Photo Credits: High School Sports Elite
HACKENSACK — It’s been a week now since the sensational Lou Lanzalotto Bergen Meet of Champions at the Ed Church Track at Hackensack High School and the excitement hasn’t yet faded.
The meet, started by Church and several other coaches in 1970 and the Girls Meet of Champions, started nine years later by the late Lou Molino of Ramsey, the late Dick Hitt of Rutherford and a very young reporter named Paul Schwartz. It merged into its current form in 1992. It’s doubtful that of the previous meets had the level of excellence and excitement as the 31st edition of the merged meet.
Layla Giordano of Old Tappan and Benji Shue of Bergen Catholic exploded record throws in the shot put and discus as the meet got underway with the field events at 3:30, and there were North Jersey season leaders in half of the 14 events.
Giordano and Shue put on a show
The Giordano and Shue families have gotten close over the last two years.
“We’re both going after the same things,” said Layla Giordano, the Old Tappan senior. “Our dads love talking track and we hang out a lot at track meets with my sisters, Ben and his little brother.”
Both Layla Giordano and Benji Shue have destroyed the Bergen County record books in the shot and discus. At the Bergen Meet of Champions, Ben went first, in the discus. While he didn’t break his county record of 201-11, producing his first ever series with multiple 200 foot throws, with a best of 201-9, besting his own meet record by more than 14 feet.
Then it was Layla’s turn and she recorded an awesome shot put series that included successive personal bests of 47-1 3/4, 47-10 1/2, 48-1 and then on her final throw an absolute bomb that had the large crowd surrounding the shot put area waiting anxiously for the measurement. Official Mark Scully took advantage of the moment, reading the mark as five 0 even or 50 feet, prompting a great roar. It was a Bergen County record by more than a foot as she became only the fourth girl in state history to break the 50 foot barrier. The old record was 48-10 1/2, set by Amarys Berry of Hackensack when she won the 2016 group 4 state title.
Shue turned to the shot at the same time Giordano went to the discus. As Layla was throwing 162-10, 164-2 and 167-4, breaking own previous meet record of 156-3 each time and finishing just three feet from her own Bergen record, Shue was destroying his personal best in the shot.
The Bergen Catholic junior came into the competition with an all-time best of 64-3, and left with that throw trailing each of his six throws that evening. First it was a PR of 64-11 3/4, then a toss of 67-6 that put him in the state lead and within a foot of the 39 year old Bergen record, set by Andy Papathanassiou at the State group 1 meet at Rutgers in 1985. He followed with throws of 65-6, 65-10 and 65-6 before he unfurled his own bomb on the final throw that touched earth at 68 feet even, just three inches from Papathanassiou’s county mark, which stood as the state record for 13 years until it was broken in 1998.
Afterwards was Giordano was effusive in her joy while Shue was as usual, matter of fact.
“I never really expected something like this,” said Giordano, whose major meet personal best was 45-6 before the meet. “I have been doing high 40s in practice and with the right conditions, I knew I could go farther.” “People forget that I’m the state champ in shot too.”
Shue expected a breakthrough in the shot, saying after the discus and before the shot, that he expected a big night in the latter event because practice had been going so well.
“Ever since practices after Penn Relays I knew I was going to do something special in the shot,” said Shue. “To be three inches away is frustrating, but it keeps driving me where I want to go.”
Layla’s twin, Maya, also made some history with her personal best throw of 40-10 in the shot for second. The Giordano Twins join just two other sister duos as throwing more than 40 feet in the same meet. Kelly and Jessica Fazekas of Demarest were the first pair of sisters to do it in 2002 and the Cintron sisters of Elizabeth, Lizzelle and Michelle followed the next year.
For their efforts, Giordano won the Paul Schwartz Field Event Award for the second straight year while Shue won the Ed Church Field Event Award for a record third straight time.
