Motivation comes in many forms.
For Jalen Moseley, it came in the form of a controversial ruling at the New England Championships.
With fire in his eyes and talent on his side, La Salle Academy’s gifted junior struck it rich Friday at the New Balance Nationals. Avenging a second-place finish in the long jump two weeks earlier against the region’s best, Moseley earned the individual title in his specialty during Day 2 of the national competition at The Track at New Balance.
Moseley leaped a winning 24 feet, 1.5 inches. The LSA standout beat Aaron Rich of Lyman Hall (CT), who finished as the runner-up with a distance of 23-10. It was a reversal of the finish from the New Englands, where Rich claimed the title and Moseley placed second after initially being told he had won.-
“I would just say thank you to all the officials at the New Englands for giving me the motivation at Nationals to get the long jump crown and, really, to stay locked in the last few weeks and go for the win,” he said.
“Moseley was very motivated by the disappointment of coming second at New England,” La Salle coach Eldon Santiago said. “He came in with a point to prove and he was able to win on his final attempt.”
On Friday, Moseley also earned All American as part of the Rams’ third-place Sprint Medley Relay that smashed the state record with a time of 3:26.40, just 1.01 seconds behind Union Cathollc (NJ), which was timed in 3:25.41. Moseley and Antonio Bearden blazed to low 22-seconds for their 200m legs. Garrett Giroux-Pezzullo clocked 47.55 for his 400m split and Eamon O’Brien anchored with a 1:54.31 for the 800m.
“Our SMR ran tough against a great field, and really showed depth and versatility throughout the program,” Santiago said.
La Salle also broke another state mark in the 4x200m to qualify for Saturday’s finals. The quartet of Moseley, Giroux-Pezzullo, Jackson Alves and Bearden combined for a time of 1:27.27.
Bishop Hendricken earned All-American status in a stacked distance medley relay. The Hawks finished fifth overall with a state and school record of 10:08.14. David Hayes set the tone with a spectacular 3:07.38 on the opening 1,200m leg. He was followed by Andrew McCarthy, who ran 50.76 for the 400m, and Fred Russell, who split 1:58.02 on the 800m. Colby Flynn anchored with a 4:11.97 for the 1,600.
Flynn admitted the Hawks had targeted a time in that range all along.
“We came into it and kind of mapped out all the splits with the conversion, and set a composite time of 10:07.6. That was like best-case conditions. That’s what we were hoping to run,” Flynn said. “We came into the race, executed the plan and ended up running 10:08. It just worked out.”
