Weekly Update May 10

This Past Week.
There were two big stories this week – PR’s and Leadership. Let’s hit the PR’s first…

Wednesday was a dual meet against Rancocas Valley. With only a couple of weeks left in the season, we have started to taper and take advantage of all the hard work we did early in the season and harvest it with some fast times. And we did exactly that. PR’s by nearly everyone – Friedman, Wolff, Horton, Weintraub, Balch, Robinson, Miller, Nece, Ems, Samocki, Bennet, Lentz, Wilson, Thomas, Sheehan, Reutsch, Shah, Fowler, Regan and Spirgel. Special mention to Evan Nece who qualified for Varsity by going sub-5 with a 4:57 and a brilliant closing lap of 69 seconds. Several other guys are knocking on that door and will hopefully make it during the next two weeks…

The even bigger story was around Leadership. The distance squad is viewed as the elite of the track team, and quite frankly we did not perform to our potential the week before. Ryan Wolff and Ben Friedman set a course to correct that this past week to double in three meets – that means both a 1600 and a 3200 meter race and Willingboro on Monday, RV on Wednesday at the Divisional Meet on Saturday. One of these races is tough, two in a day is mentally and physically wearing. Try doing it three times in a week at a high level. And it was more than simply running the events – they wanted to show the type of effort necessary to earn the mantle of Leadership.

On Monday Wolff and Friedman finished 1-2 in the 1600 in a tight race with a very talented Willingboro runner. They came back in the rain less than an hour later to lead our team to a clean sweep in a fast time in the 3200. On Wednesday we faced our toughest opponent of the year, RV. The 1600 is an early event and it was important to get momentum on our side. Wolff and Friedman responded against tough competition with PR’s for a 1-2 that I consider a tie and showed the rest of the team what working together is all about. On Saturday they again set out to score big points in the BCSL Championship. This is a race that we won 2 years ago, and had last won over 20 years earlier – so not an easy meet for us. Wolff had an outstanding race in the 1600 closing hard with yet another PR and locking in 8 points with a second place against Bowden of NB. It was not a great race for Friedman, perhaps tired from his heavy mileage and hard races earlier in the week. We gave them the chance to bow out for the 3200 on this hot day (85 degrees), but they both wanted to come back and score points for the team. They both were true to their word, with Friedman getting a hard fought 5th and Wolff a 6th.

Their leadership was echoed by two emerging leaders on the team – Weintraub and Horton. Weintraub ran 3200 meters for the first, second and third time in his career this week – placing in all 3 races. Saturday’s race was certainly the highlight as he held his steady pace and confident stride to pick up a much needed 2nd place (again to Bowden). Horton’s first year running is also proving to be amazingly productive. On Wednesday he closed hard and got that important third place that set the tone for the team the rest of the day – points matter. Little wins here and there produce big wins for the team. Saturday’s race at the BCSL Championship highlighted his potential as he finished 4th in a PR of 4:39.96.

These great efforts helped produce a team win and Moorestown was crowned BCSL Divisional Meet Champions. Other highlights – Corey Pizzichello won the Triple, 2nd in the long, 4th in the 400 and anchored the 4th place 4X400. Connor Tuck won his third consecutive Javelin Championship at this meet. Danny MacBride picked up a 3rd and 5th in the 100 and 200. TJ Hagan and Nick Dee went 1-2 in the Pole Vault.

It was an impressive week for the distance squad. Eagles and I are feeling very, very proud of this squad.

The Coming Week
Tuesday we will split the team. Half will be at home at the Pemberton Meet and the Freshmen and Novice will travel to Cherokee High School to compete in a big open meet there. Both meets should offer a good opportunity to try to achieve some more PR’s. The bus will leave after school. The 1600 at Cherokee is fairly early, however the bus back will be late – maybe 9PM. So you may want your parents to come pick you up.

Thursday the Weight crew and Jumpers will go to Willingboro to finish out the rain-soaked meet from last week. If we win that one, we have a decent shot at the BCSL Regular Season Championship – something Moorestown has not done in about 30 years.

Saturday will be the County Championship at Maple Shade. We are limited to 3 runners in each event. We will announce the lineups later in the week.

LIBERTY DIVISION Meet Results
1. Moorestown 104, 2. Rancocas Valley 94, 3. Burlington Township 86, 4. Northern Burlington 79, 5. Willingboro 78, 6. Pemberton 54.
100-METER DASH: 1. Jashuan Spady (Pemberton) 11.26, 2. Daquan Brown (Willingboro) 11.42, 3. Daniel MacBride (Moorestown) 11.57, 4. Sean Harper (Rancocas Valley) 11.65, 5. Vincent Pini (Burlington Township) 11.67, 6. Robert Cooper (Burlington Township) 11.78.
200-METER DASH: 1. Jashuan Spady (Pemberton) 22.80, 2. Daquan Brown (Willingboro) 23.20, 3. Kendall White (Rancocas Valley) 23.76, 4. Sean Harper (Rancocas Valley) 23.76, 5. Daniel MacBride (Moorestown) 23.88, 6. Robert Cooper (Burlington Township) 23.89.
400-METER DASH: 1. Kendall White (Rancocas Valley) 49.59, 2. Vincent Pini (Burlington Township) 50.73, 3. Alrick Pryce (Burlington Township) 51.49, 4. Eric Tyler (Willingboro) 51.62, 5. Corey Pizzichello (Moorestown) 52.17, 6. David Slaton (Burlington Township) 52.26.
800-METER RUN: 1. Eriq Morris (Burlington Township) 2:01.14, 2. Ayre Williams (Rancocas Valley) 2:02.30, 3. Eric Tyler (Willingboro) 2:03.30, 4. Rushain Jones (Willingboro) 2:06.83, 5. Brandon Trojak (Rancocas Valley) 2:07.15, 6. Wilfredo Gonzalez (Rancocas Valley) 2:07.15.
1,600-METER RUN: 1. Michael Bowden (Northern Burlington) 4:32.26, 2. Ryan Wolf (Moorestown) 4:33.89, 3. Dylan Kurowsky (Northern Burlington) 4:34.22, 4. Anthony Horten (Moorestown) 4:39.96, 5. Joe Fessenden (Burlington Township) 4:43.89, 6. Joe Dyas (Rancocas Valley) 4:44.05.
3,200-METER RUN: 1. Michael Bowden (Northern Burlington) 10:04.69, 2. Samuel Weintraub (Moorestown) 10:25.59, 3. Andre Dupuis (Northern Burlington) 10:27.15, 4. Tim Reardon (Burlington Township) 10:27.15, 5. Ben Friedman (Moorestown) 10:28.80, 6. Ryan Wolf (Moorestown) 10:49.04.
110-METER HURDLES: 1. Seth Robinson (Rancocas Valley) 15.51, 2. Nelson Zhou (Burlington Township) 15.63, 3. Jalen Walker (Burlington Township) 16.01, 4. Thomas Cordon (Rancocas Valley) 16.29, 5. Rich Nwanko (Northern Burlington) 16.66, 6. Khalif Wilson (Pemberton) 16.99.
400-METER HURDLES: 1. Oshane Rennie (Rancocas Valley) 57.40, 2. Justin Maxey (Willingboro) 57.6, 3. Nelson Zhou (Burlington Township) 1:00.14, 4. Abdur Shabazz (Pemberton) 1:00.34, 5. Jerry Pham (Northern Burlington) 1:00.43, 6. Trey Smith (Rancocas Valley) 1:01.27.
1,600-METER RELAY: 1. Burlington Township (Alrick Pryce, Eriq Morris, Vincent Pini, David Slaton) 3:21.79, 2. Rancocas Valley 3:21.89, 3. Willingboro 3:23.09, 4. Moorestown 3:32.57, 5. Northern Burlington 3:41.94.
LONG JUMP: 1. Tyree Leonard (Pemberton) 20-9 1/4, 2. Corey Pizzichello (Moorestown) 20-8, 3. Chad Dill (Northern Burlington) 20-0 1/2, 4. James Kinloch (Rancocas Valley) 19-8 3/4, 5. Anthony Phelps (Moorestown) 19-2 1/2, 6. Dashawn Watson (Willingboro) 18-6.
TRIPLE JUMP: 1. Corey Pizzichello (Moorestown) 41-3, 2. James Kinloch (Rancocas Valley) 41-0, 3. Anthony Phelps (Moorestown) 40-8, 4. Dashawn Watson (Willingboro) 39-5 1/2, 5. Jerry Pham (Northern Burlington) 39-4 3/4, 6. Tyre Leonard (Pemberton) 39-4 1/2.
HIGH JUMP: 1. Tyree Leonard (Pemberton) 6-0, 2. Jalen Armstead (Pemberton) 6-0, 3. Rashaun Houston (Willingboro) 5-8, 4. Melvin Moore (Northern Burlington) 5-6, 5. (tie) Luis Garcia (Burlington Township), Greg Trahan (Burlington Township) 5-6.
POLE VAULT: 1. T.J. Hagan (Moorestown) 13-0, 2. Nicholas Dee (Moorestown) 11-0, 3. Ram Singh (Northern Burlington) 10-6, 4. (tie) Kendey McCort (Rancocas Valley), Jordan Andrade (Northern Burlington) 9-6, 6. Joseph Margiotti (Moorestown) 9-6.
SHOT PUT: 1. Renard Hussey (Willingboro) 49-9 1/2, 2. Jordan Hunter (Burlington Township) 47-10 1/2, 3. Nick Kapsimalis (Northern Burlington) 44-8, 4. Traven Mable (Willingboro) 44-7, 5. Robert Pletcher (Rancocas Valley) 43-0, 6. Corey Grant (Moorestown) 40-11.
DISCUS: 1. Jordan Hunter (Burlington Township) 144-3, 2. Renard Hussey (Willingboro) 137-9, 3. Chuck Norris (Northern Burlington) 134-6, 4. Joseph Diblasio (Moorestown) 127-11, 5. Frank Capra (Northern Burlington) 127-4, 6. Anthony Sullivan (Moorestown) 117-1.
JAVELIN: 1. Connor Tuck (Moorestown) 166-0, 2. Ryan Kaylor (Rancocas Valley) 153-9, 3. Anthony Sullivan (Moorestown) 144-3, 4. Nick Kapsimalis (Northern Burlington) 143-10, 5. John Rafferty (Northern Burlington) 139-5, 6. Ronald Dash (Willingboro) 136-1.