Terrific double over the weekend for Woodstown graduate Xavier Seals at the CACC Championships.
Seals, a Georgian Court freshman, won the 800 in 1:55.18 and the 1,500 in 4:07.27 at the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference meet on his home track in Lakewood.
In the 800, Seals edged teammate Chukwuebizie Andamadi, who was second in 1:55.67. Seals was out in 58.21 but came back in 56.98.
He negative-split the 1,500 as well, out in 2:05.14 for the first 700 and closing in a blazing 2:02.14 and 56.26 (!) to again edge Andamadi, who ran 4:08.15.
Seals isn’t far off the school record of 1:54.80 in the 800, set two years ago by Andamadi at the Rider Invitational in Lawrenceville. The 1,500 mark is a little farther off but based on his closing speed certainly within reach at 3:58.51, set in 2017 by Uriah St. Lewis at the Monmouth Invitational in West Long Branch.
Seals also ran a 50.87 third leg on Georgian Court’s 3rd-place 1,600-meter relay team, which ran 3:26.47.
Georgian Court is coached by one-time Mike Murawski, a three-time state Parochial A high jump champ in 2002 and 2003 for Holy Cross. The Lions won their fifth CACC team title 262-112 over Bloomfield.
At Woodstown, Seals ran 2:02.51 and 4:27.59, which means he ran his closing 800 at the conference meet this weekend faster than his high school 800 PR. He placed 10th in the state Group 1 XC Championships at Holmdel in the fall of 2019.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 