The Robbinsville High boys track & field team enjoyed a little R&R this spring. It wasn’t rest and relaxation, but Rychkov and Rose who ran & ran.
Senior sprinter Maxim Rychkov and senior hurdler LeBron Rose nearly double-handedly led the Ravens to both the outdoor Mercer County Championship title and NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III championship. It was Robbinsville’s first-ever MCT title and obviously the first time it ever won counties and sectionals in the same year.
And they did it on the shoulders—or legs—of mainly two guys.
“It’s something I haven’t seen before,” said coach Will Spector, a former distance runner at Manalapan High and Rider University. “Coaching at Manalapan we were a distance heavy team, and this is not something you can do as a distance heavy team. You’re not going to have guys running four events.
“With LeBron, coming out of nowhere to be this good and do what he did, we were able to have succes. If it was just Maxim, this wouldn’t have happened. We knew what Maxim was, but track is a weird sport. If you get two really good sprinters all of a sudden you’re a really good team. As distance guys we’re just jealous because they can run multiple events and we run the 3200 and are done for the weekend.”
It’s one thing to run a lot of events, it’s another to thrive in them.
Rychkov amassed four gold medals in both the MCT and sectionals to give Robbinsville the maximum amount of 40 team points that an individual can produce in each meet. Rose had two seconds and two thirds for 28 team points in the MCT and claimed two firsts, a second and a fourth for 32 team points in the sectionals (which Robbinsville won by two points over Red Bank Regional).
Not to be forgotten is sprinter Mateo Masquero, who had a fifth in counties and first, third and sixth in sectionals.
“The athletes that make up our sprint program work together super well and push themselves to become the best they can be,” said Rychkov, who will run at The College of New Jersey along with Rose. “This is the type of team culture that allows for people to become great sprinters and to help contribute to team wins.
“While LeBron, Mateo and I were the main contributors in terms of points, the sprint team as a whole contributed to those team wins by pushing each other and pushing us; helping one another out and overall being great teammates.”
Spector was a Ravens assistant last spring and took over the program this year. He felt that falling 10 points short of Robbinsville’s goal of winning the indoor county title served as fuel for the outdoor season.
“Indoor was a meet we probably should have won,” he said. “After that the boys got a chip on their shoulder and went from there. Winning counties outdoors was definitely a goal we had set before the season.
“With sectionals, I don’t know if we were favored. We knew we had a chance. But I don’t think it was expected. At counties the expectation was to go in and get the job done. At sectionals we knew we needed to have a great meet and it would come down to a couple of points here and there.”
In the MCTs, Rychkov won the 100 meters (10.73 seconds), 200 (21.77), 400 (49.01) and long jump (21-1¾), an event he rarely does.
“He set all the sprinting records for us,” Spector said, adding with a laugh. “He didn’t set the record in the long jump, he only won the meet for us.”
And while winning was fun, it was also exhausting.
“To keep it simple, I felt tired,” Rychkov said. “The first day was definitely more taxing, because I had three events that day. After getting done with those three, it felt great that I managed to get through it.
“The next day, I had the 200. After getting done with that, I was feeling kind of dead. But knowing that I managed to win all of the events I competed in felt amazing.”
In the same meet Rose was second in the 400 (49.99) and 400 hurdles (55.84), and third in the 100 hurdles (15.13) and long jump (20-8¼).
Mosquera also chipped in with a fifth in the 200 (22.47). He also teamed with Mitchell Shapiro, Nathan Fleck and Will Strickland to run a second-place time of 44.49 in the 4×100 relay and combined with Tanay Patel, Strickland and Shapiro to take fifth in the 4×400.
“We couldn’t have Maxim and LeBron on the relays because they did four individuals,” Spector noted. “So everytime we needed Matteo on the relay, he stepped up. Having him on both relays at both meets was very important. As a senior captain leading the way with the other two, that was nice.”
Robbinsville outdistanced Peddie, 81-67, for its first MCT crown.
Things were a lot closer in the sectionals but the same cast of characters came through again.
Rychkov won the 100 (10.61), 200 (22.04) and 400 (school record 48.54), and teamed with Rose, Mosquera and Strickland to win the 4×100 (42.92). Rose won the 400 hurdles (56.85), was second in the 400 (49.87) and fourth in the 110 hurdles (school record 14.89). Mosquera was third in the 100 (10.95) and sixth in the 200 (22.52).
Spector also lauded the 4×800 team of Ethan Brown, Alex Yu, Mish Seshadri and Tanay Samnami for a sixth-place time of 8:35.1. The quartet also took sixth in counties.
“We only won the sectionals by two points,” the coach said. “So that sixth-place was important because every point matters.”
Neither championship would have been possible without the emergence of Rose, who set the 55 indoor record (7.86), and then claimed both hurdle outdoor records in the Group III meet.
“He says he’s the Robbinsville hurdle goat and he truly is with all three records,” Spector said. “ Even the open 400 coming in second to Maxim and breaking 50 seconds as sectionals just shows he’s an outstanding athlete. He does everything he can for the team. Between the two meets he probably had just under 70 points. There’s not enough good things to say about him.”
Rychkov could not have been prouder of his future college teammate.
“It’s actually kind of funny because LeBron, his freshman year, was, to be frank, not a good runner,” Rychkov said. “He struggled to put up times that other people were running at the time. But even though his performances weren’t great, he put in the work, and still contributed greatly to team culture. Come sophomore and junior year, he really began to improve and became a huge part of all the relays that we’ve been running.
“And finally, for his senior year, all the work he’s been putting in to improve ended up paying off in a huge way. I strongly respect his mindset and the work he put in through all of these years, and he’ll definitely end up killing it at TCNJ.”
He killed it at the Group III state meet, winning the 400 hurdles in a school record time of 54.16, while taking fourth in the 110 hurdles (14.91).
“It was shocking he won the Group three championship out of lane eight,” Spector said. “It was an insane race.”
Rychkov was at his best once again, winning the 100 in 10.58 and the 200 in a school record 21.34. He, Rose, Strickland and Mosquera combined for third in the 4×100 relay in a school record 42.39.
At the Meet of Champs Rose had a tough time in the 400 hurdles but Rychkov took third in the 200 in 21.50. The 4×100 finished 13th out of 25 teams in 42.48.
Maxim finished with school records in the 100 (10.50 at Cherokee), 200 and 400 and left his mark as one of the greatest Raven sprinters of all time.
“Over the last two years he has been one of the best sprinters in the state,” Spector said. “You need to go back to the indoor county meet as the last time he didn’t have a great meet. He could just do everything.
“Mateo and Maxim have been training partners for a good part of three years now, they do similar events and they kind of work together. LeBron is over there a lot of times doing the stuff for the hurdles, When it became time for a relay they always seemed to be on the same page. They almost never had a bad handoff in the four by ones.”
In looking back at his senior year, Rychkov could reflect on one good memory after another, both personally and with the team.
To win both counties and sectionals in the same season is huge for the program,” he said. “It also serves as a way for underclassmen and other athletes to step up and try to repeat what we did this year, pushing themselves to fill in for the graduating class’ spot.”
As for his individual effort, Rychkov said, “I couldn’t have asked for a better season. Maybe I could’ve run better here and there but all the work I’ve put in the past four years came together and had a huge payoff. It felt extremely rewarding being able to win so many events at such a high level, and I’m definitely going to try to continue this in my next four years at TCNJ.”
And TCNJ is probably anxious to enjoy a little R&R itself.
Members of the RHS track and field team pose for a photo after winning the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III championship.,
