Wednesday’s NJSIAA Meet of Champions was the final and arguably biggest meet of Nikalena Iacono’s career. And also one of the most relaxed meets that the Lyndhurst star thrower entered.
“I think I went in ranked 17th based off of groups, so I went in not fully expecting to make the finals or anything like that,” said Iacono, who isn’t planning to throw in college. “So I went in hoping to just have fun and make the most of my last high school meet ever.
“The (school record in Shot Put) was on my mind, but I felt like I had been so focused on it throughout the season that I didn’t want to hyper-focus on it and not actually enjoy my last meet. So I just let it be and let it play out. If I broke it, then I broke it. If I didn’t, as long as I had fun in my last high school meet (it was ok).”
Iacono went out and threw a personal best of 39-4, good for a surprising ninth place finish. Then, after double-checking the records once more it was confirmed that Iacono’s throw was good for a new Lyndhurst school record.
While the ninth place was surprising to many, it did come with a slight touch of disappointment knowing that Iacono’s score was less then an inch away from qualifying for a spot in the final round and earning herself a MOC medal.
“I went in not expecting to be as close to making the final,” said Iacono. “i had a good day, but it did kind of stink because I was so close from it. We hung around. We were counting how many people had made it to the finals and how far off I was.”
“We were hoping to place, and ended up missing by an inch! But beating the record by .5 made it all worth it,” head coach Rich Tuero said. “But she got it, and we truly were so happy. Sure, we wanted the medal, but honestly, leaving her legacy with that record is so much more than a medal.”
“The year before I wasn’t even close to making the finals so I showed a lot of improvement,” said Iacono. “No complaints.”
A year ago, as a junior, Iacono admitted she was a little intimidated by the MOC stage and threw a disappointing 34-11 for 18th place, well short of what she scored in the sections and groups in earlier weeks.
This time around, Iacono started her day with a solid, but disappointing throw of 37-1 on her first attempt. The second attempt proved to be the record breaker when she threw the 39-4. Iacono’s third and final throw was a 39-3.
Afterwards, Tuero and assistant coach James Day said they were going to do a little further digging to confirm her 39-4 was in fact the new record, which they verified later in the day after returning home to Lyndhurst from Pennsauken.
“It feels really rewarding,” Iacono said. “It’s really all that I’ve been talking about. So I was really working hard to reach that goal and I’m really happy that I got to do that.
“Going into track my freshman year, in winter, I had literally no clue what I was doing. So I think that makes it even more rewarding because it’s something that I fully learned how to do and was taught and actually improved over the years. I never really did track, especially shot put (before high school). So it’s really rewarding to see something that started from nothing come to so much success and breaking records.
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Also at the Meet of Champions, Nutley sophomore Havana Alvarez took 18th in the Long Jump with a leap of 16-10.25.
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Jason Bernstein | Observer Sports Writer
Jason Bernstein joined The Observer as its sports writer in March 2022, following the retirement of Jim Hague. He has a wealth of sports-writing experience, including for NJ Advance Media (nj.com, The Jersey Journal, The Star-Ledger.)