Championship season is officially here to close out the 2024-2025 spring sports season.
It got off to a good start for the Bridgewater-Raritan High School boys’ and girls’ track and field teams on May 16-17
Highlighted by gold medals for Bridgewater-Raritan seniors Emily Leppert and Lukas Disko in the girls’ discus (111-9 mark) and boys’ 3200-meter run (9:05.88), respectively, the Panthers combined to qualify for the NJSIAA Group 4 Track State Championships in eightevents at the NJSIAA North New Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 meet on Friday, May 16, and Saturday, May 17, at Ridge High School.
The Bridgewater-Raritan boys’ and girls’ track and field teams advanced in four events each while finishing in 10th place (18 points) and eighth place (26 points), respectively.
The boys’ and girls’ teams from Westfield High School (99.50 points) and Ridge High School (128 points), respectively, were crowned 2025 state sectional champions.
In what ended up being Bridgewater-Raritan's highest-scoring event of the weekend, sophomore Madeline Corbitt (100-7 mark) tallied a bronze medal in the girls’ discus to go with Leppert’s state sectional title. Also collecting a bronze medal on the girls’ side was the Panthers’ 4x800 relay team (9:54.88), while sophomore Violette Cornfield rounded out her team’s group qualifiers on the girls’ side with a fourth-place result in the girls’ pole vault (8-6 mark).
Corbitt also took home a tenth-place finish in the girls’ triple jump (32-2.5 mark).
While they also just missed top-six placements needed to advance to the group championships, the following Bridgewater-Raritan girls’ athletes finished in the top ten in their respective events: sophomore Lillian Jalshgari (seventh place, pole vault, 7-0 mark), sophomore Kaitlyn Chu (seventh place, 1600-meter run, 5:28.15), sophomore Lana Guelich (eighth place, 800-meter run, 2:27.13), senior Tynisa Medallon (eighth place, high jump, 4-8 mark & ninth place, long jump, 15-10.75 mark), junior Tori Torres (eighth place, long jump, 15-11.75 mark), junior Durva Ghandi (ninth place, pole vault, 6-6 mark), sophomore Shelby Stevens (10th place, 400-meter dash, 1:00.79), and senior Madison Delia (10th place, discus, 82-2 mark).
On the boys’ side, Bridgewater-Raritan sophomore Andrew Ciccotelli posted a fourth-place result in the pole vault (11-0 mark), while fifth-place finishes were delivered by senior Alijah Wilson in the long jump (21-4.25 mark) along with the boys’ 4x800 relay team (8:16.61) to round out their team’s group qualifiers.
The Panthers’ boys’ squad also had six more top-ten results just outside of the cutoff needed to advance to the group championships out of Basking Ridge: sophomore Kenneth Graham (seventh place, 400-meter dash, 50.09 seconds), senior Nikola D’Amico (seventh place, 800-meter run, 1:59.26), the boys’ 4x100 relay team (seventh place, 43.89 seconds), and the boys’ 4x400 relay team (ninth place, 3:29.43), along with consecutive finishes at ninth, 10th and 11th place each in the discus by sophomore Jordan Estomata (125-9 mark), senior Shaun Nelson (121-8 mark), and senior Michael Barbiero (119-9 mark), respectively.
The two-day Group 4 state meet will start at 2:30 p.m. Friday, May 30 and at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, May 31 at Franklin High School.
According to NJSIAA regulations, the top two finishers in each event at each group site, plus the next best 18 in each event overall (wild cards), regardless of site, will then advance to the Meet of Champions, which will be contested on Wednesday, June 4, at Pennsauken High School.