Woodstown junior Joshua Crawford smashed the meet record, senior Cole Lucas wasn’t far behind and junior junior Karson Chew gave the Wolverinces three of the first five four finishers in the South Jersey Group 1 800 Friday at Pennsauken.
Crawford slashed his PR from 1:56.97 from Haddonfield Distance Night earlier this month to 1:53.59, breaking the meet record of 1:53.9 hand-timed set by legendary Fred Sharpe of Paulsboro in 1997.
That’s 2nd-fastest in Salem County history, behind only a 1:52.97 by Penns Grove’s Jaymes Dennison at the 2013 Meet of Champions in South Plainfield.
Lucas ran a huge PR of his own in 2nd with a 1:54.87, which is the 3rd-fastest time in meet history, behind Crawford’s time Friday and Dennison’s 1:54.45 in 2013, and 3rd-fastest in Salem County history. His previous PR was a 1:58.08, also at Haddonfield Distance Night.
And Chew also broke two minutes, taking 5th in 1:59.92 and giving Woodstown 22 points in the first individual final on the track.
Gateway junior Nathanial Martinez was 3rd in 1:59.14 and Woodbury junior Elijah Young was 4th in 1:59.76.
Here’s a look at all the sub-1:57 times in South Jersey Group 1 meet history:
1:53.59 … Joshua Crawford [Woodstown], 2025 [1]
1:53.9h … Fred Sharpe [Paulsboro], 1997 [1]
1:54.87 … Cole Lucas [Woodstown], 2025 [2]
1:55.02 … Luke Petela [Haddonfield], 2015 [1]
1:55.45 … Jaymes Dennison [Penns Grove], 2013 [1]
1:56.15 … Scott Hubbard [Audubon], 2022 [1]
1:56.46 … Peyton Shute [Woodbury], 2024 [1]
1:56.47 … Peyton Shute [Woodbury], 2023 [1]
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 