This was fun last year, so we’re going to do it again! 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: Ryleigh Budsock
Cherry Hill East sophomore Ryleigh Budsock followed an outstanding cross country season – she ran sub-20 at Holmdel – with a promising indoor season (5:18.93 for 1,600) before a breakout outdoor season, where she ran sub-2:20 in the 800 and 5:12 in the 1,600.
Budsock PR’d with her 5:12.05 at South Jersey Elite at Delsea and followed that with a win in the Camden County Championships at Haddon Township and a 6th-place finish at South Jersey Group 4 Sectionals at Pennsauken. Budsock didn’t run a lot of 800s but she PR”d with a 2:19.45 at sectionals.
Budsock was the 3rd-fastest sophomore in South Jersey at both 800 and 1,600 meters this spring behind Carly Godfrey of Ocean City and Grace Gutowski of Paul VI on the 800 list and behind Gutowski and Godfrey on the 1,600 list.
She was one of three Cherry Hill East freshmen or sophomores to break 2:20 this year. Freshmen Maya Morgan [2:17.77] and Addison Weiss [2:19.74] both went under at sectionals.
Budsock was East’s No. 1 runner in XC this past fall, and the Cougars placed 7th at Group 4 states. They return Budsock and a total of six of their top seven runners, all but graduating senior Cate Feudtner.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 