From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

One long jumper, two 400 runners and three throwers are set to represent South Jersey this weekend at the USATF Championships at Ocean Breeze.

The heat sheets are finally out and Winslow’s Tionna Tobias will long jump, Arianna Smith of Pennsville and Aliya Garozzo of Paul VI will run the 400, Cherokee’s Jessica Woodard and Delsea’s Josh Awotunde will throw the shot and Delsea’s Elisia Lancaster is entered in the weight throw.

Most South Jersey qualifiers will be in action instead this weekend in their college conference meets.

Let’s take a look at what to expect this weekend:

TIONNA TOBIAS: Tobias will compete in the long jump starting at 3:05 p.m. Saturday. Tobias, a former Big Ten Conference heptathlon champion, has a long jump PR of 22-9 ¼ and a season best of 20-11 ½, which ranks her 19^th among U.S. Women.

ARIANNA SMITH: Smith, a 56.11 intermediate hurdler, ran a lifetime-best 53.93 last weekend at Ocean Breeze. She’ll be in the second of four heats of the 400 qualifying at 3:48 p.m. Saturday.

ALIYA GAROZZO: Garozzo, like Smith an intermediate hurdler outdoors, ran a PR 52.43 at Clemson earlier this month. She has a 400IH PR of 55.77. Garozzo is racing in the third heat of the 400 trials at 3:48 p.m. Saturday.

JESSICA WOODARD: Woodard has a shot put PR of 63-7 ¾ and a season best of 59-5 ¼ going into nationals. She throws at 3:15 p.m. Saturday in a field of nine women.

JOSH AWOTUNDE: Awotunde has a season best of 68-4 ¾ from France earlier this month and a lifetime-best 73-8 ½ from his 3^rd place at 2022 Worlds at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. The men’s shot put starts at 1:25 p.m. Sunday.

ELISIA LANCASTER: Lancaster is one of only four women entered in the weight throw, which is scheduled for 11:05 a.m. Sunday. World Athletics doesn’t recognize the weight throw, so there are no U.S. or world rankings available, but I think her season best is 71-11 ¾ from last month at the Ott Center and as far as I can tell with no help from World Athletics (and of course no help ever from USATF) her lifetime-best is 78-2 ¼ from a meet in Bloomington, Ind., in 2024.

A 200 PR for Washington Township’s Ajani Dwyer Thursday in the prelims at the Big Ten Championships.

Dwyer qualified with a 20.51 at Fall Creek Pavilion in Indianapolis, lowering his indoor PR from 20.52, which he ran at the Ott Center last month. Dwyer matched his lifetime-best 20.51 from last year’s outdoor Big Ten Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.

Dwyer qualified 2nd, behind only USC’s Garrett Kaalund, the NCAA outdoor runner-up at 200 meters last year and world leader this winter at 20.12. Kaalund is No. 12 in college history with a 19.85 in College Station last spring. He ran 20.30 Thursday.

Dwyer is now No. 7 in the world at 200 meters. He goes into Friday’s 60 trials No. 8 in the world at 6.52.

That 20.51 is No. 62 all-time among U.S. men and 2nd-fastest indoors by a New Jersey sprinter. In Penn State indoor track history, he trails only Olympian Cheickna Traore from Snyder High in Jersey City, who ran 20.30 when he placed 2nd at 2024 NCAA Championships in Boston. Traore, who now represents the Ivory Coast, is also the only New Jersey sprinter who’s run faster than Dwyer.

Dwyer has the 60 trials at 5 p.m. Friday. The 60 final is at 2:50 p.m. Saturday, with the 200 final at 4:10 p.m. Saturday. Dwyer shares the No. 1 seed in the 60 with Iowa’s Darwin Jimenez, who ran 6.52 in Albuquerque earlier this month.

Rider sophomore Damere Lassiter from Glassboro won his first conference title Saturday at the Armory and PR’d in his second event.

Lassiter won the shot put at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships with a throw of 52-9 ¼, an indoor PR and just three-quarters of an inch off his overall PR of 52-10 from last year’s Penn Relays.

Lassiter’s previous indoor best was a 52-6 last month also at Penn, this one across the railroad tracks from Franklin Field at the Ott Center.

Lassiter had the three-best throws of the competition, with a 52-0 and a 52-1 ½ in addition to his 52-9 ¼.

The 52-9 ¼ moves Lassiter into the No. 6 spot on the all-time Rider indoor shot put list.

Lassiter also placed 3rd in the weight throw with a mark of 55-5 ¾, well above his previous PR of 54-0 ½, which he threw at Ocean Breeze last February. That 55-5 ¾ is No. 10 in Rider history.

Also for Rider, sophomore Raymond Senatore from West Deptford cleared 14-6 ¼ for 4th in the pole vault. He PR’d at 14-11 last month at Ocean Breeze.

Palmyra graduate Abdulazeez Iyiola, a sophomore at Mount St. Mary’s, won his second conference title Sunday at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships at the Armory.

Iyiola went into the meet with a PR of 8.38 in the 60-meter hurdles but dropped it to 8.28 in the trials before running 8.24 to win the final.

Iyiola and Ian Crowley of Sacred Heart were both timed in 8.24 in the final, with Iyiola wininng by 7-1,000ths of a second after times were broken down by 1,000ths, Iyiola with 8.232 to 8.239 for Crowley.

Iyiola won his 1st conference title at the MAAC Outdoor Championships in May in Lawrenceville with a 54.12 in the intermediate hurdles. He was 2nd in the 110 highs with a PR 14.49. His 400IH of 53.39 came in April at High Point, N.C. He’s 6th all-time at the Mount in the 110 highs and 5th in the intermediates.

Iyiola’s time is No. 8 on the all-time Mount performance list. https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sidearm.nextgen.sites/mountathletics.com/documents/2025/7/2/Mens_Indoor_Top_10_Updated_2025.pdf

Josh Awotunde popped the No. 9 shot put in the world this year in his final tune-up prior to the U.S. Championships this coming weekend.

Awotunde, a 2013 Delsea graduate, threw a season-best 68-4 ¾ Friday at Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais at Arena Stade Couvert in Liévin, France. That’s No. 5 among U.S. men so far this year.

Awotunde placed 3rd at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene and was 7th last year in Tokyo. Last August he won his first U.S. title with a final-throw PR of 73-8 ¾, also in Eugene.

He’s No. 17 in world history and No. 10 in U.S. history.

The 68-4 ¾ was his best throw since he threw 69-4 ¼ at Worlds in Toko in September.

The shot put final is scheduled for 1:25 p.m. on Sunday, the second day of the two-day meet at Ocean Breeze.

Awotunde has reached the final in the last 11 U.S. Championships he’s entered, with six podium finishes, including three indoors.

Josh Awotunde at U.S. Nationals
2017 Outdoors: 14th, 62-4 ¾ [Sacramento]
2018 Outdoors: 7th, 66-1 [Des Moines]
2019 Indoors: 3rd, 67-8 [New York]
2019 Outdoors: 5th, 68-9 ½ [Des Moines]
2020 Indoors: 5th, 66-1 ¼ [Albuquerque]
2021 Outdoors [OT]: 5th, 71-7 ¾ [Eugene]
2022 Indoors: 2nd, 71-3 ¾ [Spokane]
2022 Outdoors: 3rd, 70-6 ¾ [Eugene]
2023 Outdoors: 2nd, 72-6 [Eugene]
2024 Outdoors [OT]: 5th, 71-5[Eugene]
2025 Indoors: 3rd, 69-0 ¾ [New York]
2025 Outdoors: 1st, 73-8 ½ [Eugene]

Eastern senior Natalie Dumas set a South Jersey record at 300 meters Saturday and also ran the fastest 400 in New Jersey this year at the Ocean Breeze Invitational in Staten Island, N.Y.

Dumas, a triple national champion last spring, ran 38.11 for 300 meters, which is 5^th-fastest in state history and broke the South Jersey record of 38.19 that she ran at the Millrose Games at the Armory last February.

Her time is 5^th-fastest in state history and 12^th-fastest nationally according to the MileSplit national database. It’s No. 18 on the world Under-20 list, according to the World Athletics database.

Racing against pros and post-collegiates, Dumas ran 53.68 in the 400, just a fraction off her indoor and South Jersey-record PR 53.55 – 4^th-fastest in state history – from last year’s Meet of Champions at Ocean Breeze. She finished just ahead of Pennsville’s Arianna Smith, who ran a lifetime-best 53.93. Smith ran collegiately for Rutgers, Howard and Princeton. Dumas and Smith are the 2^nd– and 3^rd-fastest intermediate hurdlers from South Jersey at 55.99 and 56.11.

Dumas’s 400 is fastest in New Jersey this year, 7^th-fastest nationally and No. 13 on the world Under-20 list, according to World Athletics.

Gabriel Moronta, a Pleasantville graduate competing for the Dominican Republic, won the 600 at Ocean Breeze Elite Sunday with the 7th-fastest time in the world this year and a Dominican Republic national record.

Moronta, who ran collegiately at Mississippi State and more recently Central Florida, ran three laps in 1:15.66, finishing ahead of a field of pros and post-collegiates. He was competing under the AllStarz Mgmt banner.

Moronta’s time is 40th-fastest in world history.

Alex Amankwah, an All-America at Alabama and 2016 Olympian for Ghana at 800 meters, was 2nd in 1:16.14.

He broke the Dominican national record of 1:16.01 set on Feb. 21, 2015, by 2012 Olympic 400-meter dash silver medalist in Montreal.

Moronta fell 44-100ths of a second off the Central America record of 1:15.12 set by Jonathan Jones of Barbados and the University of Texas in Albuquerque in 2022.

Moronta changed his nationality from U.S. to Dominican Republic after anchoring Central Florida’s 4-by-400 team to the NCAA championship in June.

This was Moronta’s first 600 in four years. His previous PR was a 1:18.40 at the UAB Invitational in Birmingham in 2022.

The previous fastest 600 by a New Jersey runner was 1:16.22 by Penns Grove’s Jaymes Dennison from Iowa State in Albuquerque in March 2015.

This was Moronta’s first race since a 400 at the NACAC Championships in Freeport, the Bahamas, in August.

Moronta ran his 400 PR of 45.01 in Jacksonville this past May. The only South Jersey runner to go faster is Olympic gold medalist Lamont Smith of Willingboro, who ran 44.30 at the 1996 U.S. Olympic Trials in Atlanta.

Here’s a look at the fastest 600 runners New Jersey has produced:
1:15.66 … Gabriel Moronta [Pleasantville], Staten Island, N.Y., Feb. 21, 2026
1:16.22 … Jaymes Dennison [Penns Grove], Albuquerque, March 7, 2015
1:16.59 … Jaden Marchand [Leonia], State College, Pa., Jan. 17, 2026
1:16.98 … Blaik Slavinski [Point Pleasant Borough], Clemson, S.C., Jan. 11, 2025
1:17.83 … Ryan Matulonis [Seton Hall Prep], Philadelphia, Dec. 7, 2024
1:18.24 … Bryce Tucker [Pennsauken], Chicago, Feb. 14, 2025
1:18.49 … Dallas Hohney [Glassboro], Staten Island, N.Y., Dec. 7, 2024
1:18.53 … Fred Sharpe [Paulsboro], Boston, Jan. 31, 2004
1:18.74 … Allen Eke [Union Catholic], Albuquerque, Jan. 19, 2018
1:18.78 … Greg Gomez [Franklin Twp.], State College, Pa., Jan. 19, 2008
1:18.80 … Dylan Capwell [Hopatcong], New York, Dec. 8, 2017
1:18.90 … Clayton Parros [], New York, Feb. 7, 2009
1:18.91 … Aaron Younger [Delsea], New York, Jan. 14, 2011
1:18.97 … Derrell Manhertz [Kingsway], Lincoln, Neb., Feb. 6, 2016

Stockton senior Eva Morrison from Mainland Regional PR’d and won the pole vault Saturday at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships at the Ott Center.

Morrison extended her PR from 11-5 ¾, which she had cleared three times, to 11-9 ¾ and led a 1-2-3 Stockton sweep.

She won last year at 11-1 ¾ and is the first to repeat since Millville’s Kaitlyn Dermen of Stockton in 2018 and 2019.

Morrison entered at 10-6 and needed three attempts to get over the bar and just get a legal mark in the competition. But she settled down after that, clearning 10-10 on her 1st attempt, then passing 11-1 ¾ and getting over the bar at 11-5 ¾ and 11-9 ¾ on her 2nd attempt. She finished by taking three tries at 12-1 ½.

Her 11-9 ¾ is the best winning vault at the NJAC meet since Kristina Langan of Ramapo from Wayne Hills cleared 12-4 ½ at Ocean Breeze in 2019.

Stockton freshman Megan Morris from Pennsville and Sydney Rick from Hopewell Valley both matched their PR of 10-6, Morris on her 1st attempt and Rick on her 2nd attempt for 2nd and 3rd place an an Osprey sweep.

Stockton has now won the NJAC women’s vault eight of the last 10 times it was contested, with Chelsea Vaughan of Southern Regional in 2016 and 2017, Dermen in 2018 and 2019, Jeanmarie Harvey from River Dell in 2020, Madison Fey of Freedom High in Easton in 2023 and Morrison in 2025 and 2026. There was no meet in 2021.

Rowan freshman Denirah Jones from Woodbury soared to a long jump win in her first college conference meet.

Jones jumped 17-10 ¾ on her 2nd attempt at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships at the Ott Center, and that stood up as the winner, 3 ¼ inches ahead of Tonna Ogina of New Jersey City, who was 2nd with a 17-7 ½ on her 5th jump.

Jones is Rowan’s first conference long jump champ in seven years, since Michelle McCauley from Franklin Township set the meet record of 18-10 at the 2019 meet at Ocean Breeze.

She’s the first freshman to win the NJAC long jump in 15 yers, since Rowan’s Jamie Thompson from South Brunswick jumped 17-0 ½ at the 2011 meet at the Armory.

Jones is the No. 12 freshman in NCAA Division 3 with her PR 17-11 at the Armory last month. She jumped within a quarter of an inch of that on Saturday. She surpassed 17 feet on all six jumps – 17-2 ¾, 17-10 ¾, 17-6 ¾, 17-4 ¼, 17-9 ¾ and 17-0 ½. She averaged 17-5 ¾ on her six jumps.

Jones had an indoor best of 16-8 at Woodbury from a meet last February at Ocean Breeze. She jumped a wind-legal 18-0 outdoors this past June at the Meet of Champions at Pennsauken.

Jones also ran 7.86 in the 60, advancing to the final, which will be held Friday back at the Ott Center. Jones’ PR is a 7.80 two weeks ago at the Armory, 5th-fastest in Rowan history.

Spectacular first conference meet for Hampton freshman Jayden Poteat of Winslow, who ran PRs of 21.07 and 47.21 as well as a sizzling anchor leg on a record-setting 4-by-4 team at the Coastal Athletic Conference Championships Sunday at the TRACK in Boston.

Poteat came into the meet with PRs of 21.25 from earlier this month at the Ott Center and 47.88 from last month in Louisville.

He placed 3rd in the 400 with his 47.21 and 5th in the 200 at 21.07, and he was the top freshman in both races.

Poteat anchored Hampton’s record-setting relay team with a sizzling 45.83 split, bringing the Pirates home with a meet-record 3:08.75. The previous record was 3:09.82 by North Carolina A&T in 2023 in Virginia Beach. Akeem Lindo of East Orange ran the 3rd leg on that team for NCA&T. Hampton also broke the school record of 3:09.06 set in 2014 in South Bend, Ind.

Poteat is now the No. 8 freshman in NCAA Division 1 in the 200 and No. 13 in the 400, just behind Alabama’s Alexander Osayemi from Clayton, who ran 46.91 in Albuquerque earlier this month. His 200 time is No. 12 on the all-time South Jersey alumni performance list.

Poteat had PRs of 21.48 and 48.23 at Winslow with indoor PRs of 21.72 and 48.43.

Poteat’s high school and college teammate, Dominic Bassey, ran a 1:55.04 third leg on Hampton’s 4-by-8 team in his first race in six weeks and his first 800 since last year’s state Group 3 meet. Hampton was 4th in 7:38.54.