PHILADELPHIA -- The Penn Relays has a long-standing tradition of awarding gold watches to the event winners, and also to the top American finishers.
On Friday, New Jersey collected quite big haul of those watches in the field events when Benjamin Shue of Bergen Catholic (discus), Joe Licata of Gill St. Bernard's (shot put), and Damarion Potts of South Brunswick (high jump) finished as the top American finishers in their events, joining long jump champion Greg Foster of Lawrenceville as watch winners.
Shue, the young phenom at Bergen Catholic, launched the saucer 193-0 on his final attempt to move from sixth to third overall and break his own national freshman record of 192-3 that he set last week at the Bergen County Relays. Shue, who finished behind two Jamaicans, remains No. 11 in the U.S. national rankings this season, and moved up to No. 10 in NJ history
The next big national record that the 6-2, 245-pound Shue is chasing is the national record for a 16-year-old, which is 210-1 set by Jeff Buckey of Bakersfield, Calif. in 1991. The NJ record is 218-4, set by 2020 U.S. Olympian Sam Mattis of East Brunswick in 2012.
In the shot put, Licata also placed behind a pair of Jamaicans when he threw 61-6.25 to place third overall. Licata was just short of his PR and state leading of 62-5.25.
Over at the high jump, Potts cleared 6-6.25 to finish second to Dejone Raymond of St. Elizabeth's Tech in Jamaica (6-8.75. Raymond and Potts had clean cards through 6-6.25 (1.99m), but Potts missed all three of his attempts at 6-7.5 (2.02m) while Raymond cleared on his third attempt to secure the win.
