They’ve been battling since they were sophomores in high school, Thompson at Florence and Mirabelli just down Rte. 130 at Holy Cross.
They’re still battling, and at the USATF Junior National Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., long-time rivals Curtis Thompson and Chris Mirabelli finished first and second in the javelin, Thompson with a 237-4 bomb and Mirabelli with a throw of 225-5.
Thompson recently finished his freshman year at Mississippi State and Mirabelli finished his first season at Rutgers.
Seth Zuidema of U. Conn and Midland Park High School placed third at 197-02, giving New Jersey a sweep of the top three spots. Thompson, Mirabelli and Zuidema were New Jersey’s top three-ranked javelin throwers last year
Thompson, who was third at NCAAs, also placed sixth in the senior men’s javelin event with a throw of 237-8.
Thompson’s PR is a 248-1 at the SEC Championships, and Mirabelli’s is 227-6 from the Penn Relays. Zuidema’s career-best is a 207-5 at the Florida Relays.
Thompson ranks No. 7 on this year’s world junior list and No. 3 on the all-time United States junior list:
255-4 .… Sam Crouser (Gresham [Ore.] High School), 2010
253-0 .… Sean Keller (Heritage [Washington] High School), 2012
248-1 .… Curtis Thompson (Mississippi State), 2015
246-10 .. Bill Stanley (Ohio State), 2013
244-10 .. Joe Zimmerman (Washington), 2010
239-7 … Justin Carter (Auburn), 2014
238-10 .. Chris Hill (McNeese State), 2007
238-8 … Troy Burkholder (Washington), 1996
236-1 …. Devin Bogert (Texas A&M), 2012
235-10 .. Delyle Woods (San Jacinto Junior College), 1993
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 
Great article and now another great story is they both will be wearing the same uniform representing the ISA at the pan am juniour games. Imagine that two kids 9 miles apart throwing the javelin, are teammates.
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