Gabriel Moronta will race in the Central American and Caribbean Games this week in Estadio Olimpico Felix Sanchez at Cento Olimpico Juan Pablo Duarte in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Moronta, a 2021 Pleasantville graduate, will run the 400-meter dash with semifinals at 6 p.m. on Tuesday and the final scheduled for 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday.
Moronta is 2nd-fastest this year of the 18 runners entered in the 400 with his PR of 44.67 in Medellin, Columbia, in June. The only faster entrant is Javier Gomez of Venezuela, who ran 44.66 – 1-100th of a second faster at Estadio Monumental de Puerto La Cruz at José Antonio in Anzoátegui, Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela.
Moronta, who anchored South Florida’s NCAA-champion 1,600-meter relay team in June 2025 at Hayward Field, has dropped his 400 PR every year since he was in high school – from 48.79 in Toms River in 2020 to 46.24 in 2023 in Clemson, S.C., to 45.81 in 2024 in San Antonio to 45.01 last year in Jacksonville to 44.67 this year. Incredibly, he never ran a 400 in 2021 or 2022 while he was at Mississippi State before transferring to South Florida. Now he’s one of the best in the world, currently ranked 36th.
Moronta’s 44.67 is 3rd-fastest all-time by a Dominican quarter-miler, behind Luguelin Santos [44.11 in Beijing in 2015] and Lidio Andres Feliz [44.64 in La Nucia, Spain, in 2022.].
Moronta is the 3rd-fastest quarter-miler New Jersey has produced and fastest in 20 years.
44.28 … Andrew Valmon [Manchester Twp.], June 19, 1993, Eugene
44.30 … Lamont Smith [Willingboro], June 19, 1996, Atlanta
44.67 … Gabriel Moronta [Pleasantville], June 28, 2026, Medellin, Columbia
44.79 … Najee Glass [St. Peter’s Prep], April 24, 2015, Gainesville, Fla.
45.01 … Kevin Lyles [Franklin Twp.], April 7, 1995, Knoxville, Tenn.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 