‘Gutsy’ performance

With backs to the wall, Woodstown’s boys 4×800 relay team clears several potential hurdles to post qualifying time for Penn Relays

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PHILADELPHIA – The deck couldn’t have been more stacked against Woodstown’s 4×800 relay team reaching one of the more ambitious goals for its season, but as they’ve proved time and again there’s not much they can’t overcome.

One of the goals the decorated group set for themselves this spring was to earn a spot in the historic Penn Relays and win their heat, but they were down to their absolute last chance to qualify and bad things were piling up like a stack of high hurdles.

There really was no tomorrow; if it didn’t happen in Saturday’s Father Judge Relays, it wasn’t going to happen. Bad weather was challenging their resolve to even make the trip to make the attempt and once they got there was going to make it difficult to post a good time. On top of that, one of their pieces was competing for the first time after having surgery three weeks ago.

In spite of all that, the Wolverines did what they always seem to do and that’s got the job done. They won the race in school-record time of 8:08.09, a healthy four seconds under the qualifying standard for the Penn Relays race.

The team of Karson Chew, Cole Lucas, Jacob Marino and Josh Crawford won the race by three seconds over runner-up Caesar Rodney High School of Delaware and four Philly parochial squads. They are expected to learn Monday at 5 p.m. if their time is among the top 35 to make it to Franklin Field. The race prelims are April 24 at 9 a.m. with the Championship of America finals the next day at 5:50 p.m.

“It was very gutsy,” Wolverines coach Reggie Teemer said, confident his team will get a small-school spot. “I just felt like these guys are hungry. They are hungry without me motivating them. It was very cold out. It was windy. It was raining. We just knew we went there for business, not like we were out there for anything else. It’s like all right, let’s go out and do this, we’re gonna get a good time and we’re going to go home. They’re just a gutsy group of kids.”

Tops on that list this week at least was Marino. Three weeks ago the junior distance specialist was in a hospital room waiting to have his appendix removed. He was expected to be out a minimum of four weeks, but he was back running at practice in the middle of last week, a week ahead of schedule.

He ran a 2:08 on his leg and according to teammates ran smooth enough to look like he hadn’t had surgery at all. He started losing ground towards the end of his leg, but Crawford quickly reclaimed the lead and left the field in the wake.

“It was a really nerve-wracking experience coming back into the meet having one chance,” Marino said, “but I’m really proud of all that we’ve accomplished and all the work of the other dudes on our team to get us to where we are at, and our coaches as well. 

“it was just surreal coming back and being able to do that. it was just really amazing to beat all those odds and to be able to come back and accomplish that with our team and be able to do something that hasn’t been done.”

The Wolverines switched their running order partly to accommodate Marino’s situation. He typically runs second, but on this occasion he swapped with Lucas for the third leg. It’s likely to be what Chew called “our normal” for the rest of the season.

“With Jacob just coming back, he did perfectly,” Chew said. “He did a great job, ran a sub-2:10, which is where we needed him for the day.

“We were really proud of him for doing what he had to do. We went straight for a group hug after we got the time and he was the center of that because of the situation he was in and what he ran. Even though he had that situation he still ran like he needed to run and ran a really good time for having surgery two weeks beforehand. I knew going in he was going to make that happen.”

Shortly after helping the Wolverines qualify for Penn, Marino ran the boys mile for another chance “to get my legs under me” and finished seventh (4:59.78). Samantha Sterner was the only other Woodstown athlete to brave the elements and she finished seventh in the girls mile (5:53.33).

The team already was registered for the 4×400, but to cover themselves for the 4×8 before Sunday’s deadline, they registered for it shortly after the race. Now it’s just a matter of seeing where they fall.

“It’s out of our hands now,” Teemer said. “We did what we’re supposed to do. We’ll just leave it up to the voters, I guess.”