At this point, it seems the Columbia girls track and field team could run their junior varsity squad out in conference and county meets and still win by a lot. After last week's dominant performance at the county relays, it came as no surprise that the Cougar girls won the first ever Super Essex Conference Championship on Friday at Millburn High School, and did so in impressive fashion.

Columbia racked up 174 points, beating out second-place Livingston for the championship. Columbia's margin of victory was so wide that if you added Livingston's total to third place West Orange's, the Cougars would have still won by 42 points.

With so many stars and great performances for the Cougar girls, it's hard to pick out just one, but junior Ms. Everything, Kayann Richards, was everywhere for Columbia, winning the 100-meter dash, 100-meter hurdles and the high jump.

In the 200-meter dash, Columbia took first, second and third place behind senior trio Kelsey Jackson (25.55), Jasmine Carter (25.81) and TyVonna Johnson (26.01). Johnson and Jackson also coupled to go first and second in the 400.

In the 4x400, Brittany Padmore, Ayaana Smith, Janee Kearny and India Crawley claimed the top spot with a 4:06.32.

Brittney Jackson was limited in her participation in Friday's event due to slight soreness. Columbia head coach Lisa Morgan said that she wanted to be careful with Jackson, and only ran her in one event, rather than the three to four she normally does.

But if Jackson was hurt in the 800, the only event she ran in, it was certainly hard to tell. She wiped out the rest of the field with 2:12.38, more than 13 seconds faster than her closest competition, Isalin Howard from Campus High School.

Upcoming freshman Amber Ballew had a good day for the Cougars, winning the long jump with a 17 foot 2 inch leap. Chinyere Ozuzu was the final winner for the Columbia girls, throwing the discus 108 feet 3 inches to secure a comfortable win.

Lost in the girls' dominance was the performance of the boys, who took eighth overall with 35 points. D.J. Roberts was the boys' best performer of the day, winning the 400 with a 49.43, just edging West Side's Geoffrey Stewart. Roberts also claimed second place in the 200-meter dash, with Stewart getting the better of him in that race.

While there were no other winners for the boys, there were a few notable finishes. Brian Basili claimed third in the 1,600 and fourth in the 3,200. Jared Williams was fifth in the 100, Franklin Bellamy was sixth in the 400-meter hurdles and Perry Mims was fifth in the 110-meter hurdles.