Senior Rae-Juan Gayle, senior Jackson Murry and sophomore Christopher Scott each ran on two 1st-place relay teams to lead the Willingboro boys to their 1st Woodbury Relays team championship in eight years.
Willingboro outscored 2nd-place Oakcrest 47-27, with Camden and Pleasantville one point behind with 26. It was the Chimeras’ 18th Woodbury Relays title but first since they edged Deptford 45-42 to win the 2016 Group 2 title.
Willingboro also won Group 4 in 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1983, then Group 3 in 1985, 1987, 1988 and 1989, then back in Group 4 1990, 1991 and 1995, then Group 3 in 2002 and Group 2 in 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2016.
Senior Eric Foster, Gayle, Scott and Murry ran 42.70 to win the 400-meter relay. That’s No. 1 in the state this year. Jones, Gayle, Murry and Scott ran 1:30.95 to win the 800-meter relay. And senior Justin Green, junior Christian Bryant, junior Nasier Fields and junior Terrance Wesley won the 4-by-8 in 8:38.08
Willingboro also picked up eight points in the shuttle hurdles, with junior Jamere Brooks, sophomore Terrance Esaw, Foster and junior Somad Iyiola running 1:09.24, and in the 4-by-4, with Gayle, Murry, Fields and Iyiola running 3:26.45. Bryant, Scott, Jones and Green ran 3:49.82 for 6th place in the sprint medley.
Pleasantville’s senior Yusuf Golden, junior Melvin Lewis, junior Jermain Nelson and senior Brandon St. Martin won both the sprint medley in 3:35.71 and 1,600-meter relay in 3:25.09. Pleasantville’s SMR time is No. 5 in the state this year.
Also in Group 2, Oakcrest won the shuttle hurdles in 1:05.05 with seniors Clayton Husta, Armando Velazquez, Asmar Gibbs and Kelvin Urena, and Paul VI was 1st in the distance medley in 11:10.87 with juniors Sean Alemi, Austin Bailey and Christian Napoli and senior Will Mrozinski.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 