Woodstown junior Josh Crawford became the first Woodstown runner ever to win an outdoor state title on Friday and continued closing in on the Salem County 800 record.
Crawford PR’d for the 2nd meet in a row, winning the state Group 1 title in Somerset with a 1:53.44, finishing about a meter in front of Metuchen senior Eric Schleif, who was 2nd in 1:53.60.
Crawford had lowered his PR from 1:56.97 to 1:53.59 when he won the South Jersey Group 1 title. He never broke two minutes until he won the indoor state Group 1 title at the Bubble with a 1:59.01 I February. He PR’d at 1:57.65 at indoor Meet of Champs at Ocean Breeze, then dropped to 1:56.97 at Haddonfield Distance Night earlier this month before his back-to-back sub-1:54s.
So he’s dropped more than four seconds in less than a month – since May 5, to be exact.
Crawford’s time is less than half a second off the Salem County record of 1:52.97 set by Jaymes Dennison of Penns Grove at the 2013 Meet of Champions in South Plainfield.
Woodstown’s only other individual state champ in school history is Brandon Bedilion, who won the javelin in 2015 with a throw of 178-8 at Egg Harbor.
Senior teammate Cole Lucas placed 3rd in the state Group 1 race 1:55.01, just off his PR of 1:54.87 from sectionals. That’s No. 11 on the all-time South Jersey Group 1 list.
Crawford is seeded 3rd at the Meet of Champions Wednesday at Pennsauken, behind Union Catholic’s Keandre Kelly [1:52.18] and Bernards’ Brody Watt [1:52.72]. Lucas is seeded 14th.
Woodstown won the 4-by-8 at states last year with Karson Chew, Joshua Crawford, Jacob Marino and Cole Lucas running 8:11.67 and again this year in 7:59.15 with a listed lineup that doesn’t include either Crawford or Lucas. I highly doubt they ran sub-8 without their two-fastest half-milers, but the official results show junior Karson Chew (who PR’d at 1:58.34 at states), sophomore David Farrell, sophomore Pacey Hutton and junior Jacob Marino. If anyone has the correct lineup please let me know in the comment section!
In any case, that 7:59.15 broke the meet record of 7:59.88 set in 2017 by Shore Regional at Egg Harbor and looks like the fastest by a South Jersey Group 1 school since Rich Caton and Woodbury ran 7:51.1 in 1977, which converts to 7:48.3 for the 4-by-8.
Woodstown’s 4×8 is seeded 5th Wednesday.
1:49.72 … Rich Caton [Woodbury], 1979
1:49.74 … Fred Sharpe [Paulsboro], 1997
1:49.84 … Rob Novak [Bordentown], 2005
1:52.05 … Peyton Shute [Woodbury], 2024
1:52.94 … Keith Griffin [Florence], 2009
1:52.97 … Jaymes Dennison [Penns Grove], 2013
1:53.40 … Daveigh Brooks [Burlington City], 2016
1:53.44 … Joshua Crawford [Woodstown], 2025
1:54.58 … Brady Shute [Pitman], 2021
1:53.78 … Luke Petela [Haddon Twp.], 2015
1:54.87 … Cole Lucas [Woodstwon], 2025
1:54.88 … Thoams Morley [Haddon Twp.], 2002
1:54.89 … Jake Dinerman [Haddon Twp.], 2016
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 
You were right! The lineup was not listed correctly! The correct lineup for States 4×800 on 5/31 was Jacob Marino, Karson Chew, Cole Lucas and Josh Crawford (Time 759.15).
The correct lineup for MOC 4×800 on 6/4 was Karson Chew, Jacob Marino, Cole Lucas and Josh Crawford (Time: 754.84- Qualified for NBN).
LikeLike
OK thanks for the note. I’ll be writing about that 4×8 in the next couple days. Glad to hear they’ll be racing at Penn! That’s one of the fastest Group 1 times in state history!
LikeLike