TOMS RIVER - Pat Schellberg has made it clear that he is gunning for the Millrose Mile. Schellberg did that once again Saturday morning at the Toms River Bubble. Schellberg started the day running the distance medley relay for his school. He received the baton about 35 meters behind CBA's Dan Bailey. Schellberg picked off one runner at a time and without about 400m to go he opened up an insurmountable lead on the field. His 400m splits were 60.5, 2:04.9, 3:09.2 and 4:11.0 and as typical finishing fashion Schellberg always gives the photographers a nice, exciting smile when crossing the finish line (Schellberg is pictured below winning the SMR). He wasn't done on the day, he needed to prove not just to himself but to everyone around that he can also drop down to 800m and be a force to recon with as well. Once again Delbarton was behind on going into the anchor leg. Schellberg received the baton in 4th place about 25 meters behind Jamie Gibilisco (Notre Dame) who was not an easy person to beat over 800m from a scratch start. Well Schellberg didn't care because every step of the way he gained on Gibilisco as if he were Superman chasing the bad guy. 'Rounding the final turn Schellberg is running full steam ahead 25 meters to go and it looks like Gibilisco may hold off Schellberg. But no Schellberg has that raw determination to win every race he steps on the track and manages to have just enough left to edge out Gibilisco for the victory. Schellberg's crossed the line with a split of 1:55.6 and once again finished the a smile that a kid has in a candy store.
Other boys highlights on the day included DJ Thornton from Union Catholic (pictured on the homepage 
and top right of this article). In any other group, DJ Thornton is the anchor leg everybody wants. No matter if he's running from behind or has a lead, Thornton will do what he has to do to get his team the victory. I mean afterall he does have a personal best of 4:13.97 over 1600 meters. He had himself a mixed day, starting off with the distance medley he had the pleasure of anchoring against the Nation's top miler in (Pat) Schellberg. Thornton did everything he could to stay as close to Schellberg but Schellberg is just that much better than the rest of the country. Thornton ran well and stayed up for 2nd place with a time of 10:35.25 the #3 time in New Jersey. Thornton then had the pleasure to anchor his team's 4x800m relay where wouldn't ya know it, Schellberg wasn't in the race. This was going to be Thornton's turn to run down the anchor leg of another team. Unfortunately for the Christian Brothers Academy it had to be there leg. Mark Lee had a solid lead somewhere around 25 meters. Thornton pushed and pushed ever lap and going into the final lap Thornton passed Mark Lee with 150 meters to go and didn't let up. Thornton pushed across the finish line splitting around 2:01 and an overall time of 8:09.80 good enough for a Non Public Group Record (Meters record).
CBA had a few miscues on the anchor legs on the afternoon, but as every CBA team has had, this one had depth. CBA scored a total of 50 points whle only winning one event, the Shot Put relay. Led by junior Andrew Rohan who threw 51-0 on the day (the only thrower to clear 50-0) the Colts took 10 points and won the team title 50 to 36 over Pope John XXIII
Highlights on the girls side included a great distance medley relay that saw Mount Saint Mary and Holy Angles come down to a lean. The two schools' anchor legs came blasting around the final turn and pushing as hard as they could. The two come to the finish lean and Mount Saitn Mary's narrowly edged out Holy Angles 12:56.45 to 12:56.47. The Benedictine Academy used their hurdling experience to crush the Non Public group record in the 4x55m shuttle hurdles running 32.64, the previous record was 34.53 held by Monsignor Donovan in 2009.