On May 9/10th, the highly performing Rams took to the Governor Livingston Track, striving for a 2nd conference title in the past 3 years. In an ambitious pursuit of victory, the Rams were led by veterans Tommy Hunt, James Martin, and Declan Kelly — all of whom were on the 2022 Championship team — and were joined by sophomores Brody Sheehan, James Nolan, and Connor Bassolino who all scored big points as well. For context, scoring in track is determined by placement, with points assigned to the following places as displayed below:
1st Place: 10 Points | 2nd Place: 8 Points | 3rd Place: 6 Points | 4th Place: 4 points | 5th Place: 2 Points | 6th Place: 1 Point
Keeping that in mind, let’s look into how the Rams strung together a 30-point victory over strong opposition such as Hillside and Summit. Day 1 started with the 400 Hurdles, where Dean Webber took 6th, scoring the Rams 1st point of the day. However, Summit’s Vince DeFabio took 1st, which led to Summit Captain Nate Roberts approaching Oratory Captain Tommy Hunt and saying, “that’s 10” in reference to the early score. Well, the next event on the track was the 1600m run, where things certainly shifted for the Rams. Considering each team can only have three athletes compete in a particular event, it is especially impressive that 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the 1600m were swept by Oratory’s Tommy Hunt (4:28.9), Declan Kelly (4:30.8) and Connor Bassolino (4:34.8), while Summit was left taking 4th, 5th and 6th, for a complete Summit-area school take over of the scoring. After which, Hunt approached his good friend Roberts to let him know, “that’s 24”. Following the big scoring in the 1600, the Rams would take a lead they would never relinquish. Brody Sheehan then took 6th in the 100m dash in a time of 11.59, to set the stage for the 400m, the final running event of Day 1. Just before the final heat of the 400m, Sophomore James Nolan would win the secondary heat in a time of 51.59 (NJ #12 for the Class of 2026), which would beat multiple runners from the top heat for a 4th place score. In the top heat, Hunt would breeze past Hilltopper and Comet opposition to gap the field and decisively win in a New School Record time of 49.4 to get his 2nd win of the day. On the field side of things, James Martin would take 2nd in the shot put with a monster 47-2 foot personal-record throw, and 5th in the discus with a 117-3 foot throw, two feet behind his sophomore teammate Joey Demarco who took 4th (119-2 feet). In the triple jump, the sophomore duo of Brody Sheehan (40-8.5 feet) and Lucas Costa (40-0 feet) would take 3rd and 4th while Matt Pasternak would set the freshman record in the high jump (5-8) to tie for 6th. All of this combined for the Rams to have a 12-point lead heading into day 2 of completion.
Day 2 was kick-started by the 800m run, where the Rams looked to continue the scoring. With OP Rowdies such as Sutton Collins and Pat Conniff in attendance, Providence-bound Tommy Hunt showed out, winning the race in a new school and Union County Conference Record. His time of 1:53.05 was the 2nd fastest time in New Jersey this year, while sophomore James Nolan’s 3rd Place 1:56 keeps him ranked as NJ’s #1 ranked Sophmore 800m Runner. Meanwhile, sophomore Eric DeVomecourt took 6th in the javelin (126-7) while the jump duo of Brody Sheehan (21-0) and Gabe Costa (19-11.5) in his return from a broken ankle took 2nd and 6th, respectively. In the following event, Charlie Spiegel took 4th in the 110m High Hurdles in a new PR of 16.52. The hurdles were then cleared for the 3200m, where a slow start meant the incredibly fit Declan Kelly and Connor Bassolino only went through the first mile in 5:06. Despite being in rainy and near-storming conditions, Sophmore Connor Bassolino brought the lightning, closing his 2nd mile in 4:46 to take the win in 9:52.3 to set the school record in an unorthodox style of racing. Teammate Declan Kelly took 3rd in 9:55 to set the Junior Class record, while freshman Aidan Murphy took 4th in a new PR 10:20.02. Unfortunately, the 200m was one of just two events that the Rams did not score a point in, only joining the pole vault where nobody competed for OP after it was moved to the next day due to rainy conditions. As a result, the Rams had to ensure they were in first by more than 24 points to mathematically clinch the title, meaning a win in the 4×400 was needed just in case. On the opening leg, Aidan O’Dowd split 53.6, handing off the baton to James Nolan in the top-3 position. Nolan’s 51.2 split then gave OP the lead when handing off to Declan Kelly. Having run a two-mile earlier in the day, Kelly battled admirably to maintain the lead with his 53.9 split. Before getting the baton, Hunt signaled to his teammates that the meet was essentially over, as his 49.2 anchor split won the race and the meet for the Rams. As Hunt stormed down the home stretch, announcer Mark MacNaughton emphatically proclaimed, “Oratory’s going to win the Mountain” just before alumni Pat Feit, Gus Russo, and Michael Kupetz embraced the 4×400 team in a beautiful testament to the OP brotherhood. Also, while an athlete is allowed to run a maximum of 4 events, it is very rare to see an athlete do so, nevertheless, win all 4 as Hunt did. In fact, a male has not done so in the Union County Conference since Oratory’s own Ciaran Bowler! A snippet of a recent Milesplit article giving the team some love and a complete box score is listed below.
