June 16th, 2021

To All Track and Field Friends:::

We want to bring you up to date re: Our terrific Shore AC delegation to the USA Olympic Trials, scheduled to take place at famed Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, June 18 to 27..

The USA Olympic Trials will be the biggest and most important track and field meet staged in this nation in five years !!!

We have 11 team members officially entered and we surely hope almost all of them get to compete at the Trials once all entries are finalized (Sunday night.) That would be truly outstanding and a real credit to all of us who have poured so much effort and dedication into the Shore AC cause all these years..

(At last look, Shore AC had more Olympic Trials entries than such as NY Athletic Club, Central Park Track Club, Boston AA, Garden State, etc etc etc.
Amazing, just amazing !!!  )

Rutgers University graduate and Shore AC discus throwing star James Plummer gives us such specially great pride!!

What an athlete he is..in his classic ancient Grecian specialty event!

After his great career at Rutgers (multi-IC4A, Big East, Penn Relays champion, etc, and past Nationals medalist) he earned his Masters and embarked on his career (faculty member and asst. coach) at Central Regional HS in Bayville, NJ.   But, due to some injuries, as well as the Pandemic which erased all of his 2019 and 2020 seasons, he hadn't stepped
 into the ring for a true discus competition in a long-long time.

But he's made a rousing return to action this spring and we know he has the talent and the drive to do a great job at Trials. He has an official best of 61.02 meters (just over 200 feet) in a meet at Middletown, NY to rank with the national elite.

He's also had several long fouls beyond 62-63-64 meters and will have one more meet to boost his pre-Trials ranking, when he competes in the USATF NY vs NJ Association meet this Saturday (June 12) at Icahn Stadium, NYC..

(At Trials, of course, he will be throwing against an array of virtually full-time throwers, many with major corporate sponsorships.
He nevertheless refuses to concede a thing to any of them ! )

Whatever happens at Trials, our sincere hope is that James Plummer continues with the same intensity and dedication in the months and years ahead.

We'd love to see him compete in some of the international meets on the schedule later this summer and will remind him that he can also be a great 
candidate for the USA team that will compete in the next really big one after the Tokyo Olympics, that being the historic World Championships of 2022
(first ever to be held in USA), also set for Hayward Field.

The Shore AC delegation to the Olympic Trials also includes Erin Taylor-Talcott, also a Rutgers graduate and generally recognized as one of the finest distance racewalkers in USA history...She will compete in the 20K racewalk at Trials..

Other notables in the Shore AC lineup include Scott Houston, a former National indoor pole vault champion and University of North Carolina graduate who has cleared over 19 feet; 71-foot-plus shot putter Josh Awotunde, formerly of Delsea High School and U. of South Carolina; high jumper Amina Smith, formerly of U. of Maryland now coaching at her alma mater; and 20K racewalkers Sam Allen (a Cornell freshman who was National scholastic champion for Kingsway High School a year ago) ; A.J. Gruttadauro (West Virginia Tech graduate and past NAIA national collegiate champion); Chelsea Conway (Lindsey Wilson College alumna), and Michael Mannozzi (past 15-time National champion now serving in the U.S. Air Force.)

All these plus star pole vaulter Michael Cyphers, formerly of Wake Forest University, and veteran high jumper Kris Kornegay-Gober. formerly of North Carolina 
State.

Fund-raising efforts to support all these athletes are now underway.
Contributions may be sent to The Shore Athletic Club Development Fund, c/o Mr. Walter MacGowan, 1401 Third Avenue, Spring Lake, NJ 07762.


Of course, her legions of fans are also rooting strongly for famed SAC "alumna" Ajee' Wilson, the 11-time National Champion out of Neptune High School, who was the world's number-one ranked women's 800-meter runner in 2020.

"From the days we saw her winning all those races at our Shore AC all-comers meets, we knew that Ms. Ajee' Wilson was destined to reach the top of her sport," said Shore AC president Walter MacGowan.  "All these years, she has been such a wonderful representative of her hometown of Neptune, NJ, the whole  Jersey Shore area, and all of New Jersey, too. Needless to say, we wish her the very best at Trials.

"And likewise for Allie Wilson.
"Allie was our Shore AC office intern, had a superb career at Monmouth University, and just look at her now, training with and running for the
Atlanta Track Club (directed by former Wall Township resident and USA Olympian Rich Kenah) with the elite of the sport, and consistently under two minutes for the 800.  She has been getting better and faster every time out.
"Her potential, too, is unlimited."

And running the 800 with them will be the celebrated Texas A&M freshman, Ms. Athing Mu of Trenton, NJ, already the NCAA record-holder and leader of the power-packed Aggies squad.

ELLIOTT DENMAN
Elliottden@aol.com