NEW YORK--The College of New Jersey's men's indoor track & field team claimed its 13th consecutive New Jersey Athletic Conference Championship on February 22 at the New Balance 168th Street Armory, as the Lions took first place in the men’s meet with 178 points.
The TCNJ men and women have won every indoor championship since the conference began conducting the meet in 1998.
TCNJ’s men won five of 18 events—the triple jump, pole vault, mile run, 3000 meters and 4x400 relay—and scored 177 points, to finish 61 points ahead of second-place Ramapo (116 points). Montclair State University, which captured the 55 meter hurdles, shot put and weight throw was third (76 points) followed by Rowan (65 points), Richard Stockton College (64 points), New Jersey City University and Kean University (54 points), Rutgers-Camden (49 points) and Rutgers-Newark (42 points).
Montclair State senior Eugene Asimou was named the Outstanding Male Athlete as he won both the shot put and weight throw. Asimou, who missed the 2009 championship due to injury, set a conference meet record as he won the shot put with an NCAA automatic qualifying throw of 17.06 meters and also broke the previous NJAC record of 16.71 meters set by Rowan’s Robert Godfrey in 2005. Asimou took first in the weight throw with a winning toss of 16.31 meters.
Frank Iwanicki of Rutgers-Camden was named the Outstanding Male Track Athlete as he won the 800 meters with an ECAC Championship qualifying time of 1:54.95. Kevon Brown of Rutgers-Newark was chosen as the Rookie of the Year. Brown won the 200 meters as he timed in at an ECAC Championship qualifying time of 22.53 seconds.
The Outstanding Male Field Athlete honors went to Ramapo College’s Valdir Mondesir. Mondesir won a terrific duel in the high jump as he out-leaped Chris Huch of Richard Stockton. Mondesir registered an NCAA provisional mark of 2.03 meters.
TCNJ head coach Philip Jennings was selected as the NJAC Coach of the Year for both the men’s and women’s teams as he led the Lions to their 13th straight title on both sides. Jennings captures the women’s honor for the second straight season.