It was a fantastic day of track and field at Vernon High School for the first day of the North 1, Group 2 and North 1, Group 3 sectional meets. Many top standouts produced tremendous performances and even a meet record went down. Here are 10 standout performances from Friday as we head into day two tomorrow in which sectional team champions will be crowned: Maximus Daniels, River Dell, Jr.
Daniels was in one of the most highly anticipated battles coming into the day in the 400 hurdles against Kyle Keyes of Lakeland. Daniels was the Bergen County champions this season while Keyes was the Passaic County champion. Daniels was behind for the majority of the race, but was able to edge Keyes at the end to win his first sectional title.
He finished with a time of 54.72 while Keyes was at 54.98.
He passed Keyes approximately in the final 10 meters of the race. “He really shot out in front of me in the beginning, so I didn’t want to be his shadow,” Daniels said. “Instead of focusing on him in front of me, I kind of just focused on my own race and just getting over the next hurdle.
I felt like I was getting a little high over the hurdles. I just brushed it off and pushed it on forward. “It feels amazing.
The journey from freshman year wondering when I’m even going to get sub-60 to competing for school records is amazing.” Kiley Shantzel, Jefferson, Jr. Coming into the spring, Shantzel was coming off back surgery and had never competed in the 400 hurdles before, so the ide.