Camden Catholic senior Billy Clewell turned into a terrific double over the weekend, running the fastest 800 by a South Jersey runner this year and PR’ing by nearly two seconds in the 1,600.
Clewell placed 4th in the 800 in 1:54.27 and 6th in the 1,600 in 4:16.76 at the state Parochial A championships at Middletown North.
He goes into Saturday’s Meet of Champions at South Plainfield as the No. 6 seed in the 800 and No. 12 in the 1,600, although obviously not all the higher seeds will be competing in either race.
Clewell’s previous PRs were 1:54.88 last month at South Jersey Elite and 4:18.48 at the Camden County Championships.
The only other runners to go sub-1:55 and sub-4:17 this weekend at the six state meets were senior Myles Plummer of Union Catholic [1:51.03, 4:10.69] and junior Collin Boler of Delbarton [1:51.10, 4:09.60], who both also did it in those loaded Parochial A races.
The Rutgers-bound Clewell was part of a couple historic races this weekend – the fastest 1,600 ever run in New Jersey and one of the fastest 800s in state meet history.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 