By Mary Ann Tarr
Jocelyn Williams, a former team MVP at Hamilton High School West, is a redshirt senior with the Liberty University track and field program.
Williams’ resumé is extensive and includes a fourth-place finish in the women’s hammer throw, which was a highlight of Liberty’s day recently at the Raleigh Relays. She reached 176-0 with her best effort of the day, improving upon her previous season best by more than nine feet for fourth place in the field of 55 women’s hammer throwers.
Top efforts for Williams at Liberty include a school record in the weight throw (67-5.5, Indoor school record) and an ECAC individual title, a Big South individual title, and multiple All-Big South honors.
McManimon still tops in the pool
Claire McManimon of Ewing recently completed her sophomore campaign with the Mount Saint Mary’s swim team. The former Notre Dame High School team captain competed in 10 of the Mountaineer’s 11 events on the season. McManimon competed mostly as a member of the 200 medley relay and was one of the team’s top performers in the 100 breaststroke. She posted a season-best time of 1:12.85 for the 100 breast in the preliminaries at the Northeast Conference Championships.
She swam in all nine team events as a freshman and competed in the 100 and 200 breaststroke, ranking sixth on the Mount’s top 10 list for both events. She posted a season-best time in the 100 breast (1:14.16) at the NEC Championships and had a season-best for the 200 breast (2:42.74) at the Radford Invitational. She was part of the 200 medley relay team throughout the 2013-14 season, with a top time of 1:57.38 at the Radford Invitational.
Gearhart excels behind the plate at TCNJ
C.J. Gearhart of Robbinsville is one of the top players on The College of New Jersey’s baseball team. The sophomore catcher batted .313 through the Lions’ first 24 games this season.
He had a nice game in a 20-7 victory over New Jersey City University—the Lions’ offense erupted for 20 runs on 21 hits in the opener, and Gearhart accounted for three of each. The former Robbinsville High standout also scored twice in the second game of the double-header, a 13-8 Lions’ win.
Quinto shines on and off the track
Casey Quinto of Pennington has been excelling as an underclassman at Elizabethtown. At the Bucknell Bison Outdoor Classic in April, she helped the Blue Jays place fifth of 17 teams with 55 points. Quinto broke the 5-minute mark in the 1500-meter run for the first time in her career with a 4:50.24.
Quinto, who earned a dozen varsity letters at Hopewell Valley High School, had a banner freshman campaign at E-town. As a rookie member of the Blue Jays’ cross country and track and field programs, she had four All-Middle Atlantic Conference performances, including three First-Team efforts. She was part of the 10th-fastest indoor 4×400-meter and 4×800-meter relays and ran a leg of the school-record holding outdoor 4×800-meter relay that posted a 9:22.02 at the 2014 MAC Outdoor Championships. She ranks ninth in the outdoor 800 at 2:20.91 and is a member of the 10th-fastest outdoor 4×400-meter relay and also is on the fifth-best outdoor 4×800-meter relay. Quinto collected two medals—one indoor, one outdoor—in her first year on the team.
HERE AND THERE … Jason Ivins of Ewing helped TCNJ’s swimming and diving program to capture an 800-freestyle relay national title and earn All-America status in the process. The Lions produced a program-record time of 6:33.23 to top the field in the national NCAA competition. Ivins, the former Notre Dame High standout, played a big role as he joined forces with Ryan Gajdzisz, Brett Pedersen and former Hightstown High star Scott Vitabile. Gajdzisz swam the first leg in 1:38.34 before Pedersen dove from the block and posted a time of 1:38.04. Vitabile produced the fastest time for the Lions 1:37.85, a time that bested the Johns Hopkins University swimmer by more than a second and Kenyon’s third leg by more than half a second. That set up Ivins, who registered a time that was more than a second faster than the Blue Jay anchor to win the event. … TCNJ had six athletes recognized by the New Jersey Athletic Conference for their performances during the week ending April 13. At The College of New Jersey Tri-Meet, senior Brigit Roemer of Ewing led the Lions to a first-place finish with impressive performances. Roemer set the program record in the triple jump with a leap of 11.72 meters. She also won the high jump event, clearing 1.68 meters. The former Ewing High standout was named NJAC Field Athlete of the Week. … Lawrence’s Eric Speidel is playing shortstop and batting leadoff for the Wesley College baseball team. The ex-Lawrenceville School standout is a junior who also excelled as a kicker in his first year of football with the Wolverines, who were named as the 2014 ECAC Division III Football Team of the Year in a vote of the conference coaches and media
Have an item for The College Crowd? Please send it to Mary Ann Tarr at tarr.mary.ann@gmail.com.
