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: Marc Maccario, St. Augustine
Maccario won the state Parochial A 400 indoors in 51.35 and ran as fast as 50.26 at the Ott Center, which made him the 2nd-fastest South Jersey underclassman this winter.
But he really came into his own this spring, with a series of sub-50 races culminating in a 48.33 at the Meet of Champions.
Maccario, a junior, broke 50 for the first time at the South Jersey Elite at Delsea, where he ran 49.32. He dropped to 48.63 when he won the state Parochial A race in Galloway Township, joining Sincere Rhea and Mark Sivieri as the 3rd St. Augustine runner to win a state title.
At the Meet of Champions at Pennsauken, Maccario lowered his time to 48.33, 5th-fastest this year among New Jersey underclassmen and fastest by an Atlantic County underclassman in 26 years, since Pleasantville’s Devon Matthews ran 48.12 at the 1999 Meet of Champions at South Plainfield. He placed 7th overall and 2nd among South Jersey runners, behind only winner Alexander Osayemi of Clayton.
The only faster time ever run by a South Jersey parochial A or B quarter-miler was Rhea’s 47.89 when he won 2019 Meet of Champions at Northern Burlington.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 