Timber Creek's Byrd sprints to 4 titles

Timber Creek's Damiere Byrd had the kind of weekend that some athletes would love to have.

The junior won four events at the South Jersey Groups 2 and 3 and Non-Public B track and field championships at Buena.

If there had been a most outstanding athlete award, Byrd would have won it. However, he'll settle for helping his team win the Group 3 trophy Saturday.

"We've been talking about it since the beginning of the season," Byrd said. "We wanted to keep the tradition going. We wanted to win a third [consecutive] sectional title."

Byrd did his part. He won the 100 meters (10.75), 200 (22.46) and 400 (49.11), and ran the third leg of the 4x400 relay that was clocked in 3 minutes, 23.38 seconds.

Timber Creek won with 86 points. Kingsway finished second with 55.

Delsea began the Group 2 competition Saturday with 741/2 points, 421/2 points more than second-place Haddonfield. The Crusaders finished with 1331/2. Haddonfield was second with 95.

Sean McPherson was a major point producer for Delsea. After the senior won the 100, long jump and 200, he had his eye on the 4x400 relay. He ran the third leg of the relay to help the Crusaders win in 3:25.40.

"That's 10 points for my team," McPherson said of the relay after he won the 200 in 22.29 seconds.

In one of the most exciting races of the day, Haddonfield's Ben Potts shaded Pleasantville's Larry Ramirez at the finish line in the Group 2 800.

"It came down to the last 50 meters," said Potts, who won in 1:54.93 after trailing Ramirez for most of the race. "It was a shock to the system."

Ramirez was clocked in 1:55.03. Potts's previous best time had been 1:56.

"I knew that Larry would take it out hard and I'd have to respond," Potts said.

Kingsway's Tivosiel Rivera had no doubt about how he was going to run the 800 Saturday. The distance runner surveyed the field and decided to go all out.

"My strategy was to go out hard, so it would be hard for them to catch me," the junior said after he won the Group 3 race in 1:54.39.

Rivera said his time in the 800 was a personal best, as was his 4:25 in the 1,600 on Friday, when he placed fifth.

"We want to win sectionals," Rivera said. "I'm real pleased with the way I'm running."