Peyton Shute finished off his 3rd win of the weekend with a 4:16.45 in the 1,600 to deliver a second straight State Group 1 team championship to Woodbury in Somerset.
Woodbury scored 78 points, and Shute and junior Marquis Taylor had a hand in 76 of them. Glassboro finished 2nd with 57 points.
The state championship is Woodbury’s 13th overall.
Woodbury won state Group 3 titles in 1943 and 1948 and Group 1 in 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 2010, 2011 and last year.
Among New Jersey public schools, only Montclair [21 total, all between 1924 and 1974], Glen Ridge [15 total, none since 1968] and Willingboro [14 total] have won more state titles than Woodbury. Christian Brothers has won 27.
Woodbury and Glen Ridge share Group 1 honors with 12 titles each, although Glen Ridge hasn’t won one in 56 years.
Shute won the 800 in 1:52.05 and the 3,200 in 9:26.98 on Friday and capped his weekend by winning the 1,600 Saturday, giving the Thundering Herd an 11-point lead over Gloucester County rival Glassboro with only the 1,600-meter relay remaining and clinching the 14th team title in school history.
Shute also anchored Woodbury’s 2nd-place 4-by-8, which also included Charlie Floyd, Jayden Johnson and Elijah Young.
Taylor also had a huge weekend, winning the 400 on Saturday in a PR 48.23 and placing 2nd in the 200 behind Malachi James with a PR 21.67. On Friday, Taylor anchored Woodbury’s 4-by-1, which won with a 42.35, with Shiwoe Vapilah, Dante Viccharelli and Dorian Dunbar also in the lineup.
Taylor then finished the meet off with a 48.27 anchor leg on Woodbury’s winning 1,600-meter relay team. Johnson, Varpilah and Vicharelli also ran on the 4-by-4.
Woodbury’s two points that neither Shute nor Taylor had a hand in came courtesy of Johnson, who ran 50.36 for 5th place in the 400.
For Glassboro, senior Damere Lassiter swept the shot [55-8 ¾] and disc [169-6], senior Cartrell Moore placed 3rd in the triple jump [45-7], 3rd in the intermediatres [54.17] and 4th in the 400 [49.46], freshman Xavier Sabb ran 3rd in the 100 in 11.03, junior Ty Blackman ran 9:38.13 for 3rd in the 3,200 4:28.97 for 4th in the 1,600, senior Elijah Whitaker placed 5th in the 1,600 in 4:29.74 and senior Desmond Vassell was 6th in the intermediates with a 58.54.
Glassboro also ran 42.59 for 2nd in the 400-meter relay on Friday with Brysheen Ferguson, Amari Sabb, Xavier Sabb and Caron Wright.
Lassiter is Glassboro’s first double winner at states since 1996, when Pat Ryan won the 1,600 in 4:26.41 and the 3,200 in 9:48.25.
We’ll have more on Jamir Brown in the next day or two, but the Riverside senior had another monster weekend, winning the 110-meter high hurdles in 13.81 with a 0.2 headwind and winning the long jump with a 23-8 ¾ after placing 1st in the 400 hurdles Friday in 53.52.
Burlington senior Malachi James followed his win in the 100 in 10.47 on Friday with a wind-legal 21.48 win in the 200 on Saturday.
Also in Group 1, Salem junior Davi’Yonn Jackson won the triple jump with a 46-4.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 