Nick Neville has been getting closer and closer, and on Monday he finally shattered a 36-year-old school record.
Neville gave Ramapo’s Jeremy Hernandez, a five-time All-America, all he could handle in the 800-meter run at the New Jersey Athletic Conference meet at the Ocean Breeze facility on Staten Island before finishing second in 1:52.63. Hernandez won the race in 1:52.02.
Their times are No. 4 and No. 11 in NCAA Division 3 this year.
But Neville’s time broke the school record of 1:53.57, set in 1981 when Rowan was known as Glassboro State by Tavo Rivera, who won the 1977 Meet of Champions at 880 yards for Pemberton.
Neville’s previous PR was 1:53.02 outdoors at a meet last April at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. He had lowered his collegiate indoor PR from 1:59.00 coming into this season to 1:54.32 in January at Sea Breeze and then 1:53.92 in February in a meet at Ithaca and finally to 1:53.60 last weekend, again at Sea Breeze.
Neville placed fourth in the 2015 Meet of Champions with a 1:54.21 for South Brunswick.
Rowan sophomore Martin Maldonado of Egg Harbor ran 1:55.56 for fifth place for Rowan. His previous season-best was a 2:00.87 and his indoor college PR was 1:59.76, so that’s more than a four-second improvement! Maldonado’s outdoor PR is 1:57.19 from last spring.
Maldonado’s high school PR was 2:00.31 at 2013 sectionals, and his indoor PR was 2:03.18 from a SJTCA meet at the Bennett Center in January of 2013.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 