The Haddonfield boys made a little history Saturday at Holmdel with the fastest average time ever recorded at the state Group 2 meet, the 3rd-fastest time ever in any public school state meet and the fastest time ever recorded by a South Jersey school at states.
Haddonfield averaged 16:21 for its five scorers when it won the state Group 2 meet on the historic 5,000-meter course at Holmdel County Park.
Race winner Benjamin Andrus ran 16:03, Bennett Wright was 4th in 16:21, Ryan Gibson 5th in 16:22, Peter Simpson 6th in 16:26 and Luke Andresen 8th in 16:33.
Overall, Haddonfield’s time is 34th-fastest in Holmdel history, with 18 of the faster averages coming from CBA.
Haddonfield set the South Jersey best at Holmdel with its 16:20.2 at the 2010 Meet of Champions [Ben Potts 15:43, Matt Nussbaum 16:01, Gregory Halla 16:25, Tim Malloy 16:29, Ethan Quanci 17:03].
The only public school averages at the state meet faster than Haddonfield’s 16:21 Saturday have come from Westfield in Group 4 last year [15:59.4] and Colts Nbeck in Group 3 in 2016 [16:19.0].
The only faster times ever recorded by South Jersey schools are that 2010 Haddonfield performance and Paul VI’s 16:20.8 when they won the 1988 Meet of Champions (and the course was much slower). That 1988 PVI team included Jason DiJoseph [15:33], Matt Cieslik [16:24], Vincent Cieslik [16:32], Joe Cranston [16:48] and Jim Wolfram [16:59], with 6th man Pete Dougherty not far off [17:00].
The previous fastest time at Group 2 states not surprisingly was set by Haddonfield, who averaged 16:28.6 at the 2021 meet [Seth Clevenger 15:51], George Andrus [16:11], Tobias Janssen [16:24], Rob DiMedio [16:50] and Donald Jellig [17:07].
Haddonfield’s 16:21 average Saturday was 2nd-fastest of all the state meets. Meet of Champions is scheduled for this coming Saturday back at Holmdel.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 