Rancocas Valley graduate Ian Moore, a freshman at Monmouth, has the fastest 800 in the Metro-Atlantic Conference this year thanks to a breakthrough PR of 1:52.76 in the Villanova Invitational at Ocean Breeze earlier this month.
https://www.tfrrs.org/results/63770/3940146/Villanova_Invitational/Men’s_800m__Run/
It was his first 800 as a collegian.
Moore was racing for the first time since running 2:26.29 for 1,000 meters at Boston University late last month. https://sjtrackblog.com/2020/01/25/monmouths-ian-moore-from-rancocas-valley-runs-incredible-breakthrough-1000-in-boston/
Moore placed third, behind two post-collegiates and lowered his indoor PR an astounding 6 1/2 seconds from 1:59.13 from a meet at the Armory in December of 2018.
His previous overall PR was a 1:56.43 from the South Jersey Invitational at Delsea in May of 2018.
Moore’s time is No. 1 in the Metro-Atlantic Conference.
Sadly, Monmouth’s on-line track and field record book doesn’t have a real all-time school performance list. They only list Dylan Capwell five times as their “top-5.”
The Metro-Atlantic 800 list has a distinctly South Jersey flavor with five of the top 10 half-milers, four with overall PRs in the last few weeks and all five with indoor PRs. Four of them are from Burlington County.
—> Moore is No. 1 with his 1:52.76, 10-100ths of a second ahead of teammate Louis DiLaurenzio (from Raritan).
—> Another freshman from R.V., Micah Wood, is 4th with a huge PR of 1:53.46 from Boston University’s John Thomas Terrier Classic last month.
—> Jalen Jones of Burlington Township, a sophomore at Monmouth, is No. 7 with a 1:55.50 at the Monmouth Winter Invite last weekend in his first collegiate 800. Jones had an indoor PR of 1:56.46 dating back to the 2017 Meet of Champions, where he was 5th, and an overall PR of 1:55.99 from Group 3 states. He also ran 48.84 for the 400 outdoors for the Falcons.
—> Cinnaminson’s Tom Long, a Rider senior, is No. 9 with an indoor PR of 1:54.14. He’s got a PR of 1:51.73 outdoors.
—> Donny Vineyard, a Rider sophomore from Egg Harbor Township, is No. 10 with a PR 1:54.19 from Boston University last month.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 