Delsea’s shot put crew came up huge once again, leading the Crusaders to their 5th indoor state title and 4th in the last six years.
With 18 points in the shot, Delsea topped Morris Knolls 42 1/3-30 to win the state Group 3 championship at the Bubble Saturday.
Delsea also won state titles in Group 2 in 2011, 2018, 2020 and 2022.
This was a true team championship. Delsea’s weight crew got plenty of help from a sprinter, a distance runner, a vaulter, a jumper and a relay team.
Junior Jonathan Harris won the shot with a 58-11 ¼, senior Greg Masso placed 3rd with a final-throw 55-0 and senior Tyler Habersham-Agbemenu was 5th with a 49-7 ½.
In 2018, Bill Goldsborough placed 2nd in the shot. In 2020, Joe Metzger placed 2nd in the shot. In 2022, Jason Nwosu, Josh Caudill and Masso swept the top three spots. So in those four state title since 2018, the Crusaders have scored 58 points in the shot put.
Sophomore Matthew Littlehales contributed eight big points with a 2nd-place finish in the 1,600 with a personal-best 4:21.71, 2nd-fastest by a New Jersey 10th-grader this year and fastest by a South Jersey sophomore since Ocean City’s Owen Ritti ran 4:20.43 at the 2020 Meet of Champions at Ocean Breeze. Littlehales’ previous indoor PR was 4:29.61 last week at sectionals. He ran 4:23.69 last spring as a freshman.
Senior Julian Conigliaro, who didn’t even make sectionals last indoor season, ran a big PR 6.58 for 3rd place in the 55-meter dash. Conigliaro’s previous PR was 6.64, which he ran twice, including in the trials earlier Saturday.
Senior Carlos Reyes cleared 13-0 in the pole vault – an indoor PR and matching his lifetime PR – for 3rd place in the pole vault.
Senior Wayne Adair cleared 6-0 in the high jump, finishing in a 3-way tie for 6th place, which accounts for the one-third of a point in Delsea’s final total.
And Delsea finished things off with a 4th-place finish in the 1,600-meter relay, with seniors Xavier Wyatt, Conigliaro, Dante McGrenehan and Christian Langston running 3:28.66.
Outdoors, Delsea won state titles in Group 3 in 2018 and 2022 and Group 2 in 2019, so overall that’s eight state championships and seven since 2018.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 