From Coaches Bobby Brown, Emily Brown, Art Martin and Kurt Carter, Garden State Track Club:
Three young South Orange residents earned All-American honors at USA Track & Field’s highly prestigious National Youth Outdoor Championships, which were held June 26-29 at Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island in New York City. All three run for the South Orange-Maplewood chapter of Garden State Track Club.
9-year-old South Orange runner Treyvon Tsioulcas-Sherman, a student at Seth Boyden Elementary School in Maplewood, became the national champion in the 9 and 10 year-old boys’ 400M race with a time of 1:03.24. He also placed second in the 200M sprint [27.80] and fourth in the 100M race [13.67] for his age group.
South Orange’s Bray Brown, a 13-year-old student at The Peck School in Morristown, placed third in the 200M hurdles among the 13-14 year old boys with a time of 28:92. His brother Thatcher Brown, age 11 and a student at St. Rose of Lima in Short Hills, placed third in the high jump [1.30], third in the 80M hurdles [14.52], and fourth in the pentathlon in the boys’ 11- 12 age group.
Garden State Track Club [GSTC] is based in North Brunswick, but the club’s local youth chapter is based in SOMa. The team is coached by South Orange Village Council trustee Bobby Brown; Emily Brown and Art Martin, also of South Orange; and Kurt Carter of Union.
These USA Track & Field [USATF] championships attract young athletes from all across the country and abroad; for this meet, athletes came from as far away as Hawaii and New Zealand to compete. USATF is a governing body that organizes competitions from youth meets all the way up to the Olympic trials.
The same weekend as the USATF championship finals, several young Garden State runners from the SOMa chapter vied for honors at the Amateur Athletic Union [AAU]’s regional competitions in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Four GSTC team members earned times and scores that qualified them to go on to the AAU Track & Field Junior Olympics, which will be held in Greensboro, North Carolina, at the end of July.
At the AAU Regional Qualifiers held in Jersey City, Malachi Bredy of South Bound Brook won first in both the 200M [26.66] and 100M [13.18] races among 12 year-old boys. South Orange’s Thatcher Brown took first place in the high jump with a height of 1.45M. Zoe Elberg of Bernardsville placed third in the 800M race for 11 year-old girls with a time of 2:38.66.
Meanwhile, at the AAU Regional Qualifiers held in Millersville, Pennsylvania, GSTC runner Paige Johnson of Wharton won first place in the 400M for 9 year-old girls [1:11.14] and second in the 200M for her age group [29.99].
Coach Bobby Brown says, “While we are certainly proud of these amazing results, we are significantly more proud of watching these athletes relentlessly engage in the process of getting better. Their progress is remarkable.”
