The Toms River North boys and Damarion Potts added to New Jersey's impressive haul of gold medals with by scoring victories when New Balance National Championships concluded on Sunday at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.
In a showdown of NJ powers, Toms River North won the boys 4x400-meter relay in a meet record, NJ No. 3 time and Ocean County record of 3:14.90! Union Catholic, second with a NJ No. 4 time of 3:15.09.
Toms River North, who smashed the Ocean County record of 3:16.5, used a foursome of senior Jacob Kiyler, senior Teddy Wilson, junior Lowrentsky Ambroise (47.99 split), and sophomore Mamadi Diawara, who anchored with a 48.11 carry.
Union Catholic used junior Marcus McCoy, senior Emerson McKindra, junior Al-Qamar Rojas (49.02 split), and sophomore Avery Atexide, who split 47.35!!!
Potts, a senior at South Brunswick, completed a sensational season in the jump by clearing 6-9 to win that event. Potts won the high jump at the Meet of Champions (6-10), and at the Central Jersey Group 4 championship where he cleared a NJ No. 1 height of 6-10.25.
The victories by TRN and Potts gave New Jersey a final tally of seven national championships at the four-day meet.
NJ's other five wins came from the Union Catholic girls 4x800 squad, who blasted a meet record 8:47.08, the Pennsauken boys in the super sprint medley with a time of NJ N. 3 all-time and meet record 1:30.31, Scotch Plains-Fanwood, won the boys shuttle hurdles in a NJ No. 1 time of 59.78, Layla Giordano of Old Tappan, who unloaded a NJ No. 3 all-time and US No. 5 170-4 in the girls discus, and Fabian Gonzalez of Southern, who captured the boys discus with a throw of 193-5.
MORE NJ SUNDAY HIGHLIGHTS
The following all earned Al-American honors (top six)
Blaik Slavinski of Point Pleasant Boro grab one of the greatest 800's in NJ history, blasting Ocean County record and NJ No. 6 all-time 1:49.13 to place sixth in the 2-lapper!! The Clemson-bound Slavinski, who sliced more than five seconds off his PR of 1:54.66, broke the Ocean County record of 1:50.63 set in 1995 by Matt Kalwinsky of Toms River North. That's simply amazig!!
Clemson-bound Nate Rayan of Scotch Plains-Fanwood, who anchored the winning shuttle hurdles, placed third in the 110 hurdles in 13.39. Junior Yashahya Brown of Washington Township was fifth in 13.85.
Taylor Cox of Union Catholic was fourth in the 100 hurdles in 13.65.
The Union Catholic girls edged Timber Creek in the girls 4xx100 by running 46.56 to finish third. Timber Creek was fourth in 46.64.
Senior Kevin Burr Jr. of Rancocas Valley, who picked up the javelin for the first time ever a few months ago, finished fourth in the javelin with a 194-3. What a season for the javelin rookie, who won the Group 4 title and was second at the Meet of Champions.
The Cherokee girls followed up its All American finish in the 4xmile on Thursday (sixth in 21:03.39) by finishing fourth in the DMR in 11:54.48, No. 19 in state history. Cherokee, the only NJ team to go under 12 minutes in the DMR this season, had a wild few days. After competing at the Meet of Champions on Thursday, coach Mark Jarvis hustled over to Franklin Field in Philly
The Ridgewood boys ran the fastest DMR time in the state this season by placing fourth in 10:10.42. Luke Pash anchored in 4:12.25!!
Stanford-bound Fabian Gonzalez of Southern (63-6.25) and Benjamin Shue of Bergen Catholic (63-0.25) finished 3-4 in the shot put. Gonzalez and Shue also went 1-2 in the discus on Thursday with Gonzalez winning with a 193-5.
Ahmad Fogg of Egg Harbor soared 24-4.25 to place fourth in the boys long jump.
