Toms River North relay at Nike Indoor

By CHRIS CHRISTOPHER • STAFF WRITER • March 11, 2010

TOMS RIVER — The Toms River High School North boys distance-medley relay team enters the Nike Indoor Nationals ranked second in the nation at 10 minutes, 15.6 seconds.

The Mariners trail Haddonfield Memorial (10:10.60).

They hope to overtake the Bulldogs on Friday at 6 p.m. at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Boston.

Toms River North will send seniors Aaron Leskow, Rob Botti, Brian MacNab and Joe Kotran onto the track.

"I think we can do it," Kotran said. "We are putting up good splits. We came in second (at the Eastern States Championships in 10:15.6 on Feb. 23). We're looking to drop our time from there and hopefully it happens. If that happens, we should place well."

Kotran said the Mariners are well-trained.

"Our training has been going well," he said. "We are so focused. Everyone seems to be looking good. We are definitely well-rested. We're doing workouts and we can see we are hitting some real good times. I hope they will carry us through the race."

North coach Jack Boylan said the Mariners have backed off tough training.

"They are starting to take it easy and shut it down a little bit," he said. "The miles are low. We are just trying to keep the boys fresh without overdoing it. The most intense training was done during the middle of the season.

"Our strength is there. We are just trying to hold on without overdoing it."

The team has planned to compete in the race for several seasons.

"We have been looking to this since our freshman year," Kotran said. "We knew we would have such a deep team. We have finally come together. We're definitely excited. We're looking forward to running in the race.

"We're looking to break 10:15.6. If everyone's personal best is a little bit better, we can definitely get that."

If team unity means anything, the Mariners are sure to win.

"Even outside of practice, we hang out all of the time," Kotran said. "We all have been through the workouts together. Nothing can separate us. We are definitely good friends."