BY ED MURPHY
Staff reporter
06/28/2001

DOVER -- Jason Lilly exceeded his own expectations on the track this year.

The Dover High sprinter recovered from a hamstring injury that abruptly ended his performance in the 2000 state track meet and displayed his explosive running ability this year as a junior.

Healthy all year, Lilly started out by earning indoor track athlete of the year honors for the second consecutive season.

That set up an outdoor season in which he won gold medals in the 200- and 400-meter events and ran the final leg on the winning 800-meter relay team at the Delaware High School Division I Track and Field Championships.

"This year, I almost surprised myself," Lilly said. "It seemed so easy to bounce back after not running for so long. I was confident I could win all my events.

"I had to train hard. Basically, I was running against time and myself."

Lilly, who also helped the Senators to a third-place finish in the 1,600 relay at the state meet, is The News Journal's High School Track and Field Boys Athlete of the Year.

"I'm honored," he said. "It's a nice accomplishment for a junior."

Lilly has earned All-State honors in track and football and hopes to attend Penn State University. He was one of 27 Dover players who recently attended a four-day football camp at Penn State.

"Hopefully, they'll offer me a scholarship in the next couple of weeks," Lilly said. "There's a lot of interest on both parts."

Lilly has drawn the interest of numerous major colleges, including Wisconsin, Temple, Maryland, Boston College, Duke and Pittsburgh.

"I want to play football and run track as long as I can," he said. "I haven't made the decision which road to take yet. I believe I'm equally good in both sports."

His father, Roger Lilly, was a coach for the Philadelphia Pioneers Track Club, and exposed his son to track at an early age.

Lilly started running the 200 and 400 events as a ninth-grader at Dover and quickly showed potential.

Caesar Rodney's Josh Abrams was the state's top sprinter at the time and won Henlopen Conference titles in the 100, 200 and 400. Lilly was second in the 200 and 400.

Lilly began his rise in the 2000 indoor season. He won gold medals in the 200 and 400 and anchored the winning 800 and 1,600 relay teams to earn indoor athlete of the year honors.

At the 2000 Henlopen Conference meet in the spring, Lilly won the 200 and broke a 16-year-old conference record in the 400. He also ran on the winning 800 and 1,600 relay teams.

That performance set him up for the state meet, where he was expecting to contend for gold medals in all four events. But he pulled up lame anchoring the 800 relay and couldn't continue.

"It was a big disappointment," he said. "It kept me from going to the nationals."

Lilly returned for the 2001 indoor season and never missed a stride. He won the 200 and 400 and added a gold medal in the 800 relay. The Senators had the top time in the state in the 1,600 relay but were disqualified at the state meet. Lilly was named indoor athlete of the year again.

"I like running indoors and outdoors," he said. "Outdoors, you have space to run."

Lilly was determined to finish off his year by winning his first outdoor state gold medals.

He turned it on at the Henlopen meet with first-place finishes in the 200 and 400 and anchored the winning 800 and 1,600 relay teams.

"It was a real good year," he said. "The 400 is my main race. It takes a lot of endurance and strength to get through it."

On June 15-16, the Senators competed in the High School Nationals at Raleigh, N.C. Lilly wanted to run the 400 meters, but the event was rained out.

Lilly combined with James Moore, Donnell Eaddy and Odun Balogun to record seventh-place finishes in the 400 and 800 relay events.

"That's not bad for national races," Lilly said. "Next year, my goal is to shoot as high as I can."