From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Missed this one when it happened because it happened at a tiny obscure meet at a small college in North Jersey, but Delsea’s Elisia Lancaster recently bombed a hammer PR of 227-0.

That PR came at the New York Hammer Spring Series 1 at Ramapo College in Mahwah. Why is the New York Hammer Spring Series in New Jersey? I don’t know, but Ramapo College is about two miles from the New York State border. And there is a Ramapo, N.Y., so maybe the meet was actually there.

Anyway, her throw makes her No. 16 among U.S. women this year and gives her a shot at the USATF Championships later this month at Randall’s Island in New York. She has a strong B standard, and only 10 throwers currently have the A standard of 232-11.

Lancaster surpassed her previous PR of 225-1 from a meet in Glassboro in May. Her PR coming into the season was 222-1, which she threw in May of last year at the Princeton Elite Invitational at Weaver Stadium.

Her 227-0 is No. 53 in U.S. history and No. 73 in the world this year.

Lancaster is the No. 2 hammer thrower ever from New Jersey. Alyssa Wilson of Donovan Catholic in Toms River threw 245-4 in June of 2022 in Eugene, Ore.

Turns out South Jersey has a pretty good 400-meter dash runner we didn’t know about.

Meet Michaela Poland of Sicklerville, who ran 54.77 last summer in a meet in Humble, Texas. Poland graduated this spring from Penn Charter after running 55.54 and placing 2^nd in the Inter-Ac Championships in Newtown Square and winning the 200 in 24.90.

Penn Charter, located in the East Falls neighborhood in Philly, apparently doesn’t compete in the Pennsylvania state meet and Poland did not race at West Philly Nationals, so she finished her senior season at the Pennsylvania Independent School Athletic Association Championships in Malvern, where she won the 200 in 25.04 and the 400 in 57.08. She has also high jumped 5-4. She’s also competed in the intermediate hurdles – they inexplicably run the obsolete 300-meter intermediates in Pennsylvania – although she didn’t run the 300IH this year.

Poland plans to run for Penn.

Prince Owusu-Twum, a recent Winslow graduate, won the 400 at the Garden State Last Chance Invitational at Highland Park over the weekend.

Owusu-Twum ran 47.70, winning by more than a second over Myles Small, who ran 48.76. Small, a 2022 graduate of Holy Trinity High School in Hicksville, N.Y., ran for a couple years at Coppin State, where he had a PR of 48.56.

Owusu-Twum PR’d this year at 47.46 when he placed 5^th in the Meet of Champions. That’s 7^th-fastest in Camden County history and No. 18 on the all-time South Jersey list. He won the state Group 3 title in Mansfield in 48.02.

In his first competition in more than two years, Kingsway’s Orion Joyner triple jumped over 48 feet in a meet in Highland Park.

Joyner, an Atlantic 10 champion at Rhode Island, jumped 48-3 in his first meet since May 12, 2024, when he went 48-9 ½ at the IC4A Championships in Fairfax, Va.

No wind reading and no series information at the Last Chance Invitational, but Joyner placed 2^nd to Malachi Aiken, a former NCAA finalist for Maryland-Eastern Shore.

Joyner’s PR is 50-4 ¾ from the 2023 Atlantic 10 Championships in Amhest, Mass. That’s 3^rd-best in school history. Joyner is from Mickelton, East Greenwich Township, Glouester County.

Pemherton’s Joshua Dixon turned in a record-setting performance at West Philly Nationals, throwing the discus 151-5 in the freshman division.

That broke the South Jersey freshman discus record of 146-1 set by Glassboro’s Gabriel Tarasevich at Delsea in May. Before this year, the top freshman discus mark was a 144-10 by Julian Feggins of Haddon Heights at the 2011 Woodbury Relays.

Dixon didn’t break the 100-foot barrier until last month, when he threw 110-2 at the BCSL Championships at Willingboro. He improved to 131-3 at the Burlington County Open, where he placed 2^nd, just three feet behind Willingboro senior Anthony Lin.

He PR’d again at 143-1 when he placed 3^rd at South Jersey Group Sectionals at Delsea and then improved to 143-4 earlier this month in a meet in Somerest.

At Franklin Field last week, Dixon opened with a 136-8 before hitting his 151-5 and then fouling. He finished 9^th, missing the finals and three more throws by five inches.

It looks like Dixon’s 151-5 is the best throw by a Pemberton athlete in 40 years, since Albert Harris threw 153-9 at the 1986 BCSL Championships at Burlington City. Harris went on to win the South Jersey Group 4 meet at Buena with a 152-9.

Dixon’s 151-5 was 6^th-best in South Jersey this year and No. 1 in Burlington County. He also threw 46-7 ¼, 3^rd-best among South Jersey freshmen behind Delsea’s Holden Roskoski [48-6 ½] and Tarasevich [47-2]. Roskoski was New Jersey No. 1 among freshman with his 6th-place finish at West Philly Nationals.

If you score 41 points in your county or conference meet, that’s pretty darn good. You’ll probably finish top three. If you can score 41 points at sectionals, you’re going to be one of the top teams as well. Score 41 at states you’ll probably win or come close.

If you score 41 points at nationals? Then you’re Pennsauken.

There is no team scoring at West Philly Nationals, but if there were Pennsauken would have left Franklin Field with 41 points. Which is insane.

One thing the track world learned last weekend is that Pennsauken is much more than Sianni Wynn. She’s one of the best in New Jersey history, but her supporting cast was fantastic over the weekend.

Wynn did her usual thing, earning four All-America honors by winning the 100, placing 3^rd in the 200 and anchoring the winning 800-meter relay and 2^nd-place 400-meter relay.

But you’re not running 45.65 or 1:35.21 with just one fast girl.

Pennsauken won the 4-by-2 with junior Summer Schaffer, senior Sanaya Dupree and sophomore Hope Edwards setting up Wynn and took 2nd in the 4-by-1 with Schaeffer, Sanaya and Olivia Dupree and  Wynn.

Edwards also took 3^rd in the 400-meter hurdles in 58.72, 8^th-fastest in state history and 3^rd-fastest ever by a New Jersey sophomore. That’s good for six team points.

Finally, Pennsauken proved how deep and talented it is by taking 6^th place in the 1,600-meter relay without Wynn. That’s 6^th place in a national meet with a 53-second 400-meter runner not in the lineup..

Schaffer led off, followed by Edwards, Olivia Dupree and sophomore Rai’ana Rucker, who anchored in 56.74. How many schools can run 3:48.20 with a 53-second leg cheering them on from the stands? That’s a truly remarkable achievement.

Every athlete Pennsauken entered in the meet went home with at least one All-America certificate – four for Wynn, three each for Schaeffer and Edwards, two for Sanaya, two for Olivia and one for Rucker.

And Schaffer, Edwards and Rucker are all back in 2027.

Add it up: 16 points for Wynn, 19 in the relays and six for Edwards? That’s 41 points, and that’s remarkable.

Hammonton’s Anthony Liakhnovich and Delsea’s Jonathan Harris both placed among the top 12 in the shot put over the weekend at the U.S. Under-20 Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.

Liakhnovich, who recently finished his freshman year at Princeton, threw a lifetime-best 61-4 and placed 9^th, and Harris, who red-shirted this past year at South Carolina, was 12^th at 60-10.

Liakhnovich went into the meet with a PR of 60-3 ¾ from the NCAA East Region Prelims last month in Lexington, Ky. Liakhnovich fouled on his first two throws, so the 61-4 came on his only legal throw. He missed advancing to the finals by 6 ½ inches.

Harris is listed with a PR of 54-9 in the World Athletics data base, but that wouldn’t be good enough to get him into Under-20 Nationals. The Under-20 performance list has him with a 57-0 ½ throw this year, but nobody seems to know where that happened. But in case, he actually PR’d three times in Eugene. He opened with a 58-2 ½, followed by a 59-5 and then his first 60-footer at 60-10.

Liakhnovich and Harris now rank 7^th and 8^th on the all-time South Jersey alumni list, and Harris is the 8^th 60-footer South Jersey has produced.

All-Time South Jersey Shot Put Alumni List
73-1 ½ … Josh Olayinka Awotunde [Delsea], July 17, Eugene, Ore.
66-3 ½ … Braheme Days [Bridgeton], April 23, 2016, La Jolla, Calif.
66-2 ¾ … Jon Kalnas [Paulsboro], May 2, 2008, Princeton
65-0 ¾ … Lucciano Pizarro [Cherokee], May 15, 2023, Bloomington, Ind.
61-8 ¼ … Steve Muse [Kennedy], March 28, 1987, Fresno, Calif.
60-11… Ray Wilks [Bridgeton], May 15, 1999, Chapel Hill, N.C.
61-4 … Anthony Liakhnovich [Hammonton], June 19, 2026, Eugene, Ore.
60-10 … Jonathan Harris [Delsea], June 19, 2026, Eugene, Ore.
58-8 ¾ … Jason Nwosu [Delsea],April 5, 2025, Gainesville, Fla.
56-3 … Art Dreher [Edgewood], March 6, 1999, Boston

It was a widely successful few days for South Jersey athletes at the season-ending West Philly Nationals at Franklin Field.

Ten individuals and 10 relay teams earned All-America honors by virtue of a top-six finish in their event.

Numerous others excelled and moved up on all-time South Jersey lists but didn’t finish in the top 10.

Here’s a look at all the top-10 finishes. If we’re missing someone, I apologize. Let me know in the comment section and I’ll add them.

How long till XC season???

BOYS
400-Meter Hurdles
Kareem Brown [Deptford], 5^th [52.37]
Long Jump
*Andrew Kratee [Winslow Twp.], 6^th [23-10 ¾]
400-Meter Relay
Winslow Twp. [Jaylon Moss, Ka’Ron Ceasar, Keyon Ali, Quayd Hendryx], 10^th [41.68]
800-Meter Relay
Deptford [Johan Hernandez, Xavion Holmes, Liam Brown, Kareem Brown], 4^th [1:26.60]
Camden [Jawan Brownlee, Christian Braxton, Wasi Muhammad, Jaiden Steele], 5^th [1:26.61]
Sprint Medley
Eastern [Keshawn Townsend, Ashton Gage, Paul Moore, Brandon Lamon], 8^th [3:29.31]
Shuttle Hurdles
Deptford [Kareem Brown, Xavion Holmes, Kamaldeep Singh, Larry Norman], 1^st [58.42]
Egg Harbor Twp. [Taj Jackson, Xavier Aucule, Sebastian Antonius, Ari Bell], 2^nd [58.91]

GIRLS
100-Meter Dash
Sianni Wynn [Pennsauken], 1^st [11.27]
200-Meter Dash
Sianni Wynn [Pennsauken], 3^rd [23.12]
100-Meter Hurdles
**Jasmine Jackson [Winslow Twp.], 1^st [13.04]
*Brianna Growalt [Atlantic Tech], 7^th [13.78]
400-Meter Hurdles
**Hope Edwards [Pennsauken], 3^rd place [58.72]
*Brianna Growalt [Atlantic Tech], 5^th place [59.97]
400-Meter Relay
Pennsauken [*Summer Schaffer, Sanaya Dupree, Olivia Dupree, Sianni Wynn], 2^nd [45.65]
Winslow Twp. [Jordyn Cato, *Skhye Seamon, Leeya Joseph, Amaya Jones], 6^th [46.35]
800-Meter Relay
Pennsauken [*Summer Schaffer, Sanaya Dupree, **Hope Edwards, Sianni Wynn], 1^st [1:35.21]
1,.600-Meter Relay
Winslow Twp. A [**Amariah Arango, *Cinniya Robinson, Olivia Okaro, **Jasmine Jackson], 4^th [3:43.70]
Pennsauken [*Summer Schaeffer, **Hope Edwards, Olivia Dupree, **Rai’ana Rucker], 6^th [3:48.20]
Winslow Twp. B [Jordyn Cato, Nylah Lovelace-Crump, Amaya Jones, Skhye Seamon], 10^th [3:51.44]
Four-Mile Relay
Haddonfield [Molly Mills, Harper Benjamin, Madison Kelsey, Dylan Hosty], 8^th place [20:35.31]
Distance Medley
Haddonfield [***Dylan Hosty, Saya Sood, Molly Mills, Madison Kelsey], 10^th [12:00.87]
Shuttle Hurdles
Winslow Twp. [Ma’syiah Brawner, Cinniya Robinson, Jordyn Cato, Justice Green], 4^th [1:01.65]
High Jump
Egypt Bolan [Lindenwold], 1^st [5-10 ½]
Triple Jump
Ma’syiah Brawner [Winslow Twp.], 4^th [41-1 ¾]
Timia Waters [Williamstown], 6^th [40-3 ¼]

“Singin’ to an Empty Chair,” Ratboys
“Lost on You,” Tigers Jaw
“I Used to go to this Bar,” Joyce Manor
“For the First Time Again,” Tyler Ballgame
“Autotelic,” LAPêCHE
“Something worth Waiting for,” Friko
“Long Time Caller, First Time Listener,” Vegas Water Taxi
“Clearly Cursed,” Pony
“The Escape Artist,” Bird Streets
“Crawlspace of the Pantheon,” Guided by Voices
“Corporate Pudding,” Dogpark
“Brink,” Girl Scout
“Porto,” 54-40
“Nothing’s about to Happen to Me,” Mitski
“Holy Island,” Sister Ray Davies
“I Built you a Tower,” Death Cab for Cutie
“Mavis Sings Mavis,” Flight of Mavis
“Everyone for 10 Minutes,” Bleachers
“Managee This,” Kiwi Jr.
“Train on the Island,” Aldous Harding
“Hoopla,” Weird Nightmare
“Horrorful Heights,” Bevis Frond
“Concerns Of Wasp And Willow,” The Corner Laughers
“Parallel Stride,” Doug Gillard
“Julia,” Julia Cumming
“Sunny, I Was Wrong,” Joe Pernice

The Winslow and Pennsauken girls closed out the high school track season by earning All-America honors in the 1,600-meter relay in the final event of the four-day West Philly Nationals at Franklin Field.

Winslow ran 3:43.70 and placed 4^th and Pennsauken ran 3:48.20 without Sianni Wynn and placed 6^th. They are No. 1 and 2 in South Jersey history with their 3:40.64 and 3:41.89 at the Penn Relays.

For Winslow, sophomore Amariah Arango, junior Cinniya Robinson, senior Olivia Okaro and sophomore Jasmine Jackson ran, with Okaro splitting 55.72 and Jackson 57.52 shortly after running the 7^th-fastest 100-meter hurdles in U.S. scholastic history.

Pennsauken ran junior Summer Schaffer, sophomore Hope Edwards, senior Olivia Dupree and sophomore Rai’ana Rucker. Schaffer and Edwards got the stick around in 1:54.12, Dupree split 57.34 and Rucker anchored in 56.74.

Pennsauken won the 800-meter relay, placed 2^nd in the 400-meter relay and took 6^th in the 1,600-meter relay. Winslow was 4^th in the shuttle hurdles (without Jackson), 6^th in the 4-by-100 and 4^th in the 4-by-4.

A Winslow B team took 10^th overall in 3:51.44, with junior Jordyn Cato, sophomore Nylah Lovelace-Crump, junior Amaya Jones and junior Skhye Seamon, who anchored in 56.91.

Moorestown also broke four minutes, with freshman Armani Robinson, sophomore Payton Derer, senior Noora Rashid and junior Sophia DiFiore running 3:59.44.

Sianni Wynn concluded her spectacular high school track career with a 3rd-place finish in the 200-meter dash Sunday at West Philly Nationals at Franklin Field.

Wynn, who won the 100 and anchored the winning 800-meter relay on Friday, ran 23.12, finishing 18-100ths of a second behind winner Malise Brown from Cass Tech in Detroit.

Wynn, one of the greatest track athletes in New Jersey history, also won the 100 last year and doubled the 60 and 200 at Boston Nationals this past indoor season.

She also anchored Pennsauken’s 400-meter relay team, which placed second earlier Sunday. She’s now an 11-time All-America with five 2nd-place finishes and a 3rd to go with her five 1sts.

Wynn’s 23.03 with a legal wind at the Camden County Championships last month at Haddon Township is 3rd-fastest in state history and just 7-100ths of a second off the state record of 22.96 set at the 2017 Parochial A meet at Egg Harbor by Sydney McLaughlin.

Wynn raced nine times at Franklin Field since Friday – trials, semis and finals in the 100, semis and finals in the 200, 4-by-1 and 4-by-2. She finished 3rd or better in every race and earned four more All-America honors.