Over the next 48 hours, we’ll take a look at every South Jersey team that won a sectional title. Up next: Moorestown boys!
Brandon Outlaw and Kevin Fox are Moorestown’s two studs. Outlaw ran a meet-record and all-time South Jersey No. 5 46.82 in the 400 on Friday — you can read all about that race here — and Fox raced his way to two second-places at sectionals this weekend with a 1:55.64 and 4:26.62.
The real heroes for Moorestown at Bernards High on its way to its first sectional title in 43 years — 43 YEARS!!!!! — were seniors Zion Howard and Hunter Rieger and freshman Christian Phelps.
Why?
Howard, Rieger and Phelps medaled in a combined seven events and in the process set … SEVEN PERSONAL BESTS!!!
That’s what track’s all about! Getting better and performing when the stakes are the highest!
Let’s take a look!
ZION HOWARD: Placed third in the intermediates in 56.33, took fifth in the 200 in 22.32 and ran sixth in the 400 in 50.37 for nine big points for the Quakers. Howard’s previous PRs were 58.17 in the intermediates, 22.36 in the 200 and 50.49 in the open 400.
HUNTER RIEGER: Rieger scored 16 huge points with second-place finishes in both the long jump and high jump. Rieger cleared 6-4 and jumped 22-3. Previous PRs were 6-2 and 21-9 3/4
CHRIS PHELPS: And Phelps came out of nowhere to place in both the high jump and triple jump. He cleared 6-0 after never having done better than 5-8 before, and he went 41-3 1/4 in the triple, adding exactly a foot from his PR from the County Open. Phelps also PR’d in the long jump at 19-6 but did not place.
How big were those combined 33 points?
Moorestown, forced to travel 80 miles for its sectional meet, finished with an 81-70 margin of victory over Nottingham.
The sectional title was Moorestown’s third overall, the first two coming in 1972 and 1974.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 