Over the next few weeks, we’ll spotlight 30 athletes who excelled during the outdoor track season that we didn’t have a chance to write about extensively. We’d love to write about every athlete in South Jersey, but that’s not practical. But we will try to spotlight some who may have gotten overlooked over the past few months. We apologize in advance if we don’t get to you or your son or daughter or an athlete you coach.
Today: Christopher Manzo, Egg Harbor Twp.
It was a wild year for half-milers in South Jersey, with Peyton Shute, Dominic Bassey and Bobby Poplau all running sizzling sub-1:53 times. So it was easy to overlook Christopher Manzo, but the Egg Harbor Township senior finished his season as a Meet of Champions medalist.
Manzo had an outstanding junior year, PR’ing at 1:55.93 at the Meet of Champions along with a 49.85 at sectionals last spring.
His focus this spring was on the 800, and he put together a series of fast races, including a 1:54.39 for 3rd place at South Jersey Group 4 sectionals, a PR 1:54.04 for 6th at states and then 1:54.33 for 6th at Meet of Champs. He also won the Atlantic County title at Buena in 1:57.94, edging Pleasantville junior Melvin Lewis and Cedar Creek senior Matthew Winterbottom, who both also ran sub-2.
Manzo’s 1:54.04 broke the school record by 2-100ths of a second. Eric Barnes ran 1:54.06 at Group 4 states in 2016 on EHT’s home track off English Creek Road.
Between Meet of Champions winner Ishmael Ishmael Muhammad, Pleasantville’s Clark twins, legendary Sam Summerville from the 1970s and several others, the all-time Atlantic County 800 top-10 is a very tough list to break into.
But Manzo made it into the No. 9 spot, knocking Barnes off the list. He’s Atlantic County’s fastest half-miler since Muhammad set the South Jersey record 1:48.52 at the 2014 Meet of Champions at South Plainfield.
Manzo will continue his education and track career at St. Joe’s.
Atlantic County All-Time 800 List
1:48.52 … Ishmael Muhammad [Oakcrest], 2014
1:49.27 … Isaac Clark [Pleasantville], 2013
1:50.30 … Jacob Clark [Pleasantville], 2013
1:51.74y … Sam Summerville [Holy Spirit], 1976
1:52.24 … Ford Palmer [Absegami], 2009
1:53.09 … James Wyner [Mainland Reg.], 2004
1:53.52 … Aaron Johnson [Oakcrest], 2009
1:53.62 … Joe Lewis [Pleasantville], 1998
1:54.04 … Christopher Manzo [Egg Harbor Twp.], 2024
1:54.05 … Nolan Kier [Hammonton], 2009
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 