Senior John Flammer from Holy Spirit, sophomroe Isaac Linden and senior Andrew Mercantini of Moorestown Friends and junior Matt Colden of Bishop Eustace all placed in the top 10 in the Parochial B race at states and earned auto bids to Saturday’s Meet of Champions.
Flammer, a 2:00 half-miler last spring, ran a Holmdel PR of 18:07 and placed 4th to qualify for the Meet of Champions for the first time.
Linden was the top sophomore in the race, taking 5th place in 18:30, nearly two minutes faster than he ran at Holmdel at states last year, and Mercantini ran 18:44 for 10th. Both will race at the M-of-C for the first time. They’re the first Moorestown Friends runners to advance to the Meet of Champions since junior Mark Johnson, who placed 5th at Parochial B states in 2019.
Colden led Eustace to a 2nd-place finish behind St. Rose of Belmar, which finished with a 74-91 margin of victory.
Colden placed 8th in 18:36, and junior Christopher Stinson and sophomore Ethan Capraola took 17th in 19:01.
This was Eustace’s 2nd straight 2nd-place finish in the state championships. The Crusaders took 2nd to Newark Academy 65-78 last year. They were also 2nd to Newark Academy in 2018 [54-103] after winning the title in 2016.
The race was won by senior Jeremy Sallade of Wilberforce School in Plainsboro in 17:01. Sallade’s father Chris ran 4:17.39 at Shawnee and was the 1990 state Group 4 champion at 1,600 meters.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 