Olivia Baker of Columbia High School won her anticipated 400-meter showdown as Essex County posted three winners at the track and field Meet of Champions.

Baker held off Ajee Wilson of Neptune in the 400 race, finishing with a personal-best time of 53.48 seconds. The sophomore's winning time was the fourth-best ever run by a New Jersey high school girls' athlete.

The 400 became the meet's showcase event when Wilson, the 800-meter state record holder and international youth champion, decided to run the 400 against Baker. Wilson originally planned to run the 800 before the Meet of Champions was postponed by rain and pushed back four days.

Newark Tech's Nichole Candelaria finished third in the 400, and Bloomfield's Tonisha Beresford was sixth.

The other Essex County champs were both girls' relay teams. Newark Tech ran off with the 4x100 sprint relay title in a time of 47.63 seconds. Iana Amsterdam anchored the Terriers' effort, following the legs by Gifty Amankwah, Natalia Hinton and Candelaria.

Mount St. Dominic captured the title in the 4x800 relay. The Lady Lions set a new Meet of Champions record with a time of 9:14.48, winning by more than a second. Ashlynn Fields anchored the team, which also included Kelsey O'Driscoll, Kathleen McCurdy and Amanda Grbosiero.

Essex County came close to a clean sweep of the girls' relays, as Columbia placed second in the 4x400. Baker held off several foes for the runner-up spot behind champion Lenape.

Newark Tech's Amsterdam grabbed a second-place medal in the girls' triple jump.

There were no boys' champions from Essex County, but West Orange had an impressive performance with four top-five finishes. The Mountaineers placed in a pair of relays, coming in third in the 4x100 and fourth in the 4x400.

In individual races, Jared Mason took third in the 800-meter run for West Orange, while Karl Cajuste placed fifth in the 110 high hurdles.

Millburn's Blake Udland came in fourth in the 1,500-meter race, while Phillip Gomez of Glen Ridge took sixth in the 400 meters despite running in the second heat.

The only top-six boys' placing in a field event came from Julian Pinnix-Odrick of Montclair, who took third in the discus.

The event took place at Vince Lombardi Field in Old Bridge.

For sports video highlights of this New Jersey high school boys' and girls' track and field Meet of Champions, click play in the box at left.