NINE SHORE AC ATHLETES RANK AMONG NATIONAL ELITE FOR CURTAILED 2020 TRACK AND FIELD SEASON1/25/2021 Led by Shore Athletic Club "alumna" star Ajee Wilson's 1:58.29 800-meter clocking, Shore AC proudly announces that nine Varsity Team and "alumni" members achieved USA nationally-ranked performances through the Covid 19-curtailed 2020 track and field campaign. Indoor season action shut down the second week of March and the outoor season that followed provided only intermittent opportunities to achieve top quality performances. And, of course, the Tokyo Olympic Games were postponed to (optimistically) 2021 and such major events as the Penn and Drake Relays, USA Olympic Trials and our own New Jersey International Meet were cancelled. Nevertheless, many Shore AC athletes "found a way." When Neptune Academy of Health and Science and Temple University graduate Ajee' Wilson won the 800 meters in the USATF Indoor National Championships, staged Feb. 15 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, it represented the 11th Senior National crown of her illustrious career, seven of them at Indoor Nationals and four at Outdoor Nationals. And, at age 26, her best of all running years seem to be just ahead. Her best 800 time of 2020, 1:58.29, came at the Millrose Games at New York's Armory Track Center on Feb. 8 and represented the only sub-2 clocking by a U.S. woman, indoors or outdoors, all year. When Shore AC star Amina Smith cleared 6-3 1/2/ 1.92 meters, at the Terrapin Invitational Meet on Jan. 18, it was a mark topped only by Olympian Vashti Cunningham's 6-5 1/2 / 1.97 on the U.S. year list. Shore AC's top-rated men's performance was A.J, Gruttdauro's 1:28:46 in the 20-kilometer racewalk, number two in the nation bested only by Emanuel Corvera's 1:26:38. Gruttadauro also ranked fourth at the other Olympic distance of 50K, with his 4:42.32. The women's U.S. 50K racewalk list saw Shore AC's Erin Taylor-Talcott in third place at 4:47.01. Her en-route time of 1:54.28 ranked ninth at 20K. Also on the men's 50K list for 2020 were Shore AC teammates Michael Mannozzi (now on active Air Force duty after winning 15 National titles in previous years), sixth at 5:02:01; and Masters stalwarts Dave Talcott, seventh at 5:06:52, and Barry Blake, 11th at 6:25:47. Shore AC veteran Brandon Roulhac, a Nationally-ranked performer for over a decade, recorded a 54-1 1/4 / 16.49 mark at Indoor Nationals for the eighth best U.S. triple jump performance of 2020. Shore AC teammate Corey Murphy, the former IC4A and Penn Relays champion at Monmouth University, was 36th in the men's shot put at 63-1 /3/4 / 19.24 for his foreshortened campaign. Listed at 39th in the men's pole vault at 17-3 3/4 / 5.38 was Shore AC member Scott Houston, the 2018 USA National Indoor champion. Monmouth University graduates Dylan Capwell and Allie Wilson, both now representing the Atlanta Track Club, gained National recognition at 800 meters. Capwell's 1:47.68 put him 18th on the men's list; Wilson's 2:02.95 put her 23rd on the women's list. Red Bank Catholic High School and Columbia University graduate Rob Napolitano of Brick Township and the Hoka One One team, posted the number five men's mile in the nation, 3:56.56. He was also fourth at 1,000 meters at 2:18.36 and 19th at 1,500 meters at 3:38.03. Also making the men's National lists were a pair of Christian Brothers Academy grads, Andrew Liskowitz and Tim Gorman. The rapidly-improving Liskowitz, now a senior at Michigan, had the nation's fifth best shot put mark, 68-11 3/4 / 21.02; Gorman, who competed collegiately at Dartmouth and Oregon, was listed 29th at 1,500 meters (3:41.45) and 46th at the mile (4:00.12.) Surprise World Number One mark in the men's hammer throw was the late-season performance of 264-9 / 80.70 notched by former Cornell and Rutgers star Rudy Winkler; Sam Mattis, his East Brunswick training partner and 2019 National champion, was second in the discus at 204-11 / 62.46. ####
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September 2024
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