From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Deptford senior Lathan Brown took on the challenge of the 400-meter hurdles and flat 400 about 90 minutes apart in a one-day meet and came up huge.

With only the 400-meter relays in between in the revised one-day meet schedule, Brown won both the intermediate hurdles and 400-meter dash to lead Deptford to a share of the state Group 3 championship. He also ran on two winning relay teams for a rare state championship quad win.

Deptford finished in a tie with Chatham with 43 points apiece. The state title is Deptford’s second the last four years the meet has been contested. Deptford also won in 2019. The meet wasn’t held in 2020.

Going into the 4-by-400 – the final event – Chatham led Deptford 37-33 and was the top seed with a 3:23.77 from sectionals. Deptford was seeded 9th and Timber Creek 16th, so they were relegated to an unseeded race.

Deptford won that section in 3:20.44 on Brown’s 47.41 anchor, and Timber Creek (importantly) was 2nd in 3:21.26, with junior Nasir Ali splitting 47.77 chasing Brown.

Chatham did win the seeded race but wasn’t as fast as Deptford or – pivotally – Timber Creek. So Deptford got 10 points for a total of 43 and Chatham – bumped by Timber Creek for 2nd – settled for 3rd despite winning the “fast” race. Had Chatham run 33-100ths of a second faster, they finish ahead of Timber Creek’s time from the previous race and win the state championship outright.

But they didn’t, and Deptford won itself a state title in remarkable fashion.

Brown was phenomenal.

He became the first boy in Deptford history to win two individual events or four (or three) total events at a state championship meet, and he did it in a meet condensed from two days to one.

Brown ran a PR 52.72 to win the intermediates, the 5th-fastest time in Gloucester County history and fastest in 14 years, since Tim Carey of Washington Township ran 52.10 at the 2009 state Group 4 meet at Egg Harbor Township. It’s No. 21 in South Jersey history.

Brown also won the 400 in 48.80 – not far off his PR of 48.76 from sectionals – with Timber Creek junior Nasir Ali 2nd in 49.61.

He also anchored Deptford’s winning 400-meter relay team, with senior Kevin Mosley, junior Darryl Wayman, sophomore Kamari Brown and Lathan Brown running 42.73, and he ran the third leg on that 4-by-4, which also included junior Christian Berry, senior Robert Long and Wayman and ran 3:20.44.

A key event for the Spartans was the high jump, where senior Sammy Sanford tied for 4th at 6-2 with Freehold Borough’s Malakai Pressey. Sanford and Pressey both cleared 5-10, 6-0 and 6-2 without a miss before going out at 6-4. Had Sanford had one miss at any of those earlier heights, Pressey would have placed 4th and Sanford 5th, and Sanford would have scored two points instead of three … and Chatham would have won the meet outright.

South Jersey has dominated the state Group 3 meet. Since 1982, a South Jersey school has either won Group 3 outright or tied for the title 34 times in 41 years.

That curious dominance began when Kennedy won the title in 1982 and 1983. Wilson and Williamstown tied in 1984, then Willingboro won in 1986, 1988 and 1989. Edgewood won in 1990, then Bridgeton won five straight before Wilson won outright in 1996. Camden tied for the 1998 title, then won three straight outright. Willingboro won the next two and Camden won the two after that. Timber Creek won six of seven between 2008 and 2014, with Oakcrest breaking up the streak with a win in 2012. Since 2016, Pennsauken [2016, 2021] and Delsea [2018, 2022] have won twice apiece. Deptford also won in 2019.

The only non-South Jersey schools to win Group 3 since 1982: Rahway in 1985, Lakewood in 1987, Franklin in 1997, Monmouth Regional in 2006 and 2007, River Dell in 2015 and West Windsor-Plainsboro North in 2017.