Four Dodgers Qualify For Meet of Champions

The Madison Dodgers winter track team will be sending four of its members to the Meet of Champions in Toms River on Saturday. Three members of the boys team and one of the girls team, most of them juniors, placed highly enough in the Group I championships last Saturday to qualify.

Senior Kyle Flyer earned his spot in the Meet of Champions with a fifth place finish in the 800 meter event at the Group I Championships, with a time of 2:02.89. Junior Melissa Iskandar, the only member of the girls team to qualify, will also be competing in the 800 meter event. Her time of 2:22.44 was good enough for a fourth place finish.

"At the beginning of the season, we would have thought Melissa would have had more chance in a distance event," said Dodgers head coach Mark LaDolcetta.

Iskandar, who was focused on distance running at the beginning of the season, has been gradually improving in shorter events, placing highly and often in the 800 meter run throughout the season.

Another Madison athlete who has improved greatly this season is junior Aaron Shinn, who qualified for the Meet of Champions with his 12 foot pole-vault on Saturday, a sixth place finish.

"Aaron has improved tremendously," LaDolcetta said. "Last year his best jump was 9 feet, 6 inches."

Shinn's dedication is apparent: he not only competes with the Dodgers, but also vaults with a private club year round.

Junior R.J. Graddy qualified with a third place finish in the high jump, hitting the 5 feet, 8 inches mark.

Shinn, Graddy, Iskandar, and Flyer were the only four Dodgers to qualify for the Meet of Champions, but a few other Dodgers put forth impressive performances at the Group I Championships, as well.

Caroline Miller ran her personal best time in the 3,200 meter event with a time of 12:20.22. Flyer, Jimmy Finelli, Greg Zitelli and Jack Mahoney combined for a 3:42.75 finish in the 4x400 meter relay, their best time of the season and the best time of any Madison track team in several years.

Three of the athletes who qualified for the Meet of Champions also competed in the Eastern States Championships earlier this week, a highly selective invitational with strict entrance requirements.

Flyer ran his best ever mile at the meet, with a time of 4:31.74, a nine second improvement. Iskandar ran her personal best 800 meter race, with a time of 2:21.68.

Graddy broke his own school record in the long jump, hitting the 20 feet 1 and ¼ inch mark. His 20 feet and 1 inch jump on January 27th at the Fairleigh Dickinson University Field Events Meet in Teaneck was the previous record.

The Meet of Champions is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Saturday at the Bennett Center in Toms River.