FAST RACES, BIG JUMPS, LONG THROWS FEATURE ELLIOTT DENMAN/NJ INTERNATIONAL MEETS OLYMPIC PRELUDE AT MONMOUTH UNIVERSITY

    WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – The second Paris Olympic Games in 100 years (and the third in 124) is just seven-plus weeks ahead.
    The second USA Olympic Track and Field Trials in four years at the brilliantly recrafted Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon (and the eighth in Eugene in 52 years)  is just two-plus weeks away.
    And now the second straight Elliott Denman International Meet held Sunday, June 2, at the Joe Compagni Track at Kessler Stadium on the Monmouth University campus, is in the books, too, as a stepping stone to what’s to come in those big ones just ahead.
  First staged in 1987 as the Bob Roggy Memorial Meet, the meet evolved into the New Jersey International a year later and now, in its 37th year, continues its original mission of displaying some of the sport’s top talent.
   Over 850 athletes – from at least 10 nations and 15 states - took part and they ranged from young boys and girls to upper-age-division Masters athletes. Following meet  tradition, almost all events were named for greats of New Jersey / New York Metropolitan track and field over the years.
  Six athletes reached USA Olympic Trials standards; 16 Kessler Stadium all-time facility records went into the books; three all-time NJ  International Meet records were set.
  At least 20 individual and corporate sponsors stepped up to make it possible.
  But – of course/of course/of course – just as meet directors Joe Compagni and Dave Friedman, meet coordinator Erin O’Neill, and their corps of Shore Athletic Club volunteers planned it, it was
the elite-category athletes who stole the spotlight.
   There were highlights galore.
  *** Nick Dahl, a former Heptagonal/Ivy League champion at Yale and Atlantic Coast Conference mile champion for Duke, needed an all-out final 50-meter spurt to take the Dr. John Connors men’s 1,500 meters – concluding event in the meet – with a 3:39.73 clocking.
   (For all you Imperial distance-centric fans out there, Dahl was running 3:56 mile pace.)
   Hard on his heels were Georgetown grad Jack Salisbury (3:40.41), Mount St. Mary’s alumnus Colin Kelly (3:42.07), former Colorado runner Andy Kent (3:42.36) and 13 more.
   The first four are New York City-based Empire Elite Club teammates and training partners.
   “I passed Jack (Salisbury) with about 250 to go,” said Dahl. “Then he passed me at 150. But I passed him back at 50.”
    Spectators loved it, and so did the athletes.
   “I love running in late evening races like this,” said Dahl. “Conditions were perfect.  And the meet was great, too.   Really glad I was here.”
    *** Elite Feats Club’s (and Puerto Rico’s) Miles Lewis sped to a 10.26-second win in the men’s Frank Budd Memorial 100-meter sprint.
**** The Chrissy D’Alessandro Shaheen Memorial women’s 1,500-meter race was a dazzler, too, with ex-Tennessee runner Taryn Parks (4:10.67) outracing New Mexico alum Stefanie Parsons (4:11.41) and Columbia’s Nicole Vanasse (4:11.95.)
  *** Dueling it out for top honors in the Rich Kenah men’s 800 meters were North Carolina’s Andrew Regnier (1:47.61) and Clemson freshman star Blaik Slavinski of Point Pleasant (1:47.75.)
    The companion Joetta Clark Diggs women’s 800 went to Delaware’s Kadence Dumas (2:15.44.)
    *** Saint Peter’s University/Shore AC star Casheive Blair claimed the Larry James Memorial men’s 400 meters in a quick 46.65.   And it was Union Catholic High’s Isabella Murray (57.23) first over the line in the Aliann Pompey women’s 400.  
*** Both 3000-meter steeplechase races honored the memory of Glen Ridge’s Horace Ashenfelter, the historic Olympic champion of 1952 – and saw North Carolina’s John Tatter (9:13.72) and Boston AA’s Andrea Rodenfels (9:29.36, a meet record) take the men’s and women’s titles, respectively.
 *** In half-lap sprint action, Tennessee’s Nigel Green won the men’s Andy Stanfield Memorial 200-meter title in 20.82.  A double women’s sprint winner was Silveri Hernandez (12.04 and 24.86.)
     A tight Renaldo Nehemiah men’s 110-meter high hurdles battle went to UConn star Terrell Williams (13.86) holding off Oral Roberts U. grad Israel Nelson (13.85) and Shore AC’s Tayshaun Chisholm (14.29.)
   *** Meanwhile, field event stars were not to be denied their share of the spotlight.
    Field action began with the men’s Ira Wolfe and women’s Oneithea “Neni” Lewis hammer throw events on the Saturday, June 1, prelude card.   And Penn State’s Samaria McDonald got things rolling with a 212-9  win in the women’s event and  Tyler Williams with a 245-4  whirl of the men’s ball-on-a-wire. 
    The event name honorees, both of Shore AC,  excelled, too.  Multi-World titlist Lewis won her Masters, hammer, shot and discus titles.  Wolfe medaled in the men’s Masters hammer.
 **  Rutgers University athletes, past and present, played key roles in Sunday’s seven-event field program.
   Claiming men’s victories were current Rutgers star Sincere Robinson, who took the Dr.Phil Shinnick/Herb Douglas long jump at 25-6 ¼; and recent Rutgers grad Perry Christie with a 7-0 ¾ clearance in the Mike Pascuzzo men’s high jump.
   Shore AC’s James Plummer, the past Penn Relays, IC4A and Big East discus champion for Rutgers, and former Central Regional High School great who’d been a finalist in the 2021 Olympic Trials, opened his 2024 season with a 186-0 spin-win in the Art Swarts men’s disc.
   Lehigh grad Lucas Warning (58-8 ¾) and Monmouth alumna Prisca Blamon (42-3 ¼) took top honors in the Al Blozis Memorial men’s and women’s shot put events.  Errol Jeffrey, a former IC4A throws champion for Monmouth, returned to his old campus and netted seconds in the shot(56-3 ¼) and discus (163-9.)
    ***The memory of Bob Roggy, the meet’s original namesake, was saluted in the men’s javelin throw, won by 
Duke’s William Kahn at 212-4. The Barbara Friedrich Parcinski women’s javelin, named for the Manasquan High and Shore AC star who was the 1967 Pan-Am Games champion and 1968 Olympian, went to Rhode Island’s Julia Camezato (168-7.)
*** The meet was hosted by Shore AC, in cooperation wth Monmouth University officials, and an array of Shore AC competitors turned in solid performances in all divisions of the meet.
   Not to be outdone by the youngsters, the Shore AC women’s quartet of Nora Cary, Debbie Braithwaite, Diane Rothman and Susan Stirrat raced to a women’s age-65-up American record of 13:50.83 in the 4x800 relay.
   The men’s Masters 4x800 crown went to Shore AC’s Brian Hill, Chris Rinaldi, Rafael Rivera and Dan Campbell in 11:18.44.
   Three-time racewalk Olympian Michelle Rohl lowered the U.S. 55 mile run record to 5:23.30 taking the Mary Conry Memorial women’s Masters mile, while Dickson Mercer ran off wth the gold in the Harry Nolan-Dr. George Sheehan men’s Masters mile in 4:42.90..           
    Dr. Norbert Sander Memorial 5,000-meter titles went to Shore AC’s Troy Hill (15:04.49) and Freehold Township’s SophiaBriggs (19:42.97.)
      *** Racewalkers made it a big day, too. A 35,000-meter (21.7-mile) walk opened the long Sunday slate and Marist University’s Marissa Scotio and Mansfield grad Angelina Colon seized the opportunity to claim Olympic Trials qualifying marks.  Scotio walked her 87.5 laps in 3:42.39, Colon in 3:43:46.
    Later in the program Canadian Masters star Dmitrey Babenko won the men’s crown and Shore AC’s Maria Paul of Long Branch led the women in the Elliott Denman one-mile racewalk.
   **** Cheering all this at trackside were at least two dozen members of the extended Denman Family and Friends team.
    The meet again honored Elliott Denman, the West Long Branch resident who covered track and field, the Olympic Games and all sports in a much-honored 35-plus-year career as an Asbury Park Press sports writer and columnist; served as president of the Track Writers Association of America; was a “founding father” of the “new” Shore Athletic Club in 1964;  served Monmouth then-College as its first Varsity track coach
1966-68;  led Shore AC athletes to an array of state, national, world and Olympic honors; guided Shore AC and USA National track squads on multiple international trips, and served as a state, national and world track official.
   All this, along with his own career as a racewalker in which he was a 1956 USA 50K Olympian;  3K and 50K USA national champion in 1959; USA record-setter over the 52.8-mile London to Brighton, England distance, and raced to 33 straight NYC Marathon completions (1979-2011).
  “This was certainly a great meet,” said Denman, now 90.
   “But we’ll still try to make next year’s meet even better.”