Netters:
It isn't often that a brand new HS finds itself in the 1600R final
at penn, but, in a way, it happened this year when Winslow Twp finished 6th
in the race in 3:17.84.
Of course, this is only technically a new school since it is, under
another name, the same Edgewood HS which should have won the race back in
1984 (when Dennis Mitchell was its anchor leg), but lost when its 3rd man,
Lee Jerkins (about the same size as Dennis) was unceremoniously dumped into
the infield by the six-foot giants on all sides of him, juggling for
position. (That team later returned to Franklin Field and set a NJ state
recoird which lasted until a year ago and was then beaten by Camden HS.
What happened since last year was the bereakup of a regional
district that included Overbrook HS and Edgewood. Overbrook chose to retain
its name, but Edgerwood took the name of the township in which it is
located. The present team is composed of two sets of brothers, junior twins
Duan 948.8) and Dante (48.2) Freeman and Antraye and Anthony (49.3) Miles.
Anthony is a junior; Abtraye's class status is unknown to me at this time,
unless he has adopted a new first name (there was a Tyrone Miles on he team
last year who was a junior at that time). At any rate, obviously a team to
watch in the future.
Jusrt for the record, NJ did have a true first-year school win the
race back in 1940, Northern Valley HS of Demarest, a brand new regional
district. created from two small; Gr. I districts and other towns which sent
their students to various high schools. Their time was 3:21.5 for the mile,
very creditable in that era. Converted to 3:20.4 for the metric distance and
allowing for the difference in cinder and all-weather tracks, they might
well have made the final this time.
Ed Grant
