The Glassboro boys, with their remarkable sophomore class, rolled to their 4th consecutive sectional title this weekend at Lenape.
Glassboro finished with a 120-74 margin of victory over Camden in South Jersey Group 1, with Schalick 3rd with 68 points and Woodstown 4th with 57.
Glassboro is the 1st school to win four straight South Jersey Group 1 titles since Bordentown from 2000 through 2003. They’re the first South Jersey school in any group to win four straight since Timber Creek in Group 3 from 2008 through 2011.
The Bulldogs’ 120 points are 5th-most ever in Group 1. Glassboro owns four of the six-highest point totals ever in Group 1, with 181 ½ in 2009, 135 last year, 122 in 2024 and 120 this year.
The Bulldogs, missing several potential big point scorers who elected not to compete this spring, nonetheless scored in 13 of 18 events, showing tremendous balance by piling up 46 points in distance, 34 in the jumps and vault, 18 in the throws, 10 in the sprints and hurdles and 12 in the relays.
Not including relays, Glassboro 84 points from underclassmen, with juniors scoring 18, sophomores 59 and freshman adding seven.
This was Glassboro’s 5th sectional title. The 2009 team, considered the greatest Group 1 ever in South Jersey, won the program’s 1st sectional title but then it was 14 years until the Bulldogs embarked on their current streak.
Glassboro’s distance group led the way, scoring 46 points in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200. Sophomore Joe Saicic won the 1,600 in 4:27.87 with senior Jaeden Wesley 2nd in 4:28.87, and they switched spots in the 3,200, with Wesley winning with a PR 9:34.67 and Saicic running 9:37.24 for 2nd.
Sophomores Aaron Johnson and Zacchaeus Harrigan and freshman Gavin Rakitis also contributed to the distance haul, Harrigan with a 2nd in the 800 in a PR 1:55.06, 3rd-fastest sophomore in New Jersey this year, Johnson taking 6th in the 800 in a PR 1:59.19 and Rakitis 6th in the 3,200 with a PR 9:56.59. Harrigan also placed 2nd in the 400-meter hurdles in 58.24.
Sophomore Moses Robles had a huge meet, scoring 24 points with a win in the high jump at 6-2, 2nd place in the triple jump with a PR 47-5 and 3rd in the long jump at 21-8 ½.
Johnson and Rakitis also contributed legs to the 2nd-place 3,200-meter relay team, which ran 8:20.01. Junior Ryan Ejalili and senior Jason Martin also ran on the 4-by-8.
Glassboro also got scoring performances from senior Jack O’Connell [2nd in javelin, 156-10], junior Logan Toledo [3rd in pole vault, 12-0], freshman Gabriel Tarasevich [3rd in discus, 137-6], junior Joseph Delecce [4th in discus, 131-9], junior Marley Crowl [5th in long jump, 20-11 ¾, 5th in triple jump, 42-11 ½] and junior Alex Adeleye [5th 200, 22.91].
Also, Taylor, Adeleye, Crowl and Butler placed 4th in the 400-meter relay in 43.97.
Camden’s tremendous sprint and hurdle talent earned the Panthers 2nd place.
Senior Jaiden Steele led a 1-2-3 sweep in the 100, running 10.74 in the final, with senior Jawan Brownlee 2nd in 10.85 and senior Christian Braxton 3rd in 11.01. They reversed order in the 200, Braxton winning in 22.22, Brownlee 2nd in 22.64 and Steele 3rd with 22.65.
Junior Jaleel Dickerson-Dempsey won the 110-meter hurdles in 14.69 with a legal 1.7 wind.
Brownlee, Braxton, junior Giovanni Marshall-Edwards and Steele won the 400-meter relay in 42.32, and Brownlee, Braxton, senior Wasi Muhammad and sophomore Terrell Davis won the 4-by-4 in 3:23.15.
Schalick senior David Stewart completed his quad win, taking 1st Saturday in the 400 [48.64] and triple jump [48-7 ¼] after taking 1st Friday in the intermediates [55.33] and long jump [22-8 ½]. Stewart would have finished 7th in team scoring by himself. More on his remarkable performance soon.
Other Group 1 winners were Woodstown senior Aidan Taulane [159-2 discus, 53-5 shot], Schalick senior Salvatore Longo [13-0 pole vault] and Schalick junior Gary Simonini [176-8 javelin]
Woodbury won the 4-by-8 in 8:09.42 with senior Elijah Young, senior Curtis Stokes, sophomore Elijah Smith and junior Jason Ortiz.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 