Senior Dominic Bassey won the 800 and 400-meter hurdles, ran a leg on the 3rd-place 4-by-4 and took 4th in the 400 and the Winslow boys won their first sectional title in 19 years this weekend at Delsea.
Winslow won 125-71 over Delsea, with Deptford [60] and Hammonton [40] next. The Eagles scored in 14 of 18 events, everything but the 110 hurdles, 3,200, high jump and pole vault.
Winslow has won 13 South Jersey titles, the first eight as Edgewood High, but this title was the program’s first since the 2006 team outscored Pennsauken 74-54 to win South Jersey Group 4.
In South Jersey history, only Willingboro [17] and Penns Grove [15] have won more sectional titles than Winslow/Edgewood.
As Edgewood, the program won South Jersey Group 3 in 1978, 1979, 1980 and 1990 and SJ-4 in 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986. Winslow, which occupies the same building, previously won South Jersey Group 4 in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2006.
Bassey won the 800 in 1:54.91 and the intermediates in 54.61, ran 49.07 for 4th in the 400 and joined senior Chukwuemeka Ajaegbulemh, junior KaRon Ali and junior Jacoby James to run 3:22.79 on the 3rd-place 4-by-4.
Ali ran 21.89 for 2nd in the 200, 48.77 for 3rd in the 400 and 10.85 for 6th in the 100 and also led off the winning 4-by-1, which ran 42.42 and also included Chambers, Hammond and junior Nyqir Helton.
Winslow also got wins from Helton, senior Kristopher Jackson and junior Zyaire Rothmiller-McIntosh.
Helton barely made the 100 final – he was 7th-fastest qualifier with a 10.88 – but came back to win the final in a windy 10.68. He’s the first Winslow sprinter to win a sectional title in the 100 since Antraye Miles in 2003.
Jackson threw what appears to be a 20-foot season-best 168-8 to win the javelin. His previous season best according to MileSplit was a 146-9. He topped his 156-8 PR from last year’s state Group 3 meet by more than 10 feet.
Rothmiller-McIntosh jumped 22-0 ¼ to become Winslow’s first sectional long jump champ since Chad Wright led a 1-2-3 sweep as part of that 2006 team championship.
Junior Vincent Perri, who didn’t break 4:49 last year, PR’d with a 4:28.94 to take 2nd in the 1,600. He closed in 62.73 and 2:11.06. His previous PR was 4:33.04 last week at the Camden County meet.
Senior Artrill Evans hit an outdoor triple jump PR of 46-1 ½ for 2nd place. He does have an indoor 46-4 ½ to his credit from Meet of Champions at Ocean Breeze.
Senior Malachi Brown placed in both weight throws, taking 3rd in the discus with PRs of 157-3 and 5th in the shot put at 51-5. He PR’d by over 20 feet from his 137-2 from the Woodbury Relays.
Junior Elijah Deanley ran 57.87 for 3rd in the intermediates, and James ran 22.01 for 5th place in the 200.
In addition, Ajaegbulemh, junior Prince Owusu-Twum, senior Eric Brown and senior David Duran ran 8:09.36 for 2nd place in the 4-by-8.
Hammonton senior Jake Edwards had a huge weekend with a legal 21.75 to win the 200, a 48.32 to win the 400 and a wind-aided 10.76 for 2nd to Helton in the 100. Looks like he’s Hammonton’s first sectional double winner since at least 1985, which is as far back as my sectional winner list goes. He goes into states with the fastest time in Group 3 in the 400, 2nd-fastest in the 200 and 4th-fastest in the 100.
Deptford senior Ryan Sanchez, the state Group 3 champ over the 55-meter highs indoors, ran a wind-legal 14.31, fastest in South Jersey this year.
Delsea junior Matthew Littlehales ran 4:26.67 closing in 60.92 for his final 400 and 2:07.94 to win the 1,600 and 9:45.25 to win the 3,200 by 120 meters.
Clearview won the 4-by-4 with M. Niedbalski, S. Niedbalski, Pelosi and Ross running 3:21.52, and Delsea was first in the 4-by-8 with Littlehales, Snead-Gray, Snyder-Shellito and Cutter running 8:08.00.
Winners in the field: Hammonton senior Anthony Liakhnovich a PR 183-2 in the discus, No. 16 in South Jersey history; Highland senior high jumper Jayden DeLeon [6-6], Deptford senior Marcus Hood [15-6 pole vault], Delsea senior Jonathan Harris [58-11 ¾ shot] and Mainland senior Josiah Williams [46-5 triple jump].
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 