NB: Neither young or old relay will outrun rain

(Notebook published April 12)
Time may be on the historic Bridgeton Relays' side and numbers may favor the Moorestown Relays, but both of today's relays may be a wash if the weather forecasts hold true.
The Friday forecast from Weather.com said there's a 40 percent chance of rain today, along with the possibility of thunderstorms that could last into the afternoon.
Come rain or shine, Moorestown coach and meet organizer Troy Pappas said the 2nd annual Moorestown Relays will proceed until lightning tells him otherwise.
Thirty-three high school teams, including Cherokee, Delsea, Oakcrest, Eastern, Bishop Eustace and Camden Catholic, have entered the meet, up from the 24 last year.
Pappas said the meet's big draw is its rare running of the open 1,500 and the 5,000, coupled with its fully automatic timing, to allow kids to qualify for the Penn Relays and, maybe if the rain holds off, Olympics.
"It gives them a chance to say, 'Compared to the college guys and the Olympic times, this is where I stand,'" said Moorestown coach and meet organizer Troy Pappas.
The 5,000 will kick off the meet at 8:30 a.m. and the field is stacked including such winners as Camden Catholic senior Kevin McDonnell, Haddonfield sophomore Boo Vitez, Northern Burlington junior Mike Bowden , Cherokee senior Alex Yersak and Brick Memorial senior Andrew Broduer.
The 65th annual Bridgeton Relays, the state's oldest relay meet, will draw more teams and should post the better relay times.
If not for running his own meet, Pappas said he would wish to be there.
"They run an excellent meet and it's going to be great this year too," Pappas said.

Surprise, Surprise
Many teams have surprised this season, for better or worse, but no team has exceeded the expectations of this reporter quite like Cherokee and Oakcrest have.

***** Track records means a lot in track, so, in that respect, many people might not be shocked by Cherokee's early success. After all, the Chiefs are the defending American Division champions.
But both Washington Township, falling five points shy of winning the Group 4 sectionals and clearly on the upswing, and Eastern appeared to pass them during the indoor season.
Only two weeks into the season, Cherokee has already squashed that idea, decapitating the division's two heads in consecutive weeks by defeating Washington Township last week and Eastern on Wednesday, 95-36.
Senior sprinter Kevin Merrigan has been key in the Chiefs' early success. On Wednesday he won the 100 (11.1), the 200 (22.6) and was part of the Chiefs' winning 4x400 relay (3:31.7). Switching over from baseball his junior year, Merrigan helped recruit fellow sprinter, junior Will Rapp, off the diamond this spring to give the Chiefs' a quality 1,2.
When it comes to duos, jumpers senior Chris Steliga and junior Major Mobley have given the Chiefs one of South Jersey's best as proven by their Hall of Fame Liberty Division meet record of 81-5 in the triple jump Saturday, breaking the old mark of 81-1 set in 1978.
As always, somewhere between death and taxes is the certainty of Cherokee sporting a nice distance platoon. Although normally led by Alex Yersak, the Chiefs received two sub 10:00 performances from senior Sean Hartnett and junior Marc Saccomanno in the 3,200 Wednesday.

***** Oakcrest's single-point effort at the indoor Group 4 sectionals this winter didn't scare anyone beside indoor spectator-outdoor coach Les Petty.
The coach of the South Jersey Group 4 champs had graduated the bulk of their scoring, jumpers Raimundo Leach, Ramon Lewis and Leonard Okoth, and appeared more set on rebuilding than defending.
"Our boys didn't make a name for ourselves in the winter," Petty said. "We were really concerned. And plus you knew Absegami had a really nice indoor season."
Ninth-ranked Absegami looked like the team to beat in the Cape-Atlantic League during the winter, having placed third at indoor Group 4 sectionals with 40 points. Unranked Oakcrest had scored 1.
But none of that mattered when Oakcrest, led by senior jumper Keenan Bell and junior thrower Kevin Miller, opened its season on April 3 with an 84-58 shocker over the Braves, winning every field event and the 400 and 3,200.
"We liked it that way," Petty said. "We liked it a little stealthy."
At the Buena Relays last Saturday, the Rams then placed second in the field portion of Division 2, scoring 48 to Southern High's 50, and third in the track portion with 28 points, losing only to Egg Harbor Township (46) and Winslow Township (44).
With its depth in the field, Petty thinks Oakcrest is safely back on other teams' radar screens.
"At this point of time, I think we have a very strong team," Petty said. "We don't have one of those individual kids at the moment, but we'll be good in the relays."
Oakcrest and Cherokee will compete today at the Moorestown Relays.

Super Tuesday
Unlike the National League East, certain divisions can be decided a couple weeks into the season without going too far out on a limb. Two showdowns will go down Tuesday:
Egg Harbor Township (2-0) and Vineland (2-0) at Oakcrest (1-0), 4 p.m. -- The last time these three teams squared off in a tri-meet, they each were squared away with one win, one loss: Vineland beat Oakcrest, Oakcrest beat Egg Harbor and Egg Harbor beat Vineland.
As a result, the three teams shared the Cape-Atlantic League American Conference title last title. Barring lightning from striking this tri-meet twice, someone should leave Oakcrest as the division winner Tuesday.

Winslow Township (1-0) at Timber Creek (2-0), 3:45 p.m. – Winslow Township has had its way in the Olympic Conference's Patriot Division the last three years, but Timber Creek can end that Tuesday and it has the studs to do it.
Jumpers Montez Blair, Dorian Evans and Eric Smith, sprinters Geoff Mock and Damiere Byrd and thrower Mike Huckabee will all need big days if that happen.

Flying Eagles
Several relays were held last Saturday, and many relay teams put up some impressive times, but no team ran as well as Winslow Township.
The 2nd-ranked Eagles, led by seniors Barry Cephas, Darin Washington, Gerald Stephens-Holland and Davis McNeil, had the day's best time in the 4x100 (42.9), the 4x200 (1:30.2) and the 4x400 (3:22.6). Their 4x400 and 4x200 was unbeaten during the winter.
The Eagles will take flight at the Bridgeton Relays at 10 a.m. today.