Egg Harbor NJ boys secure top U.S. finish in 4x800

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By Jim Lambert for DyeStat

PHILADELPHIA - It’s hard to imagine a national champion being under the radar. But that’s exactly where Egg Harbor of New Jersey found itself in Saturday’s 4x800 Championship of America race at the 123rd Penn Relays.

That’s because the Eagles, the 4x800 winners at the New Balance National Indoor Championships last month, had qualified as just the eighth seed and ran slower than two U.S. teams in the trials, including Oxon Hill of Maryland, which ran 7:40.35.

But Egg Harbor put together its best race ever and proved to 47,420 fans at Franklin Field that it was a mistake to forget about the Eagles, who dropped US#7 and a school record 7:47.13 to finish fifth overall and first among U.S. teams. St. Elizabeth Tech of Jamaica won going away in 7:33.27, No. 4 in meet history.

Egg Harbor edged Wadsworth of Ohio, sixth in 7:48.02, to secure a set of gold watches that are awarded to the winning team and top U.S. quartet in each race. Oxon Hill, ninth in 7:53.12, had three runners on its 4x800 that also ran on the 4x400 earlier in the day that qualified for the C of A race.   

Egg Harbor senior Eric Barnes knew what was at stake when he got the baton about 10 meters ahead of Wadsworth anchor Gabe Szalay. Wadsworth had run 7:45.16 to finish ahead of Egg Harbor’s 7:48.25 in Friday’s trials.    

“I knew I had to stay ahead of that team for us to be the top U.S. team,’’ said the Rutgers-bound Barnes, who anchored in 1:56.77. “So I just tried to make sure I kept running hard the whole way because I knew he was right behind me.’’

The first three legs for Egg Harbor’s all-senior team were handled by Robert Dessoye (1:57.04), Alex Dessoye (1:56.04), and Aidin Hendriks (1:57.30).

Hendriks said that he and his teammates didn’t feel like longshots despite what Oxon Hill did Friday.

“Some teams ran really hard yesterday and those heats were just crazy fast, but today was a different race,’’ Hendriks said. “We knew we had something left after yesterday and that this was possible.’’

Oxon Hill, which came back later to place sixth in the 4x400 C of A in 3:16.32, received a 1:51.97 anchor from Gary Ross.