Briana Gess had won a Meet of Champions title in cross country and three in outdoor track, but until Sunday she had never won an indoor Meet of Champions.

She put an end to that winning a crazy last-lap battle with North Hunterdon sophomore Elena DiMarcello in the 1,600-meter run at the Bubble.

Gets ran 4:59.04 to DiMarcello’s 4:59.05 to become only the second Haddonfield girl ever to win a Meet of Champions title indoors.

Olympian Erin Donohue won the 3,200 with a since-broken meet-record 10:38.90 in the 3,200 back in 2001 at Jadwin Gym.

Gess has run faster – she was third in last year’s Meet of Champions with a 4:51.60 and has run as fast as 4:51.44 for a full mile indoors and 4:45.97 for 1,600 meters outdoors – but this may have been her guttiest win ever.

Gess led most of the race before DiMarcello – who ran 4:56 last spring – made a move on the last lap and actually took the lead. Gess regained it on the final straightaway and won by the equivalent of about one inch.

Incredibly, Gess is the first South Jersey girl in 14 years to win the Meet of Champions 1,600. Willingboro’s Brittnee Bynoe was the last to do it, running 5:06.53 as a freshman in 2003 at Jadwin.

She’s also the first girl ever from a Camden County school to win the indoor M-of-C 1,600 in the meet’s 39-year history.

Here’s the short list of all indoor Meet of Champions 1,600-meter run winners from South Jersey:

1982 … Michelle Rowen [Washington Twp.], 4:55.7
1983 … Michelle Rowen [Washington Twp.], 4:49.5
1985 … Ruth Lockbaum [Glassboro], 4:56.0
1994 … Liz Moore [Shawnee], 5:09.46
2003 … Brittnee Bynoe [Willingboro], 5:06.53
2017 … Briana Gess [Haddonfield], 4:59.94

When you race Olympian Sydney McLaughlin, you go into the race understanding you’re not going to win unless she false starts or falls down. So you shoot for second place and a personal best, and that’s exactly what Rancocas Valley’s Aliyah Taylor earned herself Sunday.

Taylor ran an indoor personal-best 56.24 and placed second in the 400-meter dash at the Meet of Champions at the Bubble behind McLaughlin’s 53.17, a meet record and the No. 1 time in the U.S. this year

McLaughlin, the national indoor 400 record holder at 51.84, was an Olympian in the intermediate hurdles last year after her junior year at Union Catholic and earlier this winter broke the national scholastic record at 300 meters.

But Taylor proved that she’s the best quarter-miler in New Jersey among mere mortals and also the top underclassman with her 56.24. That lowers her previous indoor PR of 56.32. She’s run as fast as 55.79 outdoors.

Here time is No. 9 in South Jersey history and No. 3 in Burlington County history behind a couple Meet of Champions winners – Okechi Ogbuokiri of Willingboro and Michelle Brown of Seneca.

400-METER DASH
54.24 … Okechi Ogbuokiri [Willingboro], 2003
54.91 … Nijgia Snapp [Oakcrest], 2008
55.16 … Krystal Cantey [Winslow Twp.], 2006
55.19 … Michelle Brown [Seneca], 2008
55.4h … English Gardner [Eastern], 2008
55.6h … Denise Mitchell [Edgewood], 1984
55.83 … Kiara Lester [Deptford], 2016
56.21 … Dana Burnett [Williamstown], 1997
56.24 … Aliyah Taylor [Rancocas Valley], 2017
56.34 … Katrina Sye [Buena], 1997
56.44 … Avionne Sloan [Camden], 2006
56.62 … Ste’yce McNeil [Winslow Twp.], 2012
56.65 … Britney Kott [Millville], 2009
56.76 … Simone Thomas [Willingboro], 2003
56.85 … Emily Duffey [Lenape], 2912
56.88 … Marcene Jack [Mainland Reg.], 2004
56.90 … Nadia Davy [Bridgeton], 1999

Here’s the all-time indoor Meet of Champions 400-meter dash performance list, with Taylor in the No. 10 position with the fourth-fastest second-place time ever

53.17-Sydney McLaughlin [Union Catholic], 2017 [1]
53.34-…..McLaughlin, 2016 [1]
55.19-Nijgia Snapp [Oakcrest], 2008 [1]
55.45-Mikele Barber [Montclair], 1998 [1]
55.74-…..Snapp, 2009 (1)
55.74-Amber Allen [Passaic Tech], 2008 [2]
55.7h-Denise Mitchell [Edgewood], 1984 [1]
55.83-Kiara Lester [Deptford], 2016 [2]
55.88-Michelle Brown [Seneca], 2009 [2]
55.95-…..Allen, 2009 [3]
55.96-…..Brown, 2010 (1)
56.08-Kristen Mahon [Notre Dame], 2006 [1]
56.07-Emily Carrollo [Pope John], 2008 [3]
56.24-Aliyah Taylor [Rancocas Valley], 2017 [2]
56.29-English Gardner [Eastern] 2007 [1]
56.31-Olivia Baker [Columbia] 2012 [1]
56.38-Michelle Samuels [Red Bank] 1990 [1]
56.40-…..Brown, 2008 [4]
56.41-…..Baker, 2011 (1)
56.3h-Giselle Harris [Shabazz], 1985 [1]
56.4h-Stephanie Saleem [Neptune], 1985 [2]
56.60-…..Allen, 2010 (2)
56.64-Natalie English [Cranford], 2010 [3]
56.70-Stey’ce McNeil [Winslow], 2011 [2]
56.74-Symone O’Connor [Franklin], 2007 [2]
56.80-Drexel Long [Monmouth], 1990 [2]

Taylor came back to win the 200-meter dash in a meet-record 24.94, leading a 1-2-3 South Jersey finish with Delsea’s Cecelia Gerstenbacher second in 25.16 and Northern Burlington’s Kayla Jackson third in 25.71.

Taylor’s 200 time was 1-100th off her PR of 24.93, set last month at the Ocean Breeze facility in Staten Island.

 

 

Jalen Jones was New Jersey’s 26th-fastest half-miler going into the Meet of Champions.

Now he’s a Meet of Champs medalist.

Jones, a Burlington Township junior, made a stunning breakthrough Saturday, shaving nearly three seconds off his 800-meter time and placing fifth in the 49th annual Meet of Champions at the Bubble.

Jones ran 1:56.46 and was the No. 2 South Jersey finisher and the No. 2 underclassman, finishing just 2-100ths of a second behind Clifton junior Kevin Heredia. Who in turn finished just 1-100th of a second behind Egg Harbor Township senior Eric Barnes, who was third in 1:56.43 (in a different race).

Old Bridge’s Rey Rivera won the race in 1:52.18, fourth-fastest time in meet history (and fastest ever by a non-South Jersey runner).

But Jones was the biggest surprise of the race and maybe one of the biggest surprises of the meet.

Jones ran 2:00.62 last spring as a sophomore and dipped under two minutes this winter with a 1:59.32 for fifth at states.

That’s fast but only earned him a No. 15 seed in the Meet of Champions and ranked 26th in the state going into Saturday.

So Jones was relegated to the second of three sections, but Heredia was also in the race and the two ran fast enough to bump all but three of the finishers in the fast section.

Jones is Burlington Township’s first medalist at the indoor Meet of Champions in at least 20 years. His time is No. 8 on the all-time Burlington County indoor performance list.

As far as I can tell, Burlington Township’s previous school record in the 800 was 1:57.75, set by Eriq Morris at the 2009 Burlington County Open at Maple Shade. Morris was second to Ryan Garvin.

Morris went on to win sectionals but placed 11th at states and didn’t make it to Meet of Champions.

Burlington Township’s most accomplished half-miler is Shaun Davis, who  won the 1996 state Group 1 title outdoors with a 1:59.77. Davis was a three-time BCSL Freedom Division champ in the 800 and a two-time high jump winner.

That 1996 Burlington Township team, led by Davis, Louis Smith, Charles Richardson, Keith Johnson, Eric Bennett, Kevin Koveleski and George Sills, won the state Group 1 team title.

Here is the updated Burlington County indoor 800-meter run list, with all half-milers who have broken 1:58:

1:54.80 … Marvin Lewis [Willingboro], 2001
1:55.14 … Zach McBride [Lenape], 2001
1:55.19 … Isaiah Curbeo [Rancocas Valley], 2016
1:55.84 … Matt Poskus [Cinnaminson], 2007
1:56.02 … Dave Sitzer [Cherokee], 2000
1:56.2h … Roger Lawyer [Willingboro], 1988
1:56.37 … Ian Waterhouse [Rancocas Valley], 2005
1:56.46 … Jalen Jones [Burlington Twp.], 2017
1:56.52 … Rob Novak [Bordentown], 2005
1:56.69 … Sean Watson [Willingboro], 1996
1:56.71 … Wayne Riley [Willingboro], 1997
1:57.41 … Ahmad Rutherford [Willingboro], 2003
1:57.51 … Ross Staudt [Cherokee], 2012
1:57.60 … Tom Long [Cinnaminson], 2016
1:57.5h … Greg Honsby [Rancocas Valley], 1974
1:57.81 … Drew Viscidy [Cherokee], 2012
1:57.82 … Tyler Somers [Cherokee], 2011

A total of 2-100ths of a second separated sophomore Luke Colehower of Haddonfield from senior Amir Brock of Egg Harbor Township at the finish line of the 400-meter dash Saturday at the 49th annual Meet of Champions at the Bubble.

Colehower ran 49.17 and Brock was an eyelash back at 49.19.

That’s the difference of about six inches.

Colehower became Haddonfield’s first Meet of Champions winner since Jonathan Vitez won the 3,200 in 2010. The only other Haddonfield boys to win M-of-C titles are Jim Smith in the 3,000 in 1980 and Chris Platt in the 1,600 in 2003.

He’s also only the second South Jersey 400 winner at the indoor Meet of Champions in the last 16 years, joining Woodbury’s Darrell Bush in 2012.

Before that, South Jersey dominated the 400, winning the event 11 times during the 18-year span from 1990 through 2001, with Willingboro, Lenape, Edgewood and Bridgeton runners responsible for 10 of those 11 titles.

Here’s a list of all the South Jersey Meet of Champions winners in the indoor 400:

1981 – Kevin Overton [West Deptford] 50.1
1984 – Dennis Mitchell [Edgewood] 49.3
1985 – Brian Bennett [Edgewood] 49.5
1990 – William Mobley [Eastern] 49.80
1991 – Lamont Smith [Willingboro] 48.68
1992 – Curt McIntire [Bridgeton] 50.02
1994 – Royce Reed [Bridgeton] 50.06
1995 – Royce Reed [Bridgeton] 49.92
1998 – Rob Gary [Lenape] 49.53
1999 – Nick Brown [Bridgeton] 49.76
2000 – Mohamed Kanu [Lenape] 50.18
2001 – Marvin Lewis. Willingboro] 5013
2012 – Darrell Bush [Woodbury] 49.11
2017 – Luke Colehower [Haddonfield] 49.17

For Brock, the 49.19 is an indoor personal-best. He had run 49.31 at sectionals. He’s gone as fast as 48.49 outdoors.

The 49.19 also lowers his own Atlantic County indoor record and is the fourth-fastest non-winning time in meet history.

Colehower and Brock moved into the No. 14 and 15 spots on the all-time indoor Meet of Champions 400-meter dash performance list.

Here’s the updated list, with finish place listed.

48.26 – Zyaire Clemes [Trenton], 2013 [1]
48.33 – Taylor McLaughlin [Union Catholic], 2015 [1]
48.48 – Najee Glass [St. Peter’s Prep], 2011 [1]
48.50 – Lance Wigfall [East Orange], 2003 [1]
48.58 – Chinedu Amonu [Ewing], 2013 [2]
48.66 – Lamont Smith [Willingboro], 1991 [1]
48.77 – Nasir Haines [Freehold Twp.], 2015 [2]
48.92 – Charles Cox [Monmouth], 2007 [1]
49.04 – Leonard Robbins [East Brunswick], 2011 [2]
48.9h – Tony Valentine [Plainfield], 1983 [t]
49.0h – Dave Law [Snyder], 1973 [1]
49.11 – Darrell Bush [Woodbury], 2012 [1]
49.16 – Bryant McCombs [Old Bridge], 2006 [1]
49.17 – Luke Colehower [Haddonfield], 2017 [1]
49.19 – Amir Brock [Egg Harbor Twp.], 2017 [2]
49.29 – Devon Artis [Shabazz], 2011 [3]
49.31 – Alex Reber [Cherry Hill East], 2011 [2]
49.31 – Clayton Gravesande [Franklin], 2010 [1]
49.32 – Dave Fields [Monmouth], 1989 [1]
49.33 – Andrew Burt [Lacey], 2009 [1]

Pennsauken’s Martin Booker (5th in 50.31) and Rancocas Valley’s Brian Merman (8th in 50.52) also placed in the 400 Saturday.

Booker came back to win the 200, with Colehower second. More on that race coming soon!

Saturday’s 1-2 South Jersey finish was the first in the 400 since that 2012 race, with Bush and Cherry Hill East’s Alex Reber going 1-2.

Finally, here’s the updated all-time South Jersey indoor list, with Colehower’s PR 48.75 from earlier this year and Brock moving into the No. 16 spot.

48.27 … Jade Smith [Camden], 2002
48.36 … Mohammad Kanu [Lenape], 2000
48.50 … Alex Reber [Cherry Hill East], 2013
48.55 … Royce Reed [Bridgeton], 1995
48.64 … Keith Griffith [Florence], 2010
48.68 … Lamont Smith [Willingboro], 1991
48.75 … Luke Colehower [Haddonfield], 2017
48.7h … Curt Mcintyre [Bridgeton], 1992
48.7h … John Morris [Camden], 2001
48.91 … Marlin Gross [Bridgeton], 2001
48.91 … Rob Gary [Lenape], 1998
49.03 … Ian Moore [Lenape], 2001
49.05 … William Mobley [Eastern], 1990
49.11 … Darrell Bush [Woodbury], 2012
49.0h … Eric Chekemian [Washington Twp.], 2001
49.19 … Amir Brock [Egg Harbor Twp.], 2017
49.1h … Antonio Abney [Willingboro], 2007
49.24 … Duke Mack [Pleasantville], 2007
49.26 … Tim Carey [Washington Twp,], 2010

All Asia Young did in her first college conference meet is set a five-inch long jump PR, uncork four of the competition’s five best marks and break the school record.

Young, a Rider freshman from Pleasantville and graduate of Holy Spirit, won the long jump at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference indoor track championships with a personal-best 19-8 3/4 highlighting a terrific series.

Rider placed second to Monmouth in the MAAC meet at the 168th Street Armory in New York.

Young won her second state Parochial B long jump title last spring – she also won as a sophomore and was second to Ludi Zhu of Gill St. Bernard as a junior – and also ran on Holy Spirit’s state-champion 400- and 1,600-meter relay teams. Indoors, with no long jump, she was state 400-meter dash champ.

She had a high school PR of 19-2 3/4 in the long jump but broke that in her first meet as a collegian, jumping 19-3 1/2 in a meet at Monmouth in December. That broke the indoor school record of 18-10 1/2 set in 2013 by Dashana Ransome and the overall mark of 18-11 3/4 set by Ransome in 2014.

At the conference meet, Young put together a monster series, with four jumps of 18-7 or better. She opened with an 18-11 3/4 and an 18-7 3/4, then after a foul jumped 18-10 1/4. After another foul, she popped the 19-8 1/2 jump on her final jump.

Young needed that last jump because Ellinor Persson of Manhattan had passed her with a 19-3 1/2 jump on her final attempt.

It would be nice to know where Young’s mark stands in meet history, but the MAAC, like so many other smaller conferences, doesn’t bother providing any information on its web site on previous meet winners. Or much of anything, really. There is a link for “Indoor Top Times,” but when you click on it, it’s empty.

The Rider web site provides links for media guides, but the most recent one available is from seven years ago, and there’s nowhere on Rider’s site to find previous conference winners in school history, so I also can’t tell you when the last Rider woman to win a MAAC long jump title was.

At the MAAC meet, Young also ran the 400-meter dash leg on Rider’s distance medley team and placed seventh in the triple jump with a 35-7 3/4. Young did not triple jump in high school, and the 35-7 3/4 is  a PR.

Rider’s indoor triple jump school record holder is former Shawnee star Tabatha Haskins with a 38-8 1/4.

Young’s grandfather was the late Reggie Miller, an all-time South Jersey basketball great who scored over 2,500 points for Holy Spirit, is still 11th in South Jersey history in scoring and has been enshrined in the S.J. Basketball Hall of Fame.

Shawnee senior Mark Miller has improved gradually as a miler, from 4:40 as a freshman to 4:32.28 as a sophomore and 4:26.49 as a junior.

The PRs have really been falling of late for Miller, who brought a 4:26.49 PR into his senior year of indoor track.

Miller ran a personal-best 4:23.94 at the Bubble in a SJTCA meet in January, then lowered his PR to 4:23.88 at South Jersey Group 4 sectionals, where he was second to Trenton’s Mulual Mu, then lowered it again to 4:21.54 when he placed fifth at states this past weekend.

That’s three PRs in 24 days for Miller!

Miller is the No. 9 seed for the Meet of Champions and the fastest South Jersey entrant coming out of the various states meets.

He’s also the second-fastest indoor miler in Shawnee history:

4:16.71 … Dave Forward, 2009
4:21.54 … Mark Miller, 2017
4:23.15 … Dave DeJong, 1998
4:25.0h … Keith O’Brien, 1992
4:25.51 … Connor Herr, 2012

The last Burlington County runner under 4:20 indoors was Shawn Wilson of Cherokee with a 4:18.50 in 2012.

Rowan senior John Meyer placed second in the mile at the New Jersey Athletic Conference meet this weekend in Staten Island with a time of 4:17.34.

Impressed?

Yeah, that’s a nice performance!

Now consider this: Meyer never broke 4:40 in high school!

We always hear about high school studs who go to college and never match their high school PRs. Well, here’s the opposite sort of story.

Meyer ran high school track at Indian Hills in Oakland, Bergen County. His high school 1,600 PR was a 4:42.20 that he ran placing ninth at the North Jersey Section 1 Group 2 sectionals at the Bubble in February of 2013. Meyer finished ninth that day, about 100 meters behind Mahway’s James Buser, who ran a 4:25.15 for the win.

Outdoors, Meyer never broke 4:47. He did get his 800 time down to 2:03 and change, good enough for 13th at the 2013 Bergen County championships, five seconds behind Buser.

But according to the NJ Milesplit database, Meyer didn’t even run the mile outdoors as a senior. His last high school 1,600 on record was that 4:42 at indoor sectionals in 2013.

Which takes us to college.

Meyer wound up at Rowan and immediately began improving. He ran as fast as 4:15.23 for 1,500 meters as a freshman — equivalent of a 4:35.57 full mile. Which was about a nine-second PR over his high school 1,600 best and a 14-second PR over his outdoor 1,600 PR.

As a sophomore, he lowered his mile time to 4:30.55 indoors, then had a huge breakthrough that spring, when he ran as fast as 4:02.06 for 1,500 meters — equivalent of a 4:21.35 full mile and now about 23 seconds faster than he ran in high school.

Another breakthrough came last indoor season when he PR’d at 4:18.73 at the ECAC championships and then last spring at the outdoor ECAC meet he rolled a remarkable 3:54.65 for the 1,500 — equivalent of a 4:13.35 full mile.

That’s half a minute faster than his high school PR!!!!!

This past weekend, Meyer ran an indoor mile PR of 4:17.34, finishing second to Ramapo’s Jeremy Hernandez in the NJAC Championships at the Ocean Breeze facility. Hernandez, a Clifton graduate who has a 3:43.56 1,500 to his credit, ran 4:15.98.

And Meyer, who had a 4:42 high school PR, is now ranked No. 34 in the country in NCAA Division 3.

Meyer, who has also run 1:59.61 this indoor season, also teamed up with Brandon Eldershaw, Kevin Veltre and Crispin D’Augusta to give Rowan a win in the 3,200-meter relay with an 8:05.30. The Profs finished 75 meters ahead of Stockton and won went own to win their third straight team title, outscoring The College of New Jersey by 100 points (245-145)!

Meyer isn’t just one of the most improved runners you’ll find, he’s a team captain, a Rowan scholar-athlete and a member of the Chip Alpha Sigma National College Athlete Honor Society.

Now, that’s a fun story!

Sophomore Connor Melko won the 800 and 1,600 and the Bishop Eustace distance team piled up a ridiculous 54 points in three events to lead the Crusaders to their third consecutive state Parochial B indoor championship and fourth overall.

With the 10-8-6-4-2-1 scoring system, there are 31 points available per event, so 93 total points in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200. Eustace scored more than half of them — 54 of 93, or 58 percent of all available distance points in the entire state.

Eustace outscored second-place Hudson Catholic 66-48 to win the Parochial B title. Eustace won Parochial B in 2010, 2015 and 2016.

With four indoor titles, Eustace trails only Willingboro (14), Haddonfield (7) and Woodbury (5) among South Jersey schools. Bridgeton and Winslow also have four.

Eustace also won outdoor state titles in Parochial B in 1992, 1995 and 1996 so now has seven overall championships.

The 1969 Eustace team scored the most points in Parochial B, but that came during a two-year period in which the NJSIAA inexplicably decided not to award state team championships. That 1969 Eustace team is regarded as the unofficial state Parochial B champs.

As for this year’s meet, Eustace scored 24 points in the 1,600, 20 points in the 800 and 10 in the 3,200 for 54 of 66 points in the three long track races.

Some 42 of those points came from Melko, sophomore Andrew Massaro and junior Nick Hutchison.

Melko won the 800 in an indoor PR 2:01.47 and the 1,600 in 4:38.04, Hutchison ran 10:00.62 for second in the 3,200 and 4:42.09 for third in the 1,600, and Massaro ran 4:39.11 for second to Melko in the 1,600.

Junior Philip Sobocinski ran 2:05.11 and sophomore Sean May an indoor PR 2:05.15 for third and fourth in the 800, and senior Michael Dziuba added two points with a fifth-place finish in the 3,200 for a total of 54 points for the Eustace distance team.

The Crusaders also got big points in the field from two seniors – Michael Fisher placed third in the pole vault and Montel Johnson was fourth in the shot put.

May, Massaro and seniors Daniel Hullihan and John Nguyen also teamed up to place fifth in the 1,600-meter relay.

Seneca grad Alex McGrainer, a Rhode Island senior, finished first in a wild five-man finish and won the 1,000-meter run at the Atlantic 10 Championships Sunday with a time of 2:31.15.

The top five finishers all ran between 2:31.15 and 2:31.90 in the strategic race, which means  five meters separated first and fifth in the race at George Mason Fieldhouse in Fairfax, Va.

McGrainer had run 2:29.34 in Saturday’s trials, second-fastest among qualifiers behind Nathan Schultz of GMU, who ran 2:29.17.

In the final, McGrainer finished a step ahead of second-place Nathan Schultz of host George Mason (2:31.55), with Colton Nettleton of St. Louis (2:31.65), Jack Magee of St. Joe’s (2:31.67) and Brian Gendron of U. Mass (2:31.90) all just behind.

McGrainer is the first Rhode Island runner to win the A-10 1,000 since Joe Molz in 2006. This was his fourth time finishing in the top three in an A-10 conference championship race but his first title.

McGrainer’s 1,000 PR is 2:25.20 from the Terrier Classic in Boston last month.

George Mason won the team title 214-155 1/2 over Rhode Island.

McGrainer placed in both the 800 and 1,600 at states his senior year at Seneca, running PRs of 1:55.91 and 4:19.83. He was an Olympic Conference, Burlington County and South Jersey Group 3 champ at 1,600 meters.

At URI, he has PRs of 1:53.26 at 800 meters and 3:55.85 for 1,500 meters, equivalent of about a 4:14.7 full mile.

McGrainer is the second South Jersey native to win the 1,000 at the indoor A-10 meet in three years. You won’t find the results on the lame A-10 web site, which doesn’t have any former meet results available and only has a three-year-old meet program, but Delsea graduate Steve Butenewicz of St. Joe’s won the A-10 1,000 in 2015 with a time of 2:29.19.

 

Haddonfield’s talented sophomore class – with some notable help from senior Spencer Flores – led the Bulldogs to their third straight state indoor championship this weekend.

Haddonfield edged Governor Livingston of Berkeley Heights by one point to win its first indoor state Group 2 title. Haddonfield out-scored GL 35-34.

It was the closest team finish in the indoor Group 2 meet in 15 years, since Bridgeton – led by Robert Edwards and Shakeem Brown – beat Craig Segal and Holmdel 37-36 in the 2002 meet at Jadwin Gym.

The state indoor team title is Haddonfield’s 10th, fifth-most in state history behind Christian Brothers (21), Asbury Park (15), St. Benedict’s (12) and Willingboro (12).

Haddonfield also won Group 1 in 1987, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 2010, 2011, 2015 and 2016.

Sophomores Luke Colehower and Derek Gess were huge for the Bulldogs, but they got some help.

–> Colehower won the 400 in 49.92, off his state-leading 48.75 but easily fast enough to win and lock up 10 huge points off the bat for the Bulldogs. Colehower came back to anchor Haddonfield’s winning 1,600-meter relay team, teaming up with Spencer Flores, Gess and soph Zachariah Murray to run a season-best 3:25.27.

–> Gess ran 4:24.97 in the 1,600, placing second to Raritan junior Louis DiLaurenzio, who ran 4:23.38. He also contributed a relay leg.

–> In addition to his relay leg, Flores placed third in the high hurdles, giving the Bulldogs six crucial points. Flores qualified second at 7.81 but settled for third in the final, covering the barriers in 7.86.

–> Another soph, Greg Eisenhower, ran an indoor/outdoor PR of 9:50.49 to score a big point. Considering he was the No. 7 seed, that was clutch.

So even with Colehower and Gess each placing in only one individual event, Haddonfield got 10 points in the 400, eight in the 1,600, six in the hurdles, 10 in the relay and one in the 3,200 for 35 total points and a state championship.

Including Haddonfield’s four outdoor state titles (Group 1 in 1987, Group 2 in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2015), that’s now a remarkable 15 state championships for the Bulldogs.