June 4, 2003
Notes from trackside
By TOM WILLIAMS
Sports Columnist
You think you had a tough weekend. How about Allie Moreland.
The Ocean City High School sophomore ran the 1600 meters in Friday night’s NJSIAA Group 3 State
Track Meet. Then, on Saturday, she ran the 800 meters and was part of the 4x400 meter relay team that
finished sixth and advanced to the Meet of Champions.
But it wasn’t just those three races that crowded Moreland’s weekend. After all, many runners were part
of three events over the weekend. On both Friday night and Saturday night, Moreland rushed from the
track meet in Egg Harbor Township to the Performing Arts Center in Cape May Court House to dance in
the Dancers Two recital.
“Her legs were gone by the end of the weekend,” said her father, Bill, the head girls track coach, who
explained that the worst was Friday night.
“The 1600 was held up more than 30 minutes because of an injury in the prior race,” he said, “and it was
throwing our tight schedule off. But she got there, thanks to her mother, Debbie.” Who, we might add,
followed all the speed limits along the way.
“It makes for a tough weekend,” said Moreland, “but she works very hard at both (track and dancing) and
isn’t planning to give up either one. The recital is always the same weekend as the state meet so we’re
planning to face this tight schedule again the next two years.”
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John Richardson became the first OCHS boy to win an individual state track championship since Leon
Brown won the 200 meters in the 1986 Group 3 meet. Archie Harris was the last OCHS male athlete to
win twice in the state meet, taking the shot put and discus in 1937. And John Carey holds the record,
winning three - the shot, discus and javelin - in 1930.
Richardson ran the 1600 meters in 4:09.19, breaking the school record he set in 2001 by nearly six
seconds. He also beat the NJSIAA all-meet record of 4:09.35 set by Bob Keino of Ridgewood, whose
father, Kip, was an Olympic marathon champion from Kenya.
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The Richardson entourage not only includes his father (a record-setting high school runner from the 1970s)
and his mother (an award-winning journalist) but also the guy who ruined ice cream cones for many of us.
Ed Johnson, who owned Johnson’s Ice Cream on the Boardwalk at Brighton Place, is Richardson’s
grandfather. When you bought a cone at Johnson’s there was always a sour ball at the bottom of the cone.
To this day, many of us who frequented Johnson’s are disappointed when we reach the bottom of our ice
cream cones and find no sour ball.
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Egg Harbor Township did another good job of hosting this sizeable event. Even Tom Becker, the EHT
athletics director, couldn’t remember bigger crowds or more vehicles in his parking lots.
EHT certainly has the space for an event like this and they continue to offer fans the best in stadium
cuisine. Not only the traditional hot dogs and pizza, but hamburgers, cheeseburgers and even mozzarella
sticks.
But the weekend was no fun for NJSIAA director Boyd Sands. With weather threatening all day Saturday
and rain falling periodically, Sands spent most of his time in the officials’ tent watching the “lightning
meter”. If the amber light had blinked, that meant lightning was in the area and the action would have
stopped immediately, even in the middle of a race. Fortunately, Saturday was amber free.
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