Boaz Madeus sure didn’t set the bar too high for himself when he started his a track and field career.
Now a junior standout at Nottingham High School, Madeus recalled the spring of his freshman year when his brother Ramsden talked him into coming out for track the first time. Madeus noted that since Ramsden was a strong hurdler, “it was almost automatically expected of me to go into the hurdles.”
Thus, the coaches put him in the 400 hurdles, where a time in the high 60 seconds can be considered bad for a high schooler.
“The first time I did it, I actually fell five times and busted my butt in it,” Madeus said. “I ran like an 84-something…not a great experience.”
He can laugh at it now, as a lot has changed since that March day in 2014.
After a freshman year of learning how to run correctly by participating in the 400-meter relay, he came back last spring to finish second in the 400 hurdles in 54.38 at the Central Jersey Group III Championship. That was followed by a 55.58, good for fifth place in the NJSIAA Group III meet. He finished 10th at the Meet of Champions in 55.54.
Madeus has also become a quality distance sprinter. Last spring he won the 400 meters in the Mercer County Meet (50.12), took fourth at CJ III (50.30) and 11th in Group III (49.90).
A summer of participating in Al Jennings’ Track Club has honed Madeus’ skills even further. Although he did not advance in the 55 hurdles, Madeus won this winter’s CJ III indoor sectional title in the 400 meters in 50.31, and anchored Nottingham’s first-place finish (3:31.24) in the 4×400. He then qualified for the Meet of Champions at the Group III meet on Feb. 20 after earning a second-place finish in the 400. The 4×400 team also placed fourth at the meet.
“He ran two great races, he really did the best he could do,” head coach Melissa Persichetti said about his performance at sectionals. “He got out in the 400 , he got a great pace, he was leading and he stayed strong throughout and really kicked that last 100. He got a gap on these kids on the last 200.”
While comparing Madeus to the rest of the field, Persichetti felt Madeus just appeared stronger and more fit. He opened a lead and then widened it, thanks to a combination of tenacity and physical prowess.
“He’ll bust his butt in workouts, but at the same time he has that heart that’s not gonna let him quit,” the coach said. “Some kids will be in physical shape for a race like that but when put to the test, sometimes they’ll fall back, He’s someone who’s going to troop it out all the way through the finish line and that’s what really sets him apart, because he’s a competitor.”
Madeus grew up as a football player, which was his first love entering Nottingham. But he could also run pretty fast and pretty far. Not fast enough to be a sprinter and not long enough to be a distance man, but the perfect combination to be a 400 man.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say I was fast, I think I was more the kid that just never stopped,” he said. “I always had a sort of endurance. It wasn’t, like, explosive fast. It was more along the lines of, if we started something I would be the one to not stop when everybody else stopped.”
He never gave that ability much thought in ninth grade. Initially reluctant to try track after hearing stories that people did not enjoy it due to all the running, Madeus was finally coerced by Ramsden.
It didn’t take too much convincing.
“After he talked to me, I just wanted to do it,” Madeus said.
Much to his surprise, the kid who could run forever was told he wasn’t doing it quite right when it came to maximizing his speed.
“As a kid you just run for fun,” he said. “It was weird when you go to track practice. You get ridiculed on form and technique and all that. You’re like, ‘I thought I was doing it the right way for 15 years of my life but I guess I have it wrong.’ It was a kind of a big eye opener.”
After running his infamous 84-second time, Madeus was moved to the JV 4×400 relay team and did fairly well. But when two varsity performers got hurt he moved to the varsity relay and ran an eye-popping 52 seconds in his first event.
Unfortunately, he developed shin splints soon after, which manifested into stress fractures. It went downhill from there, he said, and he was forced to sit out for the rest of the season.
It was a jolt for Madeus, who had a long talk with his mom about giving up the sport to focus solely on football. Ramsden once again provided brotherly advice, along with other Nottingham star track athletes like Alexander Borzelin, Zak Spence and Arthur Johnson.
“My brother convinced me it was something I could end up doing,” Madeus said. “He basically told me that I had something special. Those other guys tried to convince me too. They said a freshman running a 52 was a really big deal in our area, so they convinced me not to waste this talent, to keep pushing forward.”
No one is happier about that than the Nottingham track coaches.
When winter track was reinstated in Hamilton last year, Madeus had a breakthrough year. He was fifth in the Mercer County meet in 52.19. He took fourth in CJ III (52.43) and qualified for the MOC by taking fourth in Group III in 51.03. Madeus finished 35th at the Meet of Champs, but had found his calling.
He felt part of the reason for his success was help from his teammates and the fact that, after suffering a concussion at the end of football season, he knew he wanted to focus solely on track.
“I really had to re-consider if I would ever play football again,” Madeus said. “That’s why I took track more seriously to try and find a different outlet to showcase the ability God gave me. Winter definitely gave me a lot of momentum going into spring.”
After that his standout spring, Madeus joined Jennings’ club and became exposed to top-flight talent from around the country last summer. He won the 400 meters and 400 hurdles in the AAU state and regional meets and took third in the 400 hurdles in the nationals.
At the New Balance High School Nationals in North Carolina, he finished second in the Elite 400 hurdles. The Elite division is one step below the highest standard of competition.
“That helped me a lot,” he said. “It was the first summer I devoted my time to track and not doing football. It was a great experience getting to see all these great runners from different areas.”
Boaz said it was tough sitting out football season, especially since the Northstars struggled. But all the extra work he has done in track is paying off.
“His improvement from last winter to this winter has been tremendous,” Persichetti said. “He’s doing the same stuff that (former MOC gold medal winner) Stephanie Hicks and Alex (Borzelin) did. Kids like that are really dedicated to the sport and have been doing this every single month of the year. It makes a huge difference.”
Persichetti also credits the addition of Jon Adams to the winter staff as a big help. Adams, the head football coach, has worked many years with the sprinters in spring track, and he came on board for winter this year.
“Just having Coach Adams’ presence and his knowledge of the strength and conditioning and stuff, that really had an impact on the program,” Persichetti said. “That has been able to really help the kids.”
Persichetti felt that, based on times she had seen around the state, Madeus had a good chance at winning the 400 gold at the indoor Meet of Champs. The runner himself is looking at nothing less than winning MOC gold in the 400 sprint and hurdles in the spring.
His goal has always been to win states. He also wants to break Jermaine Griffith’s school record of 47.2 seconds in the 400. They are marks that didn’t seem likely he could hit four years ago.
“Yeah, I’ve made progress,” he said with a laugh. “Whenever I’m disappointed about my times, I say, ‘Hey, you could be running 84s now, busting your butt.’ I don’t want to go back to that time, man.”
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