Here is the Salem County sports schedule for the week of March 15-22; all games weather permitting; x-scrimmage
MONDAY, MARCH 16 COLLEGE BASEBALL Northampton at Salem CC, 3:30 p.m.
TUESDAY, MARCH 17 BASEBALL x-Gateway at Salem Tech SOFTBALL x-Paulsboro at Penns Grove x-Salem Tech at Pennsauken Tech BOYS LACROSSE x-Woodstown at Absegami COLLEGE BASEBALL Salem CC at Northampton (2), noon
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18 BASEBALL x-Millville at Pennsville x-Salem Tech at Camden Academy Charter SOFTBALL x-Camden Academy Charter at Salem Tech x-Middle Twp. at Schalick TENNIS x-Millville at Pennsville BOYS LACROSSE x-Delran at Woodstown
THURSDAY, MARCH 19 BASEBALL x-Bridgeton at Salem x-Schalick at Paulsboro SOFTBALL x-Gateway at Woodstown x-Salem at Bridgeton BOYS GOLF Woodstown vs. Delsea, Wild Oaks GC TENNIS x-West Deptford at Pennsville, 3:45 p.m. BOYS VOLLEYBALL Salem Tech at Riverside
FRIDAY, MARCH 20 BASEBALL x-Atlantic Tech at Salem Pennsville at West Deptford SOFTBALL x-Salem at Lower Cape May x-Salem Tech at Schalick COLLEGE BASEBALL Atlantic Cape at Salem CC, 3:30 p.m. COLLEGE SOFTBALL Bucks at Salem CC, 3 p.m.
SATURDAY, MARCH 21 COLLEGE BASEBALL Salem CC at Atlantic Cape (2), noon
SUNDAY, MARCH 22 COLLEGE SOFTBALL Salem CC at Delaware Tech, noon
Woodstown relay finishes 13th at New Balance Nationals, runs personal best
BOSTON – Woodstown’s 4×800 relay team was hoping for a finish that would get them All-American status. The Wolverines didn’t quite get there, although they made a good run at it, but they did run a personal best.
The relay team of Jacob Marino, Karson Chew, David Farrell and Josh Crawford finished 13th out of 104 teams at the New Balance Indoor Nationals here Thursday night, but they ran a PR of 7:55.26.
They were running third overall after finishing second in their heat to Plymouth Whitemarsh, but were bumped down by the final heat. Union Catholic TC won the event in meet record time of 7:35.05, the fastest time in the country this year.
Crawford and Chew return Saturday to run in the boys 800.
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.
Here are the results of the Region 8 Championships, these four placers advance to the state championship in Atlantic City
NJSIAA REGION 8 TEAM SCORES: Southern Regional 229, Delsea 181.5, St. Augustine 165, Lower Cape May 153, Red Bank Catholic 126, Kingsway 113, WOODSTOWN 52, Clearview 51.5, Middle Twp. 43, Paulsboro 41. Also, Pennsville 9, Schalick 2.
106 1st Place Match Jonas Lusker (Southern Regional) dec. John Tarantino (Red Bank Catholic), 5-1 3rd Place Match Will Cruz (Paulsboro) maj. dec. Adam Froehlich (Delsea), 13-0
113 1st Place Match Tristan Rosemeyer (Lower Cape May) dec. Evan Villecco (Kingsway), 4-1 3rd Place Match Nick Banos (Southern Regional) dec. Liam Kisby (Absegami), 5-3
120 1st Place Match Cade Collins (Southern Regional) dec. Bryce Paley (Lower Cape May), 3-0 3rd Place Match Casey Pekula (St. Augustine) pinned Joseph Vezzosi (Red Bank Catholic), 3:21
126 1st Place Match Anthony Mason (Southern Regional) dec. Dante DePaul (Delsea), 6-0 3rd Place Match Chase Sudano (St. Augustine) def. Cole DeAngelo (Red Bank Catholic), SV-1 12-9
132 1st Place Match Greyson Pettit (Delsea) tech fall over Jayden Jardine (Eastern), 20-3 (4:42) 3rd Place Match Eli Glover (Lower Cape May) dec. Wyatt Tolson (Ocean City), 7-1
138 1st Place Match Chase Hansen (Lower Cape May) dec. Amari Vann (Delsea), 10-4 3rd Place Match Ryan Preziosi (Kingsway) tech fall over Robbie Fritz (Red Bank Catholic), 16-0 (2:31)
144 1st Place Match Anthony Depaul (Delsea) def. Attila Vigilante (Southern Regional), UTB 3-2 3rd Place Match Adrian Arbelo (St. Augustine) maj. dec. Luken Ramos (Red Bank Catholic), 9-1
150 1st Place Match Ryan Glenn (Kingsway) dec. Anthony Russo (Red Bank Catholic), 6-4 3rd Place Match Jean Paul Bonnette (St. Augustine) tech fall over Anthony Molinaro (Southern Regional), 17-0 (4:54)
157 1st Place Match Matthew Miranda (Kingsway) 35-3, Fr. over Johnny Chirico (St. Augustine), 8-6 3rd Place Match Daniel Byrne (Lower Cape May) pinned Elijah Beatty (Clearview), 3:19
165 1st Place Match Vincent Esposito (Southern Regional) dec Cameron Pote (Delsea), 3-1 3rd Place Match Robert Attenborough (Middle Township) dec. Cristian Rodriguez (Red Bank Catholic), 7-2
175 1st Place Match Vincent Palermo (Hammonton) maj. dec. Greyson Hyland (Woodstown), 12-3 3rd Place Match Nicholas Daddona (Southern Regional) dec. Shane Morrell (Lower Cape May), 4-1
190 1st Place Match Levi Foote (Southern Regional) dec. Brody Taylor (St. Augustine), 11-5 3rd Place Match Brian Garcia (Red Bank Catholic) dec. Greg Sawyer (Delsea), 9-8
215 1st Place Match Salvatore Marchese (Delsea) tech fall over Daniel Francis (St. Augustine), 20-5 (3:18) 3rd Place Match Jacob Chapman (Ocean City) dec. Aaron Veytsman (Clearview Regional), 11-5
285 1st Place Match Mateo Vinciguerra (Woodstown) pinned Braden Shields (St. Augustine), 2:54 3rd Place Match Slayton D`Amico (Cedar Creek) dec. Ahmad Fears (Gateway/Woodbury), 8-2
Hall of Famer Mason returns to the coaching ranks, takes the Woodstown track team for the spring
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
When Tom Mason coached his last indoor track meet in 2019 to pursue other interests in the sport, he was done with that side of the game unless some “special circumstance” drew him back.
The special circumstance surfaced.
Intrigued by a query from team trainer Dan Evans following a mid-season coaching change, Mason looked into the Woodstown track coach’s position. On Wednesday, the longtime Penns Grove coach and state track official confirmed he was getting back in the game as the Wolverines’ coach for the spring season.
He met with Woodstown athletics director Joe Ursino and then superintendent Chris Meyrick, a former Penns Grove administrator and four-year anchor on Buena’s 4×400 relay that battled Mason’s Penns Grove teams back in the day. He starts Monday, the day after the winter Wolverines return from the indoor Meet of Champions.
“I told them there were two reasons as to why I’m accepting,” Mason said. “One is your senior boys. I just love those senior boys. What great people. You take the running ability aside, they are just outstandingly class people. And my second reason was because of (Meyrick) being the superintendent.
“The Woodstown senior boys and the girls and both teams, to be honest with you, I was very impressed with how they were such class people, especially those seniors, and I did not want those seniors for their last year to have to go through a major change. My thinking is veteran coach comes in, can kind of just guide them and help them to get success.”
Mason brings Hall of Fame credentials to the job. In Mason’s 45-year high school coaching career (126 total seasons) includes 396 wins, four state team titles, six South Jersey sectional titles, 15 Salem County crowns and nearly 70 individual and relay state champions. He was inducted into the Salem County Sports (2011) and New Jersey Scholastic Coaches (2016) hall of fames and recently was approved as the cross-country assistant at Salem Community College.
He’s well aware of the Wolverines’ unparalleled strength in the middle distances, he’d like bring hurdles, sprinters and jumpers into the fold to enhance their depth.
“In Salem County history this group is the best in terms of middle distance,” Mason said. “No school in my memory of Salem County sports has had this many star middle distance runners. It’s unheard of.”
The appointment was met with excitement by the Wolverines.
“I’m very excited for this amazing honor to have a Hall of Fame coach for my final high school season,” said senior 800 specialist Josh Crawford, the anchor on the Wolverines’ decorated 4×800 relay team. “I’ll always appreciate the coaches who helped my team and I find our strides and who shaped us to be ready for this next step.
“I’m honored for what’s ahead and grateful for who got me here. I can’t wait to meet him and I couldn’t be more grateful that he is willing to step up and make our senior year memorable.”
Salem boys survive Woodstown’s best shot to become the last Salem County team standing in South Jersey Group I playoffs
SJ GROUP 1 TOURNAMENT BOYS No. 1 Salem 64, No. 8 Woodstown 53 No. 4 KIPP 50, No. 12 Glassboro 49 No. 14 New Egypt 47, No. 6 Penns Grove 38 No. 2 Palmyra 57, No. 10 Audubon 33 Wednesday’s semifinals KIPP (17-9) at Salem (21-5) New Egypt (13-14) at Palmyra (21-7) GIRLS No. 1 Haddon Twp. 49, No. 8 Woodbury 34 No. 4 Glassboro 57, No. 5 Palmyra 35 No. 3 Audubon 48, No. 11 Woodstown 29 No. 2 Wildwood 51, No. 7 Gateway 41 Wednesday’s semifinals Glassboro (21-7) at Haddon Twp. (21-8) Audubon (20-8) at Wildwood (21-7)
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
SALEM – There really is only one mindset to have when it comes playoff time – survive and advance – and Salem was definitely in survival mode in the second half of its South Jersey Group I playoff game Monday night.
The top-seeded Rams were stuck in one of those cold spells that have hit them on occasion this season and they trailed county rival Woodstown by seven with five minutes left in the third quarter. But they turned to Deshaan Williams and Fatah Paige to get it inside, they got back on track and, with the Wolverines tired from all the energy they spent to get that lead, shook the doldrums and eventually the Wolverines, 64-53.
They now host No. 4 KIPP in Wednesday’s sectional semifinals. The Titans (17-9) edged No. 12 Glassboro, 50-49.
“That’s what it’s about,” Rams coach Anthony Farmer said. “It’s about playing four quarters. We punched them in the mouth early, they responded, give them credit, but it’s a four=quarter game.
“That’s what we’ve been preaching since Williamstown. That game kind of enlightened us and showed us what we need to do. “We’ve been in that situation before. We’ve had leads, lost them, came back. Tonight was just one of those nights where we cranked it up and … survive and advance, man. That’s what it’s about this time of year.”
The Rams (21-5) appeared headed for an easy win, but this was anything but easy. Xavier McGriff “got the party started” as they like to say, hitting three 3-pointers in the first quarter to help the Rams forge a 28-10 lead two minutes into the second quarter, but for the next 15 minutes or so they were in a fight for their playoff lives.
From that point to the end of the half, the Wolverines forced them into 0-for-4 shooting and eight turnovers and got it back to 29-25 at the break. The run was fueled by two 3-point plays by Frankie Hoerst with back-to-back 3s by Blake Bialecki and Elijah Caesar in between.
While the first quarter belonged to McGriff, the second quarter was Hoerst’s. The freshman scored six points and grabbed four rebounds in the second quarter alone and finished with 10 points and 13 boards for the game.
“We’ve been working on him the last couple weeks one-on-one, teaching him different moves and stuff and he really turned it on,” Wolverines coach Ramon Roots said. “And that’s what we expect from him.”
The halftime break did nothing to slow the Wolverines down. They opened the second half on an 11-0 run to grab a 36-29 lead. Bialecki gave them the lead with 6:33 left in the third quarter and Alejandro Vazquez and Caesar hit back-to-back 3s to extend it before Williams finally got the Rams on the board after seven empty possessions with 4:53 left in the quarter.
But all that energy the Wolverines expended getting back in the game and taking the lead took its toll. Vazquez conceded they were spent down the stretch.
“It gassed us out,” he said. “We fought hard and I’m proud of our guys, but we were all tired.”
That’s where Williams and Paige took over. Williams had 12 straight points for the Rams in the third quarter to bring them back and finished with another double-double. Paige was inserted when Marshall Stephens got in foul trouble and just played too good to come out. He neutralized Hoerst in the fourth quarter, grabbing nine of his 12 rebounds.
“The guards weren’t shooting it well so we had to rely on our big guys,” guard Tymear Lecator said. “We had our shot in the first half, it was not our night. A couple 3s we let go fell in, but a lot didn’t so we knew it wasn’t our night and we knew if we wanted to get the job done we couldn’t keep jacking up 3s, we had to attack down there and that’s what we did. We fed it to our big guys and got out of there with a good win.”
“O-o-oh, I can’t talk enough about Fatah, the way he came in and changed the game with his athleticism, energy, effort,” Farmer said. “I challenged him about a week or two ago about getting on that backboard. You’re big and strong, your athletic, you should go in there, you should be getting on that backboard and tonight, man, he just was phenomenal. He was huge for us.”
Williams had 19 points and 11 rebounds, while Paige had six points to go with his boards. Tymear Lecator had 12 points, five rebounds and eight assists.
“They started hitting a lot of shots, so everybody looked toward me to get the ball and score and I feel like that’s what I did,” Williams said of his third-quarter outburst. “It felt good, especially in the playoffs. It was a good environment to do it.”
“We were not losing,” Paige said. “I had that mindset from the jump. They had their little run and I was like, nah, we’re not losing and I did everything in my power to make sure we didn’t. I had to get on the backboard, make sure there were no easy baskets, stay hungry.”
3-point goals: Woodstown 5 (Caesar 2, Bialecki 2, Vazquez); Salem 5 (McGriff 3, Spence, Lecator). Rebounds: Woodstown 27 (Hoerst 13); Salem 39 (Williams 11, Paige 12). Total fouls: Woodstown 17, Salem 15.
Salem’s Deshaan Williams (10) moves in to keep Woodstown’s Blake Bialecki from driving on him during Monday night’s South Jersey Group I playoff game.
NEW EGYPT 47, PENNS GROVE 38: Damian Ware really liked the way the playoff road was laying out in front of his Penns Grove basketball team. First-round upsets left a couple double-digit seeds in the path of the Red Devils’ potential spot in the sectional final. All they had to do was get through it.
They got the desired defensive effort they wanted Monday night, but they didn’t have the shooting success to go with it and they fell to the 14th-seeded Warriors to end their season.
“It was back and forth in the fourth quarter,” Ware said. “We missed a few shots, they hit a few shots and pushed it out to five, then we had to foul and they made their free throws at the end to push it out to nine. But it was really like a two-point game most of the fourth quarter.
“We just missed shots. We missed shots that we normally would make at a decent rate. Got a lot of good looks, got a lot of clean looks, but shots just weren’t falling today. That’s what it came down to. Our game play wasn’t bad, we held them to 47 points. Our goal was to keep teams under 50, but we didn’t make shots.”
The sixth-seeded Red Devils (17-12) held their last lead at 35-34 with 3:30 to play, then hit only one more shot the rest of the game. The Warriors, who upset third-seeded Haddon Twp. in the opening round, meanwhile, scored seven points in a row to take the lead for good, then scored their last six points from the free throw line.
Another crucial stretch came at the end of the third quarter when they suffered three turnovers in the final 20 seconds that the Warriors turned into two buckets for a 27-25 lead.
Nolan Arnold, New Egypt’s all-time leading scorer with more than 1,600 career points, led all scorers with 20 points. Clyde Ferris added 16 with three 3-pointers.
Roman Gipson hit four 3-pointers for Red Devils and led them with 16 points. Geonni Conrad had 10 points.
“I tell the kids the game is the game,” Ware said. “You’re going to make shots, you’re going to miss shots, but you’ve got to hit them when they matter the most and we just didn’t make the shots when they mattered the most.”
NEW EGYPT 50, PENNS GROVE 41 NEW EGYPT (13-14): Nolan Arnold 8-4-20, Clyde Ferris 5-3-16, Dylan Harper 0-0-0, Paul Kennedy 1-3-5, Ryan Reynolds 2-1-6, Jake Milicia 0-0-0, Thomas Marabuto 0-0-0. Totals 16-11-47. PENNS GROVE (17-12): Roman Gipson 6-0-16, Geonni Conrad 4-1-10, Will Roy 0-1-1, Haneef Frisby 1-1-3, Mishawn Brantley 0-0-0, Jameel Horace 2-0-4, Carson Pearsall 1-0-2, Luis Colon 1-0-2. Totals 15-3-38.
New Egypt
9
8
10
20-
47
Penns Grove
5
11
9
13-
38
3-point goals: New Egypt 4 (Ferris 3, Reynolds); Penns Grove 5 (Gipson 4, Conrad 1).
Girls game
AUDUBON 48, WOODSTOWN 29: Third-seeded Audubon never gave the Wolverines a chance to get anything going and rolled into a semifinal showdown at Wildwood.
The Wolverines (12-16) were held to seven points in the first half and were down by 21 going into the fourth quarter, but they did outscore their hosts over the course of the final eight minutes.
“They played extremely tough and aggressive,” Woodstown coach Matt Smart said of the Green Wave. “They made it hard to get into our sets and played great defense.
“I was proud of the way we fought the entire time. There were times we could’ve given up, but the girls wanted to continue to fight. We took some really good shots that just didn’t fall our way today.”
The Wolverines didn’t have a scorer in double figures, but Lauren Hengel and Kendall Young each scored eight points apiece.
Audubon’s Emma Speyerer hit four 3-pointers and led all scorers with 18 points. Kylie Cannaday had 14 points and seven rebounds. The Green Wave had 12 steals as a team and four blocked shots.
It was a tough year for the Wolverines. They had to rebuild after graduating two of the most prolific scorers in school history and doing so meant putting players in positions they may not have been comfortable playing. But they persevered without complaint.
“What I’ll miss most about the senior class is their camaraderie they have,” Smart said. “Tonight when we got back to the locker room, I went to lock it up thinking everyone had left, and the seniors and a couple juniors were hanging out. They didn’t want to leave. We sat there for about an hour sharing stories and laughs from the season.
“When a sad moment like a season coming to the end happens, if you can look back on the good times, it’s very special. When they can look back on the memories that they made with friends, it’s a special group. Yes, there were tears today, but there were a lot of smiles and laughs.”
Woodstown’s Ayars commits to play college soccer at RCSJ-Cumberland, picks Dukes over system rival; updated with new material
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
Bryce Ayars is always up for a good rivalry. He played in one of the best during his high school career at Woodstown and he’s about to become part of another now that he’s committed to playing his college soccer at RCSJ-Cumberland.
The Wolverines senior confirmed his commitment in December after several weeks wrestling with his choices. He chose the Dukes over their RCSJ system rival Gloucester, a decision that is bound to heighten the experience even more when the teams play the next two years.
Woodstown’s Bryce Ayars had a big weekend with his travel team in the run-up to tonight’s signing celebration at RCSJ-Cumberland. (Submitted photo)
“There’s always a pretty heated rivalry between the two,” Ayars said. “You know me, I’m always ready for a good rivalry with my past experience with Schalick, so I’m looking forward to that next big rivalry in my career.
“It’s definitely going to be a heated game. It’s something I’m looking forward to, just being out there on the pitch, going against another great team, to see who comes out on top. I’ve always loved the intensity in those games, no matter if we won or lost. Having that intensity is just something you can’t take for granted. You’ve just got to enjoy every minute of it.”
He officially joined program tonight when he joined the Dukes’ signees in soccer, basketball, softball and golf for a formal signing celebration. Woodstown coach Darren Huck was even on hand to support his captain.
Ayars’ senior high school soccer season ended in early November, but he was on the field honing his craft this weekend, captaining his Deptford Premier EDT travel team to a 2-1 record st the Loudoun (Va.) College Showcase. He anchored a defense that allowed only four goals in three games and scored the game-winner in one of the wins on a header off a corner kick.
Ayars was impressed with the consistent communication the Dukes had with him throughout the season. He watched the game with Gloucester during the season and although the Dukes lost, he was impressed with the way they played.
Once he decided he was going to one of the RCSJs, the final decision came down to “what program would fit me better and which one can help me develop into the player I want to be and take my talent to the next level after these two years.”
Ayars was a two-way threat for the Wolverines and that’s what the Dukes like in him. He controlled the game from his center back position, but became a goal scorer this past season.
He scored a team- and career-high 17 goals this year, 27 over the last two seasons, and finished his four-year career with 95 points. The Wolverines were 19-2-1 the last two seasons when Ayars scored a goal. Along with his father, Don (1998-2000), they formed the second-deepest family legacies in Woodstown soccer history — 135 games (83-41-11), seven playoff appearances and 38 combined goals.
Bryce was a first-team Tri-County Diamond Division pick and played in the TCC-Colonial, South Jersey and All-State all-star games.
“I think I played to the best I could, taking a big leap from my junior to senior year,” he said. “Being able to score goals and getting assists doesn’t just help me but helps the team. I feel like I’d done everything I could for the team and it just didn’t go the way I wanted to in the playoffs.”
Woodstown’s Bryce Ayars (seated left) celebrates his signing to play soccer at RCSJ-Cumberland with his family. (Submitted photo)
Here is the Salem County sports schedule for the week of March 2-7
MONDAY MARCH 2 BOYS BASKETBALL South Jersey Group I Tournament Woodstown at Salem, 5 p.m. Glassboro at KIPP, 6 p.m. New Egypt at Penns Grove, 5:30 p.m. Audubon at Palmyra, 6 p.m. GIRLS BASKETBALL South Jersey Group I Tournament Woodbury at Haddon Twp., 5:30 p.m. Palmyra at Glassboro, 4 p.m. Woodstown at Audubon, 4 p.m. Gateway at Wildwood, 5 p.m.
TUESDAY, MARCH 3 COLLEGE BASEBALL Salem CC at Delaware Tech, 3 p.m. COLLEGE SOFTBALL Lackawanna at Salem CC, 1 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4 BOYS BASKETBALL South Jersey Group I Semifinals Woodstown-Salem vs. Glassboro-KIPP New Egypt at Penns Grove vs. Audubon-Palmyra GIRLS BASKETBALL South Jersey Group I Semifinals Woodbury-Haddon Twp. vs. Palmyra-Glassboro Woodstown-Audubon vs. Gateway-Wildwood COLLEGE BASKETBALL NJCAA Division III Selection Show, 6 p.m.
THURSDAY, MARCH 5 COLLEGE SOFTBALL Salem CC at RCSJ-Gloucester (2), 3 p.m.
FRIDAY, MARCH 6 WRESTLING Region Tournament COLLEGE BASEBALL Salem CC at Brookdale, 3:30 p.m. COLLEGE SOFTBALL Sussex at Salem CC (2), 1 p.m.
SATURDAY, MARCH 7 BOYS BASKETBALL South Jersey Group I Championship GIRLS BASKETBALL South Jersey Group I Championship WRESTLING Region Tournament COLLEGE BASEBALL Brookdale at Salem CC (2), noon COLLEGE SOFTBALL Monroe-Bronx at Salem CC (2), noon
SUNDAY, MARCH 8 INDOOR TRACK Meet of Championship, Ocean Breeze, Staten Island WRESTLING Girls Region Tournament
Here are the qualifiers for the regional wrestling tournament from districts involving Salem County Teams; top 3 finishers in each weight class advance
106 1st Place Match Adam Froehlich (Delsea) dec. Geno DiJoseph (Cumberland), 10-4 3rd Place Match Brett Land (Pennsville) pinned Alex Alicea (Buena), 1:39
113 1st Place Match Jayson Garcia (Egg Harbor) maj. dec. DeAnthony Harden (Cumberland), 8-0 3rd Place Match John Sutton (Buena) pinned Jadon Middlemiss (Woodstown), 5:48
120 1st Place Match Carson Bradway (Woodstown) maj. dec. Maruf Reza (Egg Harbor), 8-0 3rd Place Match Caleb Jenkins (Schalick) pinned Reid Lightfoot (Delsea), 2:32
126 1st Place Match Dante DePaul (Delsea) pinned Kolton Sheppard (Cumberland), 3:10 3rd Place Match Ruben Cruz (Millville) pinned Hector Villarrubia-Torres (Cedar Creek), 7:29
132 1st Place Match Greyson Pettit (Delsea) pinned Chase Baker (Pennsville), 1:02 3rd Place Match Brian Tennant (Egg Harbor) over Chase Bordley (Vineland), forfeit
138 1st Place Match Amari Vann (Delsea) pinned Nathaniel Mason (Pennsville), 1:10 3rd Place Match Colin Bittle (Schalick) pinned Jayden Cinkowski (Vineland), 3:30
144 1st Place Match Anthony Depaul (Delsea) pinned Gabriel Supernavage (Pennsville), 0:33 3rd Place Match Graham Schlemo (Egg Harbor) pinned Michael Baisch (Schalick), 4:30
150 1st Place Match Ayden Jenkins (Schalick) maj. dec. Patrick Tull (Millville), 12-4 3rd Place Match Lionel Lertora (Egg Harbor) dec. Lucas Coesfeld (Delsea), 13-9
157 1st Place Match Jamison Devlin (Delsea) maj. dec. Chase Williams (Cumberland), 12-3 3rd Place Match Travis Hagan (Pennsville) pinned Jake Hardiman (Cedar Creek), 3:35
165 1st Place Match Cameron Pote (Delsea) pinned Robert McDade (Pennsville), 0:24 3rd Place Match Jared Hoffman (Millville) pinned Marcos Concepcion (Egg Harbor), 6:43
175 1st Place Match Greyson Hyland (Woodstown) dec. Christian Solano (Egg Harbor), 6-1 3rd Place Match Eric Sulik (Schalick) dec. David Seeger (Cumberland), 8-4
190 1st Place Match Greg Sawyer (Delsea) pinned Evan Elliott (Schalick), 1:07 3rd Place Match Ralph Hitchner (Cumberland) dec. Asher Fitzpatrick (Woodstown), 7-1
215 1st Place Match Salvatore Marchese (Delsea) pinned James Cook (Schalick), 0:19 3rd Place Match Anthony Trainor (Buena) dec. Tyshawn English (Millville), 3-0
285 1st Place Match Mateo Vinciguerra (Woodstown) pinned Jacob Hand (Pennsville), 0:53 3rd Place Match Slayton D`Amico (Cedar Creek) pinned Andrew Pinnock (Millville), 1:46
DISTRICT 32 (Qualifiers from Penns Grove, Salem) Team scores: 1. Lower Cape May 231, 2. Red Bank Catholic 225.8, 3. Clearview 159, 4. Deptford 122, 5. Paulsboro 81.5, 6. Clayton/Glassboro 60, 7. Pitman 31, 8. Salem 18, 9. Penns Grove 10
285 1st Place Match John Hearon (Lower Cape May) dec. Abdullah Jenkins (Salem), 1-0 3rd Place Match Daniel Maguire (Deptford) dec. Philip Bertole (Red Bank Catholic), 3-2
Woodstown boys win 4×400 relay to clinch indoor track title, their first state title in track program’s history
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
TOMS RIVER – When Josh Crawford hit the finish line in the final even of the day, he not only brought the Woodstown boys a 4×400 relay title, he delivered a state championship.
The Wolverines won the Group I indoor track championship Saturday – their first track title in school history – with a strong showing in the running events. Their first-place win in the relay gave them 35 points, seven ahead of a Ramsey team that had them by three entering the final race of the meet.
“We didn’t need to win the 4×400 to win the meet, but it was a great cap to a great season,” Wolverines coach Alex Dominy said. “Overall this season has been hard with snow days, difficult in terms of flu and colds and Arctic blasts, but these boys continue to improve despite barriers to a more typical season. I couldn’t be happier.
“Going into states with only six boys in events and not being the favorite was very daunting, but everyone performed amazingly and did their job to the fullest,” senior Karson Chew said.
“It was a big accomplishment in general for six guys to beat schools that have tons of people to choose from,” added Crawford.
The relay team of Jacob Marino, Chew, Anthony Costello and Crawford came home in 3:31.03, 22-hundreths of a second ahead of race runner-up New Providence.
Marino was subbing in the 4×4 for Kyle Reitz, another casualty of the postponement, and was a late scratch in the 3200 to focus on the relay and helped bring them through.
He got the Wolverines off and running while not exactly a 400 specialist. Chew got them back up to second and Costello kept them there, maybe even closing the gap. Crawford still had “a hefty gap” (about two seconds) to make up when he took the baton, but when he passed the New Providence runner who jammed him up in the 400 right before the finish he knew they had it won.
“With the meet being moved we weren’t able to run our usual 4×400 with Kyle Reitz,” Dominy said. “Being that Jacob was doing the two mile, we opted to have him scratch and focus on holding it down in the 4×400. Seeing that we won with less than a second it was a great choice.”
Marino also finished second in the 1600 (4:28.65). Crawford also won the 800 (1:57.52) with Chew finishing third (1:58.87) and got points in the 400.
The Woodstown boys track team enjoys a victory lap in The Bubble after clinching their first ever state championship after winning the Group I indoor track title. (Submitted photo)
From the time they clinched, their phones were blowing up with congratulatory messages from Woodstown track alums from various generations. They got to take a victory lap around the track and they were welcomed back into town by an escort of fire engines.
“That was just a great feeling,” Costello said of the victory lap. “We saw other teams do it before after they snuck it out in front of us so we said all right it’s our time now, we’re going to do it and we’re going to take it all in while we can.”
Schalick’s Sal Longo finished second in the boys pole vault, topping out at 12-6. He was beaten out for gold by Ramsey’s Luciano Zizza in a jump off at 13 feet.
Four jumpers made it to 12-6 and Longo and Zizza cleared that bar on their first attempts. Haddon Twp.’s Bobby McIlvaine joined them on his final attempt while Bound Brook’s Jake Markey fell out. All three missed three shots at 13-0, but Longo and Zizza advanced to the jump off with fewer misses and Zizza got it on the first extra attempt.
“It means a lot to me,” Longo said. “To get second place at the group championship meet today, it was very relieving to know that the hard work I put in this season is finally paying off.
“Going for the gold was very exciting. I was so close to getting that height on my last jump, I just need to tweak my technique. Overall, it was probably one of the funnest competitions I’ve been involved in.”
Ramsey’s 1-5 finish in the pole vault set the stage for the drama in the relay. The 12 points vaulted the Rams into the lead, but they didn’t have an entry in the relay. The Wolverines had to finish second to pass them and not be caught by third-place Glen Rock.
“Every 5-10 minutes (we were) checking scores, just trying to feel it out,” Costello said. “We knew it was going to come down to the wire, so were like all right we need to do this and we’re not going to worry about the scores anymore. It just got to that point where we’re just going to go out and win the thing.”
The top two finishers in each event and the top wildcards all advance to next week’s Meet of Champions.
GROUP I INDOOR TRACK CHAMPIONSHIP (Event winners and Salem County point-scorers) BOYS Team scores (top 15): Woodstown 35, Ramsey 28, Glen Rock 28, Haddon Twp. 20, Camden 20, New Providence 18, Glassboro 18, Manville 17, Hasbrouck Heights 10, New Milford 8, Pascack Hills 8, Wood-Ridge 8, Dayton 8, Shore 8, Buena 8, Schalick 8. Also, Penns Grove 2, Salem 1. 400: 1. Giorgio Bruttini, Ramsey 50.67; 6. Josh Crawford, Woodstown 51.83 1600: 1. Shaun Maloney, Haddon Twp. 4:27.28; 2. Jacob Marino, Woodstown 4:28.65 55 Hurdles: 1. Jaleel Dickerson-Dempsey, Camden 7.73 800: 1. Josh Crawford, Woodstown 1:57.62; 3. Karson Chew, Woodstown 1:58.87 55 Dash: 1. Michael Napolitano, Hasbrouck Heights 6.49 3200: 1. Jayran Rodriguez, Manville 9:31.74 4×400: 1. Woodstown (Jacob Marino, Karson Chew, Anthony Costello, Josh Crawford) 3:31.03 High Jump: 1. Moses Robles, Glassboro 6-4 Pole Vault: 1. Luciano Zizza, Ramsey 13-0; 2. Sal Longo, Schalick 12-6 Shot Put: 1. Evan Yuzon, Glen Rock 58-7.75; 5. JaKai Ingram, Penns Grove 46-7; 6. Jailon Fletcher-Wilson, Salem 45-6
Riverview Sports News 