Ryan Rafferty and Amanda Huneke took the men’s and women’s crowns in the 59 th
edition of the Asbury Park Carnaval 5k run on December 31. Rafferty went right to the
lead at the start of the race with runners Justin Scheid and Riley Maher hot on his heals.
At the midway point all three were close together, but Rafferty pulled away on the return
trip to Asbury Park’s Convention Hall to break the tape in a fast 15:47.92. That time
placed Rafferty as the 11 th fastest runner in the history of the event. Scheid, a two
time winner of the event landed a close second in 15:53.28, while Maher clocked
in with a 16:08.89.

Amanda Huneke established a strong lead throughout the race, finishing in a fast
18:26.44, but well off the record of 17:35 set by Kerry Dyke in 2019. Runners
Erika Flores and Casey Hopkins battled it out for most of the race, with Flores
pulling away to land second in 18:42.75, with Casey taking third in l8:51.21.
Over 300 runners and walkers entered the event this year. The Polar Bear
races were again conducted by the Shore Athletic Club, under the direction
of Erin O’Neil, a former winner of the women’s race, assisted by Coach Joe
Compagni. Running in 59 th edition of the race was Dr. Harry Nolan, who has
not missed running in any of the Polar Bear races over the years, having won
the event nine times.
​
Many who attended the awards ceremony were privileged to hear Shore A.C.
member Bob Bazley read a Congressional Presentation awarded to Elliott Denman,
the founder of the Polar Bear races, as well as founder and long time President
of the Shore A.C., and a 1956 Olympian. Denman could not be present
at the event for the first time due to illness, but there was much clapping
after the award reading as well as from tributes by club President Walter MacGowan
and other club members.

Joe Compagni, Race Director, Doug Eagles, Executive Director of BGC of Monmouth County, and Erin O'Neill, Race Director

Learn more about the Boys and Girls Club of Monmouth County as there are now 4 locations: Asbury Park, Red Bank, Neptune and Long Branch. 

The 2022-23 indoor track season is just two weeks old and these early results
put two NJ collegians right up there with the best...

Both happen to be sons of outstanding Shore AC stars !!!

Rutgers senior A'nan Bridgett, Big 10 Champion and NCAA All-America,
sailed out to a terrific 7.83meters / 25-9 1/4 at the Rutgers Invitational Meet
at the Armory on Dec. 2.

His Dad is former Monmouth University varsity and Shore AC Masters Team standout
and noted coach, Andre Bridgett ...

Princeton freshman Greg Foster Jr  LJed 7.67 meters// 25-2
at the Joe Handelman Invitational Meet at Jadwin Gymnasium on Dec. 10.

His Dad is Greg Foster, the former state, national and World Masters
gold medalist for USA and Shore AC...

Truly well done so early in the season.!!!..

We are certain both will fly much further as the season progresses !!!

Cheers again,
Elliott D

​November, 2022 - The Sandy Hook Foundation, the Official Friends Group of the National Park Service at Gateway National Recreation Area, Sandy Hook Unit, was pleased to be named the official Charity Partner of the 2022 Jersey Shore Half Marathon. The race took place on Sunday, October 2 on Sandy Hook and was produced by the Shore Athletic Club (Shore A.C.), with support from the National Park Service at Sandy Hook. In total, $3,000 in donations were collected from over 20% of race participants, and the Shore A.C. recently presented a check to Foundation President Patricia Alcaro. During registration, participants had the option to make a tax-deductible donation to The Sandy Hook Foundation in support of the Foundation’s work within the park.

"The Foundation is delighted that our work and efforts to support the park have been embraced by the 2022 Jersey Shore Half Marathon and the Shore Athletic Club. Our hope is that improvements to the park, funded by the Foundation, such as the water refill stations along the route, complement events such as these at Sandy Hook," says Alcaro. “We were honored to be able to work together with National Park Service staff and the Sandy Hook Foundation to put on the race again this year,” said race co-director Joe Compagni. “It was important to us as a club that we connect the race to the community and to all the great work that the Sandy Hook Foundation does.”

Despite monsoon-like conditions, nearly 1,000 runners came out and braved the elements while running through the multiple eco-systems in the park. At the finish line, dozens of family, friends and well-wishers waited with ponchos and umbrellas to cheer on the racers. Sandy Hook provides a vast menu of resources for all park visitors, including outdoor sports and recreation enthusiasts; naturalists eager to discover abundant flora and fauna; history buffs revisiting the Army’s activities and impact at Fort Hancock (a National Historic Landmark); and all those who love the miles of ocean and bayside beaches. The Foundation plays an important role supporting programs and projects that make visitors’ experiences better. There is no better way to showcase all Sandy Hook has to offer than an event that winds its way throughout the 2,044 acre peninsula.

​For more information about The Sandy Hook Foundation, please visit https://www.sandyhooknj.org or call 732-291-7733. For more information about the Shore Athletic Club, please visit https://www.shoreac.org/#/

Former track and field/ cross country star at
Jackson Memorial High School/of Jackson, NJ
and Villanova University (number one finisher on NCAA cross country champion team, etc)
Ran 2021 USA Olympic Marathon Trial.
Has won many races in NJ, etc in recent years.

Amanda and husband were expecting their first child in late October 2022.
Amanda continued to run all through her pregnancy.

And in the Shore AC Cross Country League weekly series race at
Holmdel Park on Oct. 15 she ran the classic and tough Holmdel XC 5K course,
with its famous "Bowl"  under 23 minutes to pace the women's field.

Some 60 hours later (just 2 1/2 days) Amanda gave birth and the
Hunekes welcomed son Hudson Miles.....

All are doing well and the Shore AC and Jersey Shore running communities
welcomed this new runner...

So, as I said, this is a great story waiting to be written,,,
Hope you can follow through and get it done.
Full and more precise details can be obtained from Shore AC president,
Mr. Walter MacGowan at his office in Spring Lake, NJ.
Phone 732-449-9400 ..email: Wmacg@aol.com

Best wishes,
Elliott Denman
732-222-9213
Elliottden@aol.comt

By Harold Nolan

A group of Shore A.C. master’s athletes traveled to Lexington, Kentucky to participate in the 2022 USATF National Masters Track and Field Championships, and helped the team land a 9th place out of over 100 teams in the men’s division. The event was held on July 28-31 on
the University of Kentucky campus. Led by double gold medal winners Michael Kish and Barry Blake, all of the clubs runners came home with at least one gold medal, as well as with others, a number of seconds and thirds.

Micheal Kish (70-74), returning from his double gold victory in the recent world masters track 
meet repeated his wins in both the 100 and 200 meter events at the nationals. Kish clocked in
at 13.22 for the century and 27.11 for furlong.  Race walker supreme Barry Blake (65-69) had 
back to back wins in two days in both the 5k and 10k walking events, clocking in with 33:25.16 and 1:10:13.42 respectively. Harry Nolan took advantage of having recently moved into the 75-79 age group, and scored one gold and two silver medals.  On Friday, Nolan won
the 2000 meter steeplechase in 11:06.06, and followed over the next two days with seconds in both the 800 and 1500 in 3:03.87 and 6:45.58.  In the 800, he was nipped in the final forty yard sprint of the race by world masters 75-79 champion Gary Patton of Iowa.

The man for all events in track and field, Rick Lapp (70-74) who had earlier this year been giving
emphasis to his 400 and 800 running, switched back to his main events, which resulted in one gold, two silvers and one bronze medal.  On the final day of competition, Lapp scored his win of the meet in the long jump with a leap of 13’21/2 feet.  He also won two silvers in both the 80 meter hurdles (15.13) and the 300 meter hurdles (53.66), while coming away with the bronze medal in the triple jump in 28’51/2 feet.

The octogenarians of the club also had excellent showings. Stan Edelson, 81, turned on the steam down the homestretch of the 80-84 800 meter to win in a fast 3:49.75, and then was nipped at the wire in the 1500 the next day by half a second, clocking in at 7:56.04 for the silver.  On the opening day of the meet, he had a 5th place finish in 5k run event in 33:25.16.  Fellow 80-84 teammate Roland Cormier scored a gold medal in the 2000 meter steeplechase in 13:06.42 and a silver in the 5k run in 29:41.36. He sustained an injury in the steeplechase event, and was not able to compete in the 1500 meters on Sunday as he had planned.

Club Hall of Famer Carlton Huff battled it out in the men’s 65-69 pole vault, placing third with a 10’0” jump.  New club member Luis Campos also placed 2nd in the 5k (31:07) and 10K (62:16) race walks, with Michael Mannozzi winning the 35-39 10k walk in 52:40.

All of the meet participants were graced with excellent weather on the last three days of the meet in a region where 90 to 100 degree heat usually prevails.  The track was a sea of club tents, with some teams having brought between 20 to 30 athletes each. The masters track and field group will be working toward bringing more club masters club members to the 2023 outdoor meet in Greensboro, NC, including many from the long distance  running group, as well as some of our excellent field event athletes who did not participate this year with a goal of moving into a top three team finish.

By Elliott Denman
​
EUGENE, OREGON -

Just as a reminder, we told you so.

Years and years ago.

So did John Moon, the famed Seton Hall University track coach.  

Here's the story:

Back in the mid-1990s, Seton Hall coach Moon, himself a former sprints great, interviewed by this then-Asbury Park Press sports writer (yours truly) about the budding romance of his Seton Hall team members Kevin Lyles and Keisha Caine, Moon delivered a track quote for the ages.

"If and when these two get married, their children are likely to be very fast people," said Moon, in the story soon delivered to Asbury Park Press readers.

How right we were!  

All these years later, Noah Lyles and Josephus Lyles are a lot more than just "very fast people."

Noah is already a two-time World Championships 200-meter winner.  Josephus can be a medalist at these 2022 Worlds, too, if only they find a place for him on one of the Team USA relay units.

Now, fast forward.....very fast forward.

Noah Lyles had celebrated his 25th birthday on Monday by romping to an easy 200-meter first-round win in the 18th World Championships of Track and Field, hamming it up all the way to the finish line.

Three days later, Lyles was all-business,  all-maturity. No hamming it this time.  No joshing, no early celebrations.

And he thus showed the Hayward Field crowd - and a global TV audience - what he really could do at full-focus, full-throttle, full of the amazing velocity he's apparently been endowed with at birth. Yes, as predicted by his father's coach.  As told to the Asbury Park Press.

He'd won at Worlds in Doha, Qatar, clocking 19.83

Noah Lyles' second sonsecutive World Championships win was a lot quicker.

IThis one took just 19.31 seconds, the fastest time ever recorded for the half-lap distance by an American, crossing the line 1/100th of a second faster than Michael Johnson's winning time at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Only two other men have ever run faster - Jamaicans Usain Bolt (19.19) in 2009 and Yohan Blake (19.26) in 2011.

How's this for a stat:  Lyles' first 100 meters (out of the blocks) took 10.15 seconds, his second 100 just 9.16...
Yes, 9.16!
Bolt's world-record for the distance -under standard racing conditions - is .9.58. !!

;And Lyles' blazing performance launched a 1-2-3 Team USA sweep (replicatng the earlier sweep in the 100.)

Wisconsin's Kenny Bednarek claimed the sliver in 19.77, Florida's Erriyon Knighton the bronze in 19.80.

Bednarek is 23, Knighton just 18, a recent high school graduate and the fastest junior-age (sub-20) dasher in world history, yes faster even than the young Usain Bolt.

Liberia's Joseph Fahnbulleh - also the NCAA champion for the University of Florida, clocked in at 19.84; Dominican Republic's Alexander Ogando (19.84) and Trinidad and Tobago's Jereem Richards (20.08) to lead all the rest of the world.

"Today was my day, I did what I came here to do," Lyles, already draped in the gold medal,  told the Hayward crowd in a celebratory post-race interview.

"At first I thought I was slow, then that time (19.31) popped up (on the big display screen) and I said 'wow.' 

And "wow" said Hayward attendees, too.

Track and field celebrities have been in the stands, rejoicing in all the golden performance at these Worlds, since the meet began.

Tommy Smith and John Carlos, appropriately, were spotlighted guests for this night of the two 200 finals (men and women.)

It was 54 years ago that their podium stance at Mexico City after the 200 final - protesting injustices in their nation -were met with fierce, antagonistic reactions - and which kept on for years.

How times have changed - now Smith and Carlos are considered proud all-time icons of sports history.- and Olympic Hall of Famers.  

Edwin Roberts was in the audience today, too. He's been a Philadelphian for years - and a top official at major meets for decades - but in 1964-68-72 he was a brilliant Olympic sprinter for Trinidad and Tobago.  In 1964, he took a bronze in the 200 and another bronze in the 4x100 relay.  He added a 200-meter fourth in '68,

So, your thoughts on this one, Edwin?

"Excellent, excellent, excellent, excellent."

For sure, for sure, for sure, for sure.