All photos Timothy Kovach.

An exciting first place finish in the 4-by-400 meter relay was only the cherry atop the sundae for the Matawan Regional boys varsity track and field team on Saturday, May 2.

The team won the second annual Monmouth County Relay Championships with 119 points over runner-up Christian Brothers Academy  (CBA) with 88 points.

"My goal is to make this meet a huge event by starting to get more people to come," Matawan head coach Sam Turner said, explaining that this meet is fairly new. "I am proud of my team and the way they tried different things out and succeeded."

The race that drew the largest crowd was the 4x400, where Brian Ramcheran, Dave Goldenthal, Dustin Browne and Aaron Newsome ran the race in 3 minutes, 32 seconds. The team had a good start and stayed a step ahead of runner-up, Shore Regional High School, for most of the race. They bested Shore Regional by only a second in the close race.

Matawan also took the 4x200 by less than a second over Shore Regional. After a rough start, the team -- Ramcheran, Goldenthal, Ryan Carlson and Keith Beatty -- picked it up on the second leg to hit a 1:34.02 race.

Matawan also took first in the shuttle relay event, which is a 4x100 meter hurdle race. Newsome, Scott Gunter, Justin Jackson and Kyle Hardy sported the 1:06.64, which bested CBA by 4 seconds.

The team also showed their skill in the air by taking first in both the long and triple jumps and pole vault. Carlson and Jackson jumped 40 feet 2 inches in the long jump. Meanwhile, Carlson and Kyle Hardy showed 80'9" in the triple jump. Michael McGuiness and Jon Bartlett took the pole vault with jumps totaling 27'.

This well-rounded team also displayed stamina in the field events with wins in both the shot put and the discus.  Stephen Turner, Derek Garland and Jim Dwyner threw a 139'7" in discus, while Dwyner, Kyle Norwood and Chris Simon threw a 365'10" in discus.

The team will be competing in the upcoming Monmouth County Championship meets during the next week.

The remaining results from the competition are as follows:
4x100 -- Raritan, 45.2.
4x800 -- CBA, 8:08.96.
Distance medley -- CBA, 10:45.
Sprint medley -- CBA, 3:38.
3x400 hurdles -- CBA, 2:56.
Javelin -- Manalapan, 457'.
High jump -- Manasquan, 12'.

Any names, events or scores not appearing were not provided to The Courier.