By Andy Loigu

Hannah Foley of Warren Hills won the girls pole vault championship in the North 2 Group 3 section on Saturday afternoon. She soared over the bar at 11 feet.

After clearing at 10 and 10-6 on first attempts, she said she gained a lot of confidence and her nervousness vanished.

The second place finisher, Julia Mszanski of Mendham, was last year’s champ. Foley was the runner up that time.

Foley did lots of practicing over the off-season at Heights Unlimited Pole Vaulting Club, but that was indoors. On Saturday afternoon the thermometer read a sizzling 91 degrees.

Hopefully, it will be cooler this weekend at Northern Burlington, where Foley and Mszanski may very well duel for another championship, this one for all of Group 3. The top six sectional finishers in each event moved on to this weekend’s Group competition.

Blue Streaks junior Paris Boucher captured third in the North 2 Group 3 girls 800 meter run, with a speedy 2:18.79 time, in an event which requires both endurance and sprinting speed.

Warren Hills freshman Alexa Westley and sophomore Ashley Childs finished fifth, respectively, in the 3,200 meters and long jump.

Senior sprinter Nioami Miranda of Hackettstown, a fourth-year performer, captured medals in three events to move on to the state meet in Group 2.

Miranda was second in the 200 and 400 meter dashes with times of 25.54 and 56.85 respectively. She was third in the 100 meter dash in 12.72 seconds.

Miranda is a veteran of the big stage of state competition.

Last year, at the Group 2 meet, she qualified in three races to advance to the Meet of Champions, the  final showcase of the track season, where the top performers from all the groups get together to compete for the honor of being the best in the state.

In last year’s MOC, in South Plainfield, she won medals in the 100 and 400, with seventh and sixth place finishes respectively. She finished 10^th in the 200.

She won all three races at both the Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex and Northwest Jersey Conference meets last year. This year she won five of her six races at those events, finishing second in the H/W/S 100.

Hackettstown Softball

In softball, a great run for the seventh seed Hackettstown Tigers came to an end in the North 2 Group 2 final on May 31, with a 6-3 loss at Lodi.

Hackettstown finished the season 15-11.

Where are they now?

Former Warren Hills star athlete Lindsey Schott, who was named Field Hockey Player of the Year by the Warren Reporter and first team All-Express Times Area in 2011, was named to the Dean’s List at Lehigh University for the spring semester. She graduated in May.

During her college experience, she served as an IT Global Technical Operations Business Partner Intern at Celgene.

She was on the IT Innovation Acceleration team, involved in enhancing the firm’s website, process flows, and marketing.

Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building.