From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Fourteen South Jersey athletes made the cut for individual events at the Penn Relays. Acceptances were announced Tuesday.

Remember, qualifying marks must come from the indoor season (or early outdoors) other than the javelin and discus (and formerly the 400 hurdles), which aren’t contested indoors so outdoor marks from last spring can be used.

Here’s a look at the individuals headed to Franklin Field for the 130^th running of the Penn Relays April 23-25. Invites for the 4×8 and DMR will be out next week. Click here for the full schedule.

BOYS
Ben Andrus, Haddonfield, mile [5:20 p.m., Friday, April 24]: Andrus has a mile PR of 4:13.60 from last June in Lincroft, but his qualifier was a 4:14.39 at Ocean Breeze on Feb. 1, 9^th-fastest in South Jersey history. He hasn’t raced yet outdoors.
Supreme Stradford, Cherry Hill West, high jump [9:30 a.m., Friday, April 4]: Stradford was 3^rd in New Jersey indoors with a 6-8 clearance to win the state Group 3 meet at the Bubble.
Mason Henry, Deptford, pole vault [9:30 a.m., Friday, April 4]: Henry was the state leader indoors with a 15-6 to win Easterns at the Armory and then he cleared 15-0 to win the Meet of Champions at Ocean Breeze.
Mason Murray, Delsea, pole vault [9:30 a.m., Friday, April 4]: The other Mason pole vaulter from a Gloucester County school starting with “De” is Mason Murray, who had several 14-6 clearances indoors.

GIRLS
Dylan Hosty, Haddonfield, mile [6 p.m., Friday, April 24]: Hosty set a South Jersey freshman mile record of 4:53.67 at the Ott Center, 7^th-fastest in the state indoors and 4^th-fastest on the all-time South Jersey list.
Egypt Bolan, Lindenwold, high jump [10 a.m., Thursday, April 23]:: Bolan returns to Franklin Field, where she won the national title in June with a 5-10 ¾ clearance. She qualified for Penn with a 5-10 in January at Ocean Breeze.
Phallen Still, Collingswood, high jump [10 a.m., Thursday, April 23]: Still cleared 5-6 when she placed 3^rd at the Meet of Champions indoors at Ocean Breeze.
Leeya Joseph, Winslow, long jump [10 a.m., Thursday, April 23]: The versatile Joseph [7.45, 12.29, 58.97, 19-1 ½, 35-1 ¾] goes to Penn in the long jump, which she won at the Meet of Champions indoors at Ocean Breeze with a meet-record 19-foot leap.
Angelina Brown, Rancocas Valley, long jump [10 a.m., Thursday, April 23]: Brown will join Joseph in the long jump after soaring 18-10 to win Easterns at the Armory last month. Brown has already gone 18-5 in her outdoor opener.
Ma’Syiah Brawner, Winslow, triple jump [Noon, Thursday, April 23]: This is Brawner’s 3^rd trip to the Penn Relays. She placed 14^th as a sophomore with a 37-7 ¾ and 6^th last year with a 39-11 ½. Her qualifier this indoor season was a 39-1 ¾ at Millrose at the Armory in February. She surpassed 40 feet twice last spring.
Timia Waters, Williamstown, triple jump [Noon, Thursday, April 23]: Waters, a junior, makes it three South Jersey girls in the triple jump. She jumped 38-8 ¾ indoors at the Armory and went on to place 5^th in the Meet of Champions.
Mitra Sampson, Hammonton, shot put: [9:30 a.m., Thursday, April 23] Sampson’s shot qualifier came at the state relays, where she threw 40-11 ¼. She PR’d with a 42-9 ¾ last spring at the state Group 3 Championships in South Plainfield.
Hannah Nuhfer, Delsea, discus [9 a.m., Thursday, April 23]: Like Bolan, Nuhfer returns to the site of her national title. Nuhfer won the discus at West Philly Nationals in June at Franklin Field with a South Jersey-record 178-9. She’s already got a 170-8 in the books this spring. Nuhfer could have entered the shot based on her South Jersey-record 48-0 indoors. Athletes are only allowed to enter one individual event.
Sunsarai Moore, Glassboro, discus [9 a.m., Thursday, April 23]: Moore got her qualifier when she threw 155-2 at Delsea last May. She could have gotten in also in the shot, where she has a 42-1 ½ from Armory Nationals last month in New York.

Deptford senior Damon Morton, junior Xavion Holmes, senior Larry Norman and senior Kareem Brown ran the fastest shuttle hurdles in New Jersey so far this year Saturday at the Spartan Relays on their home track.

Deptford won the race in 1:00.91, 5th-fastest in Gloucestre County history, with five of the six-fastest times on record credited to Deptford hurdlers in 2012, 2016, 2018, 2023 and 2026.

Deptford set the Gloucester County record of 59.91 last year at the Woodbury Relays with Ryan Sanchez, Norman, Marcus Hood and Kamaldeep Singh.

59.91 … Deptford, 2025
1:00.48 … Washington Twp., 2012
1:00.94 … Deptford, 2016
1:01.50 … Deptford, 2023
1:00.91 … Deptford, 2026
1:01.18 … Deptford, 2018
1:01.67 … Washington Twp., 2011
1:01.80 … Washington Twp., 2023
1:01.98 … West Deptford, 2014
1:02.08 … Delsea, 2009

Millville’s Leah Howard, now a junior at Texas A&M, is back at it, with a 153-7 in the Texas Relays javelin Saturday in Austin.

Howard had a very good series, opening with a 147-8, then 145-0 and after a foul, 147-7, then the 153-7 and a 150-0.

She is No. 3 in the Big 12 so far this season, behind BYU junior Alyssa Keller [165-3 in Los Angeles last weekend] and TCU senior Sydney Juszczyk [157-1 in Fort Worth two weeks ago].

Howard is No. 8 in South Jersey history with her PR of 164-4 from May 2024 in Waco, Texas.

Howard will be returning home later this month to compete in the Penn Relays for the first time since 2023, when she placed 3^rd in the high school javelin as a Millville senior with a throw of 148-7. The Penn Relays javelin is held on the grass fields adjacent to the Ott Center, across the Northeast Corridor train tracks from Franklin Field.

Rancocas Valley senior Angelina Brown long jumped 18-5 Saturday at the Don Danser Invitational.

What makes that truly impressive is that it was the first time she had ever long jumped at an outdoor track meet.

Brown focused on the 100 and 200 as a freshman, she mainly high jumped as a sophomore and she sprinted and high jumped as a junior.

But she started long jumping this indoor season and had a 17-3 breakthrough at Ocean Breeze in January and then a school-record 18-10 to win Easterns at the Armory last month. She also ran 7.18 and 25.33 indoors and cleared 5-6 in the high jump.

But Saturday she finally got a chance to long jump outdoors and she recorded the best jump in New Jersey this year. That 18-5 is only 5 ¼ inches shy of the R.V. outdoor record of 18-10 ¼ set at the 1994 Meet of Champions at South Plainfield by Demya Walker, who went on to play pro basketball for 13 years.

Junior Samuel Agbessi from Sterling and sophomore Angel Gonzalez from Triton had big 400-meter hurdles races for Rowan at different meets on Saturday.

Agbessi ran 52.93 at the Embry Riddle Invitational in Daytona Beach, Fla., just off his lifetime-best 52.82 from a meet in Chester, Pa., last May. His high school PR at Sterling was a 55.06 when he placed 2^nd at the state 2023 Group 2 meet at Delsea.

Agbessi’s time makes him No. 8 in NCAA Division 3 so far this year. This was his first 400 hurldes race since he ran that 52.82.

At the Ursinus Springfest in Collegeville, Pa., Gonzalez dropped a PR 54.02, lowering his collegiate PR nearly 1 ½ seconds from a 55.47 from a meet last year in Collegeville. He’s now No. 17 in NCAA Division 3. Gonzalez did run a 55.31 at Triton in a meet at Delsea in May 2024.

Another Rowan sophomore, Jordan Lawton of Passaic County Tech, ran 54.90 at Ursinus. His PR is 54.08 from a meet last April in Atlanta, and freshman Ashraf Maklache from Cherry Hill East ran 55.23 at Ursinus in his first college race.

Agbessi, Gonzalez and Lawton are ranked 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th in the NJAC and Maklache is 6^th and the No. 1 freshman. TCNJ’s Nate Adams from Middlesex High ran 52.55 in Atlanta two weeks ago.

Alabama freshman Alexander Osayemi from Clayton ran a 45.47 anchor leg for Alabama on the 3rd-fastest 4-by-4 in college track this year.

Alabama placed 3rd at the Battle on the Bayou in Baton Rouge Saturday in 3:01.64 behind LSU’s 3:01.43 and Texas A&M’s 3:01.62. Those are the three-fastest times in college track this year, and they came out of the same race.

Mouatez Sikiou from Algeria, Tarsis Orogot from Uganda and David Thid from Sweden ran the first three legs for Alabama, setting up Osayemi’s anchor leg.

Because only Osayemi is American, the performance is not eligible for 2026 or all-time U.S. performance lists. It is No. 8 in the world this year on the World Athletics performance list. LSU and Texas A&M are 4th and 7th in the world.

The 3:01.64 is No. 8 in Alabama history. Unfortunately, Alabama is not scheduled to race at the Penn Relays.

On Friday, Osayemi ran a lifetime-best 51.09 in the 400-meter hurdles, fastest by a Crimson Tide freshman in at least 17 years. You can read about that performance here.

 

Elexis Swen, who had a high school 400 PR of 61.77 at Highland, is now No. 1 on the JUCO Division 3 performance list.

Swen, a sophomore at Camden County College in Gloucester Township, ran a big PR 59.07 at the Osprey Invitational in Galloway Township Saturday. She placed 2nd overall but 1st among current college athletes. Former Temple runner Chidumga Nkulume from Union won the race in 58.61.

Swen’s previous PR was a 59.67 a week earlier at Widener and that was her first time under a minute. Her fastest time as a freshman was 1:00.67 in Newark, Del., last April. She went on to earn NJCAA All-America honors at the Division 3 Nationals in Utica, N.Y.

Daniel Givens of Ocean City, a Lehigh senior, hit a big triple jump PR of 47-4 ¼ Saturday in Princeton.

Givens placed 3rd at the Sam Howell Invitational at Weaver Stadium, eclipsing his previous PR of 46-0 ½ from a dual meet last April in Easton. Givens’ 47-4 ¼ was aided by a 2.2 meters-per-second wind, so not eligible for records or all-time lists. He also had a 46-0 ¾ that was wind-aided and a 45-10 ¾ that was legal.

The TFRRS performance lists include all marks, and Givens is ranked 3rd in the Patriot League and only 1 ½ inches behind conference co-leaders Brayden Irhuegbae of Boston University and Caleb Simbiri of Bucknell, who both jumped 47-5 ¾ last weekend, Irhugegbae in San Marcos, Texas, Simbiri in Raleigh, N.C.

Givens had a high school PR of 43-9 from 2022 South Jersey Group 3 sectionals at Delsea.

Givens has a long jump PR of 22-2 ¼ from a meet at the Armory in February 2023. He jumped a wind-aided 22-0 ¾ at Shippensburg last month.

Big day in the shot at Weaver Stadium Saturday for Princeton freshman Anthony Liakhnovich of Hammonton and Rider sophomore Damere Lassiter from Glassboro.

Liakhnovich placed 2nd in the shot at the Sam Howell Invitational with an outdoor PR 57-0, not far off his lifetime-best 58-5 ¼ from the Ott Center in February. His previous outdoor best throw was a 54-4 ½ last weekend, also at Princeton.

And Lassiter threw 52-6 ¾, the top mark in the Metro Atlantic Conference so far this outdoor season. Lassiter was also not far off his PR of 52-10 last April at the Penn Relays.

In the discus, Liakhnovich placed 5th with a 161-0, U. Mass Lowell grad student Ian Camerato of Lenape was 6th at 158-11, inches off his PR of 159-3 from a home meet in Lowell last April – that’s 3rd-best in school history – and Lassiter PR’d at 141-11.

Lassiter is No. 5 in Rider history with his 52-10 outdoors, and he’s No. 6 indoors at 52-9 ¼.