Salem’s track team used to just enjoy the experience of the big meets, Saturday they challenged and won a medal at Penn Relays; plus other scores and highlights from Saturday’s Salem County sports calendar
BASEBALL
Vineland 3, Schalick 2
TRACK
Penn Relays
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
PHILADELPHIA – Before this year, the athletes in the Salem High track program may have been content with just being on the starting line of a big meet, but they’ve been to enough of them now that the novelty of just being there has worn off and the time has come to compete.
And compete they did Saturday in the biggest meet for many of them to date.
The Rams’ boys 4×400 relay team made some school history when they finished third in the South Jersey Small School race at the Penn Relays, winning the school’s first Penn Relays medal in coach David Hunt’s tenure.
The group of Grady Buzby, Jerry Seals, Xavier McGriff and Tim Gregory ran a 3:28.96, finishing third behind Camden (3:21.59) and Deptford (3:21.71). The top five teams win medals. Their time was two seconds slower than the school record they set last week at the Woodbury Relays, but it was just as meaningful considering the venue and the circumstances.
“It’s super significant,” Hunt said. “We’ve been trying to get into these bigger races, we get there and sometimes we don’t always meet our expectations, so to be able to go out and put up those numbers consistently and being able to compete on that stage is a big deal. Woodbury is a big deal, but running the Penn Relays at Franklin Field is a little different.
“I emphasized to them you get to a point everything can’t be about the experience; you’re going to these to compete, not to just be there; anyone can sign up. That’s why we’re doing in. When we go to these meets we need to compete when we’re there, not go to participate, and there’s a big difference.”
“We’ve understood that this season,” Buzby said. “Other years it’s been more like (wishfully) ‘we can make it to states, we can medal at sectionals.’ But now the stakes are higher. We can medal at Penn Relays, we can medal at states, we can go to nationals — another step up – and that’s definitely something we were looking at today. Something to keep in mind.”
All four of the Rams ran 52-second legs. Buzby got them started with a 52.08 out of the gate. Seals followed in 52.28. McGriff ran 51.16 and Gregory brought it home in 52.46.
Seniors Buzby and McGriff were running on the Penn track for the first time. The Rams have a six-man interchangeable rotation for the relay and set the order depending on who’s available and how many events they’ve entered. Buzby didn’t run the race at Woodbury because he was just coming off the 800, but was inserted in the opening leg Saturday specifically for his ability to establish and maintain position in the event’s waterfall start.
“The reason I ran the first leg is because I won’t tolerate being bullied,” he said. “At UPenn it’s special because if you look at the races they have an outrageous number of kids on the track and you have to hold your position in a waterfall start. You don’t get a lane. I take up space and I don’t let anybody bully me.”
McGriff, inspired by watching Olympian Quincy Wilson run a 44.56 split in his 4×4, put on a closing dash in his leg. He took the baton in fourth place, then made a big push to get the Rams into third for Gregory’s final leg.
“The backstretch got me a little bit,” McGriff said. “Once I saw Audubon in front of me, in my head I was like I got him, I’ve got to get him around the curve to get us in a spot, so I picked up the pace and ran past him. I just felt good about that.”
The group didn’t realize they were getting medals for their finish until they saw Hunt around the medals table on their way out. That’s when the real celebration began.
“When we got them he told us we were the first to ever get on in a long time,” McGriff said. “We just got real happy. We were cheering and stuff. We were so happy.”
Schalick’s 4×400 relay team ran in the High School Boys division. The team of Steve Chomo, Jacob Carter, Chase Riley and David Stewart ran 3:32.58 and finished seventh in their race.
Baseball
VINELAND 3, SCHALICK 2: Nathaya Perez hit a bases-loaded single into center field with one out in the bottom of the seventh, scoring Don Menzoni from third for the Fighting Clan’s walk-off win.
The Cougars, back on the field after their senior trip, tied the game with two runs in the sixth. Bo Schalick scored the first run on a passed ball and Cole Hartley tied it with a two-out RBI single.
Evan Glaspey and Even Sepers both had a pair of hits for the Cougars.
Riverview Sports News 