NB: From Slow to Speedy, Kelly turns gears

Little did he know then, but Washington Township senior Chris Kelly may've locked up South Jersey's most improved award four years ago.
The then-freshman toiled the mile in 5:59, a pace that wouldn't win ribbons in gym nor have him confused for Speed Racer.
Slowly but surely, though, Kelly got faster, much faster.
At the stacked Henderson Invitational in West Chester, Pa. on May 2, Kelly, "the poster boy for hard work" as told by coach Rich Bostwick, ran the 3,200 in 9:53.51 and the 1,600 in a personal-best 4:27.55.
At the Woodbury Relays last month, Kelly anchored his distance medley relay team to a season-best 10:35.9, splitting 4:29 to smash any ideas by runner-up Cherokee senior Alex Yersak.
In some ways though, Kelly – whose 3.1 mile personal best at the end of his freshman cross-country season was above 20 minutes – has been catching Yersak for years.
"Training all three seasons, that's the best he can get," Bostwick said. "And now as a senior he's starting to get a little rivalry with Yersak. Think about that. Yersak was running like 16:00 [in cross country] as a freshman. He's always been good and now, here's this guy [Kelly] right behind him."
"It's not easy. I'm not going to lie," Kelly said after anchoring then for the first time. "I just tried to go out fast. It was a really, really tough finish."
At the Gloucester County Championship Wednesday, Kelly won the 3,200 in 9:56.7, followed by senior teammate Alex Clemson. Kelly also ran the 1,600 in 4:35, taking third to junior teammate Xavier Fraction (4:29.2) and Kingsway junior Ryan Culbreath (4:31.4).
The Minutemen won easily with 119.5 points. "I've never been on this kind of level of competing before," Kelly said. "I've always been like J.V. or thought of as 'Ah, he's just a two-miler.' But now it's like, 'Oh, all right, well let's see what he can do in the mile."

Ocean Deep in Distance
Ocean City is not acting like a team that lost its Indoor Group 3 State Champion in the 1,600 for the season.
Even with senior Ryan Birchmeier sidelined with a torn left hamstring, the Red Raiders are hoping to nationally qualify in the 4x1,600 today at the Ocean City Relays, a meet revived after a dormant decade, coach Matt Purdue said.
"We figured we would give teams a shot to qualify for that 4x1,600," Purdue said.
Senior Connor Martin, freshman Miles Schoedler, senior Stephen Hoffman and junior Brett Johnson fell short of the Nike Outdoor Nationals' 17:40 standard at the South Jersey Relays last Saturday, winning in 18:00.41.
Purdue feels the standard time – an average mile split of 4:25 – is achievable for a myriad of reasons: Saturday marked the first time Martin ran the 1,600, doing so in 4:33, Hoffman and Schoedler improve with each race and Johnson ran the last leg on tired legs – having gone 3:53 in the 1,500 two days prior – knowing the goal was virtually impossible when receiving the baton.
While Johnson, who split 4:19, stars in individual events, good role players are needed to win relays.
""It's been a nice surprise to have Miles join us. He's been working hard all spring," Purdue said. "And I think all the success Connor and Stephen had in cross country is giving them the confidence to run well on the track."
Martin said that part of his confidence stems from knowing Johnson is anchoring the relay.
"You still need to perform, but he's your closer," Martin said. "He's the best."
At the Woodbury Relays last month, Johnson was handed the baton about seven seconds behind Shawnee sophomore David Forward – perhaps the second fastest distance runner in South Jersey – and won the distance medley relay by four seconds, splitting a still-talked-about 4:10.

101 Dominations
Helping Haddon Heights move into conference clinching position Tuesday was West Deptford's 78.5-61.5 win over defending champ and previously unbeaten Haddonfield last week.
The victory -- or was it the one against the tri-meet's third wheel, Collingswood? – marked the 100th win for West Deptford's winningest coach Mark Dixon.
The 14-year head coach bumped his record to 101-36 with a 115-25 thumping over Audubon Tuesday.
As is the case this year with Boys' Track Indoor Athlete of the Year senior Dan Batdorf, who had cleared an outdoor-best 15-1 against Haddonfield, the Dixon-led Eagles (7-1) have always thrived in the pole vault.
A pole-vault coach for four years before heading the team, Dixon knows the difference a good vaulter makes, having produced four state champions,12 South Jersey champions and someone who qualified for the state championship each year.
But its impact might be felt most felt during dual meets.
"I think its an advantage for us because we can walk into a lot of meets and go 'Hey, we're going to take nine points here' because the other school doesn't think about it," said Dixon, the school's gym teacher. "Coaches may not know about it and be apprehensive so they just go and give it away. So you go into many meets up 9-0. I'll take that."

Drought over
With a 93-47 win over Willingboro Thursday to end its season, Northern Burlington won its first conference title in 40 years.
Not only did the Greyhounds clinch up the Burlington County League Liberty Division since 1968, but they defeated the Chimeras for the first time ever.
Coached by Tim Tedesco, the Greyhounds are led by junior distance runner Michael Bowden and senior hurdler Chris Tomori.

Atlantic County sparkles
With four teams in the Courier-Post's Top 20 – three in the top 10 – squaring off for the Atlantic County Championship Thursday, the only thing that you could be sure of was that a lot would be learned.
Turns out Pleasantville was another sure thing.
The Greyhounds stomped Absegami (96), Oakcrest (91) and Egg Harbor Township (88) by scoring 133 points.
No stranger to winning, senior Greyhound Kenny Davis beat the Egg Harbor Township duo of Stevenson Cajuste (14.5) and Tre Lathan (14.8) to win the high hurdles in 14.3.
Absegami senior Geoff Navarro (10.5) edged Egg Harbor's Tejay Johnson (10.6) in the 100 but was outleaned by Johnson (21.8) in the 200, losing by a tenth of a second.
Absegami junior Ford Palmer doubled in the 1,600 (4:27.7) and the 800 (1:57.4) followed by Oakcrest's Aaron Johnson (1:58.0) and Ray Johnson (1:58.7).

Area Highlights
Triton pole vaulter Matt Rawlik claimed the school record by clearing 13-2 in a 89-51 loss to Seneca.
Seneca newcomer Drew Kanz led the win, taking the triple jump (42-6), the long jump (19-4), the high jump and the 200 (23.8).
Kanz also won the triple jump and the high jump (6-2) at the Lenape Regional District Championship Thursday.
Cherry Hill East won 10 of 16 events in its 81-60 victory over Eastern Tuesday with distance runner Dave Berger, sprinter Ryan Mason and hurdler/jumper Chantz Powell each taking two events. Powell won the 110 hurdles in 14.6, Mason claimed the 200 in 22.8 and Berger won the 3,200 in 10:07 after running a 4:32 mile.
Palmyra's Warren Oliver won the javelin (158-3), the triple jump (40-8), the long jump (20-4) and a share of the high jump with teammate Jim Childs in a division-clinching 79-56 win over New Egypt.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Kwabena Keene
Washington Township
Grade: Senior
Events: Shot put/ Discus

Accomplishments: Keene, long known for catapulting shots to orbit, has added discus to his repertoire this year, proving just as capable of chucking the disc at the Henderson Track & Field Invitational. The University of North Carolina-bound senior set two personal bests at the West Chester, Pa. meet on May 2, winning the shot put with a man-size toss of 58-9 and placing second in the discus with a throw of 152-1. Keene won both events at Wednesday's Gloucester County Championships to lead the Minutemen to the win. With about a month left in the season, Keene hopes to reach the 60-foot milestone to join his North Jersey counterparts, Morristown's Nicholas Vena and Scotch Plains-Fanwood Mike Alleman.

Quote: "I'm trying to become the Goliath," Keene said. "I know I'm definitely the David compared to them, because Alleman and Vena are definitely not small people. I'm trying to get there though."