Track, Track and more Track

Life in UC sure is exciting especially now during the championship part of our winter athletic seasons. Our Track team competed in the New Jersey Catholic Track Conference (NJCTC) championships recently and we won the whole meet! For the first time in the 55 year history of the meet Union Catholic took home the gold! The meet was so exciting, and everyone raced well. It was truly great so see everyone come together and perform well.

This past Saturday we also competed in the NJSIAA State Championships at the Armory in Jersey City. Anyone who placed in the top 6 in their event would qualify for the New Jersey Meet of Champions (MOC) in Toms River next Saturday. One of our girls, Tiara won the high jump, and one of our boys, Mike won the 55 meter dash! We also had many other qualifiers for the MOC including myself. I qualified for the Two mile race. I can’t wait to race there. It will be a great experience for all of us on the team. I can’t wait!

Today we also found out who qualified for Easterns which is a meet where runners from all over the East Coast compete. It is held at the New Balance Track and Field Center in NYC. Three of our relay teams were accepted as well as many athletes individually, including me. The meet is this coming Tuesday and it should be very exciting. I can’t wait to race against some of the best runners in the country. It should be a great week! I’ll let you know how it all goes.

Counties Take 2 and Millrose

Ok so here’s the story. The Union County individual meet was this past Wednesday, and my coach was holding out four of our best guys who were competing in the Millrose games. After we won the County Relay meet, we (the team) figured we had no chance of winning the individual meet without those runners, however, things got a little interesting.

The meet was held at the Dunn Center in Elizabeth, and we still had a lot of people running in the meet. I, myself ran in the mile and two mile races. The whole night was filled with excitement. After I ran the two mile race one of my teammates Nick, told me that we were winning. I was so excited. I learned that our shot putter Charles placed 2nd and our high jumper Obi placed second as well. After we placed 3rd in the 4x400 meter relay the meet was sealed. They announced all of the results and when they said that Union Catholic won, we all went crazy! We did a victory lap around the track chanting “UC! UC!” It was an amazing feeling. We definitely have a special group of guys on this year’s team. We still have a lot of season left as well as all of the spring season, but I am really going to miss the seniors next year.

The next day we were still celebrating in school. Everyone told us congratulations throughout the day. It was a special night that I will never forget. Two days later we went to the Millrose games at Madison Square Garden in NYC. Our 4x400 meter relay team ran and placed 4th! It was a great experience for them and everyone who went to the meet had a great time. It was really cool seeing all of the professional runners around us. I really hope that I will have an opportunity to run there one day.

Vikings Basketball, Catholic Schools Week...

Hello readers, last week a lot happened at Union Catholic. First was the good play of our varsity basketball team. They won 3 home games in a row against 3 good teams are their spirits started to lift after a poor start. Morale was high and our JV team went 2-1 so we were also in a good mood. The school was pumped and we got a lot of fans out to see the games, which really helped our team. We can always use more fans though so if any of you readers want to feel a great UC experience, find out when our next home game is and come feel a true Viking experience.

Another exciting thing that happened was Catholic Schools week. It was a week that is dedicated to all the Catholic schools in America. For this occasion we got two free tag days which allow us to dress down into regular clothes instead of in our uniforms. It was good to sit back and reflect on what it means to be in a Catholic school and how not all kids have the special privilege of going to a Catholic school. Union Catholic is a very special school and it’s a privilege for every kid that gets a chance to attend, so I highly recommend it.

Last Saturday was also our registration day for the class of 2012. We had another excellent turnout and over 220 kids registered. It was a great turn out and these kids are very lucky that they will be attending Union Catholic. We are happy for the great turnout and know that the class of 2012 will be as successful as every other class has here at Union Catholic.