May 29, 2024
North 1 Group 3ATHLETES TO WATCHLayla Giordano, Old Tappan, Sr., ThrowsThe Princeton pledge has been nothing short of amazing this spring. Giordano won the state’s first Penn Relays title in the discus since 2004 with a season-best and landslide N.J. No. 1 mark of 167-10. She has two more throws over 160 and hasn’t thrown worse than 150 this spring. In the shot put, she fired a PR 50-0 earlier this month, which serves as N.J.’s second-furthest mark. Giordano is the reigning M of Cs gold medalist in both events, and the PR 170-4 in the discus from her win at New Balance Nationals a year ago has her on state record watch.RECORD WATCH: 200, Discus, Pole vault, Shot put.Many records can bite the dust on Friday and Saturday in Vernon. Assuming she throws in the vicinity of her PRs, Giordano is positioned to break her own meet record 157-0 in the discus and destroy the 45-3 shot put record thrown way back in 2002 by Demarest’s Jessica Fazekas. Sathiyan’s PR 12-8 in the pole vault would take down the 12-7 cleared by Pascack Valley product Melissa Purcell in 2017. In the 200, Redmond’s PR 24.38 is fast enough to snap the record 24.52 from Teaneck’s Kayce Darby in 2019.TEAMS TO WATCH: Mount Olive, Northern Highlands, Old Tappan, RamapoMount Olive’s stars, Ramapo’s promising wave of underclassmen, including Jada Giordano and Northern Highlands’ depth will give Old Tappan trouble in certain events, but the Golden Knights have shown in their county and conference meets how much they can score. It goes beyond the Giordano sisters and Dennis. NVOT has the best pole vaulting trio in the state in senior Allie Tuite and juniors Jamie Kim and Salome Sanchez, freshman Caroline Ognibene is one of N.J.’s top high jumpers, and the team has points it can scatter across the relay events. Joley Giordano could be making her track debut on one of Old Tappan’s young relay teams. THE PICK: Old Tappan
