6-Amber Ballew, Columbia, 35-0 1/2.
JAVELIN: 1-Illissa Blackshear, West Orange, 119-7. 2-Erica O’Hagan, Cedar Grove, 119-4. 3-Hailey Aromando, Nutley, 113-0. 4-Nancy Yang, Livingston, 103-7. 5-Grace Montgomery, Nutley, 101-11. 6-Jaimie Sheppard, Newark Academy, 101-11.
POLE VAULT: 1-Tess Ehrlich, Livingston, 106. 2-Dana Placentra, Montclair Kimberley, and Lyndsi Ross-Trvor, Montclair Kimberley, 10-6. 4-Jenn Berger, Livingston, 9-6. 5-Gabriela Mercurio, Verona, and Anna Karin Hess, Millburn, 8-6.