Meet of Champions

Woodstown trio focuses on individual specialities at MOC in prep for New Balance Nationals; Crawford finishes third in 800

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Josh Crawford says he’ll remember his final NJSIAA indoor race for a long time. Not for what didn’t happen, but what did.

The Woodstown senior middle distance specialist ran his final NJSIAA-sanctioned indoor 800 Sunday in the Meet of Champions. He finished third in the race, but closed the gap on race winner Keandre Kelly of Union Catholic to give him confidence for the spring and set his indoor PR with a time of 1:53.30.

“I barely remember the last race, to be honest, but this one I’m going to think about for the rest of my life; this one was fun,” Crawford said. “I knew the guys I was racing against and I like kind of looked towards them as a goal where I should have to be the entire season. So, since I met that goal, it made me with my journey so far.”

For the most part he thought he ran a ”pretty solid” race despite a pace that wasn’t quite his cup of tea. His first 200 was “good” (26.50) and was running second, but then he relaxed on Laps 2 and 3, then the pack went as hard as they could on the bell lap and he finished a second off the lead as Kelly came from third by closing with a 26.95. Crawford’s time was four seconds band 11 places etter than his finish in the MOC last year.

“I think I had more left in the tank at the end,” he said. “But I think I did my job and it showed me I’ve improved since last spring season because last spring season (Kelly) had like a 50-meter gap from me at Meet of Champs, but now I was like right on his heels the entire race. And especially since winter times are usually slower than spring times, it shows I can also have a faster spring time and just see what I can put out there.”

The Wolverines also qualified in the 4×400 and 4×800 relays at the MOC, but passed on those events to focus on their individual specialties and save their legs for next week’s trip to the New Balance Nationals in Boston where they qualified in the 4×8 (Thursday) and Crawford and Karson Chew qualified in the 800 (Friday).

Chew got caught in traffic in his 800 race and finished 25th (2:03.14) and Jacob Marino was 22nd in the 1600 (4:37.80). Marino and David Farrell are also on the 4×8 relay team.

“The race didn’t go very well for me,” Chew said. “I got stuck in boxes wherever I went for the first two laps and wasted my energy trying to bounce in and out of them to find position. It just wasn’t a great day for me. 

“Josh did amazingly, though. A second and a half indoor PR is insane as well as placing third at the Meet of Champions.”

The spring season for all the Wolverines under new coach Tom Mason begins Monday.