With our country celebrating the 250th anniversary of the historic signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, we felt this was the ideal time to celebrate 250 of the greatest track and field/cross-country athletes in New Jersey high school history!
Before we dive in, there are a few things you should know about this project.
First off, we divided the list into 125 boys and 125 girls to arrive at 250 total athletes. To be eligible, all athletes had to graduate from a New Jersey high school and compete while they were in high school. This list is also based strictly on accomplishments and performances made during high school, so when you don't see several Olympians, such as Dave Sime of Fair Lawn and Mel Sheppard, for instance, we didn't forget them.
Sime played baseball in high school before beginning his track and field career at Duke and becoming the silver medalist in the 100-meter dash at the 1960 Olympics. Sheppard, who lived in Almonesson, Clayton and Haddonfield during his early childhood, attended Brown Prep in Philadelphia. He went on to win 3 gold medals at the 1908 Olympics, and one gold and one silver medal at the 1912 Olympics.
There are several more Olympians that aren't listed here, but we assure you we know who they are and are working on putting together another list that includes all the greatest NJ T&F and XC athletes who starred on the college and professional levels.
In order to complete this list and keep it to 250, we needed to use some criteria. We decided that all current state record holders (wind legal) in the events that are contested at the state meets, all athletes who won at least 3 indoor or 3 outdoor Meet of Champions titles, all distance runners who captured multiple XC M of C titles, and won a national XC title, were automatically chosen. The remainder of the athletes listed are either ranked in the top 5 all-time in a track and field event, held a state record at one time, ran one of the fastest times ever at Holmdel Park, dominated their events, or made a historical impact in other ways.
Since the Track and Field Meet of Champions didn't start until 1969 for the boys and 1974 for the girls, thousands of athletes never got the opportunity to compete at that meet, so to be sure we included pre-M of C athletes, we referenced the state record progression chart, which was put together several decades ago by legendary NJ track and field and XC reporter Ed Grant, who maintained it through 2009.
That enabled us to identify athletes who broke down big barriers in the sport. Take Tom Skutka of Morris Hills, for example. Skutka dropped the first sub-4:20 mile in New Jersey high school history when he ran 4:19.5 in 1955. That record stood as the NJ record for 7 years, and that's why he's listed below.
Before we roll out the list, we also need to thank veteran T&F and XC reporters Paul Schwartz of the Bergen Record and South Jersey historian Reuben Frank for their input on this.
Now it's finally time to unveil 250 of the greatest NJ T&F/XC Athletes of all-time!!!
Boys 125 Athletes | Girls 125 Athletes |
