From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

A host of South Jersey alums will be at Randall’s Island in Manhattan later this month to compete in the USATF Championships.

The meet is scheduled for July 23-26 at Icahn Stadium. This will be the first time the meet has been outside Eugene since 2019, when it was in Des Moines, Iowa, and the first time it will be in New York since 1991, when it was the TAC Championships and held at Downing Stadium. When Downing Stadium was demolished in 2002, it was replaced by Icahn Stadium.

So far, six South Jersey athletes have registered with several others eligible after having met either the A standard – the auto qualifying standard – or the B standard, which is used when there aren’t enough A qualifiers to fill the field.

Already registered are Lumberton’s Greg Foster in both the 110-meter hurdles, Florence’s Curtis Thompson in the javelin, Paul VI’s Aliya Garozzo in the 400-meter hurdles, Delsea’s Josh Awotunde and Highland’s Floyd Whitaker in the triple jump. Also registered is Rowan javelin specialist Damitrius Hester.

Here’s a look at that group. Am I forgetting anyone? It’s possible becauseUSATF’s web site is so clunky. Let me know who’s missing!

Josh Awotunde: Awotunde, the 2022 World Championships bronze medalist, ranks 7^th among American men at 69-1, just short of the A standard of 69-2 ½, which only six U.S. throwers have hit this year.

Greg Foster: Ranked 4^th among American men and 19^th in the world at 27-0 ¼ at the Armory in February, Foster is well above the A standard of 26-6 ¾. Foster is also entered in the 110-meter hurdles, where he has a 13.78 on his home track in Princeton, a B standard.

Aliya Garozzo: Sicklerville’s Garozzo is 8^th among U.S. women in the 400-meter intermediates with her PR 54.90 Des Moines in April. That’s well under the A standard of 55.80. She also has the B in the 400 with 52.43 but isn’t registered.

Curtis Thompson: Thompson, the 2025 World Championships bronze medalist, is ranked 1^st among U.S. men and 4^th in the world at 282-1 from last month in Doha, Qatar. Thompson shoots for his 6^th national javelin title and 5^th in a row.

Floyd Whitaker: Former NCAA All-America at Oklahoma is 7^th among Americans with his PR 53-11 ¼ from indoors in College Station, Texas. That’s not quite an A Standard, but only four American men have the A standard and 16 will qualify, so he’s in good shape.

Damitrius Hester: Mahwah’s Hester won the NCAA D-3 title with a 245-10 in La Crosse, Wisc., No. 2 in D-3 history behind Deptford’s Tim Van Liew, who threw 247-10 to win the 2013 national title for Rutgers-Camden.

The qualifying window closes on Sunday. Here’s a look at other South Jersey athletes who have met either the A or B standard but as of Tuesday morning had not registered. Remember, the closer a competitor’s B standard performance is to the A standard the better their chances of qualifying.

Men
Ajani Dwyer, Washington Township: Dwyer snagged the A standard with his wind-legal 9.98, which is 10^th-fastest among U.S. men and No. 33 in the world. Dwyer has the B standard in the 200 at 20.51.

Alexander Osayemi, Clayton: Osayemi has the B standard in the 400 with his PR 45.46 last month in Eugene.

Jayden Poteat, Winslow Twp.: Poteat is also under the B standard with his 45.97 in Elon, N.C.

Jamir Brown, Riverside: Brown is No. 15 in the U.S. with his 13.25 PR in Louisville in May. That’s well under the A standard of 13.40.

Kwaku Nkrumah and Jason Agyemang, Rowan: Nkrumah and Agyemang, Brown’s former teammate at Rowan, both ran 13.72 this year in a home meet in Glassboro in April. They’re both under the B standard. Nkrumah is from Teaneck and Agyemang from  North Plainfield.

Bryce Tucker, Pennsauken: Tucker’s 50.54 from Lincoln, Neb., is under the B standard of 50.75.

David Brown, Rowan: Another Rowan star, Brown’s 7-2 ¼ in Charlottesville in April nailed the B tandard of 7-2 ¼.

Women
Sianni Wynn, Pennsauken: Wynn ran 11.27 at Franklin Field last month, a B standard of 11.30.

Amirah and Arianna Sharpe, Clayton: The Sharpe twins are both under the 400 B stnadard of 52.50, Amirah with a 51.95 and Arianna with 52.07, both in Fayetteville in April.

Natalie Dumas, Eastern: U.S. Under-20 champ in the intermediates has the B standard in the intermediates with her 56.13, not far off the A standard of 55.80. She has also the B in the 400 with 52.20.

Arianna Smith, Pennsville: Smith ran 56.29 in Durham, N.C.,

Jasmine Jackson, Winslow: Jackson’s historic 13.04 – 7^th-fastest in U.S. history – to win West Philly Nationals at Franklin Field last month puts her well under the B standard of 13.25.

Jailya Ash, Eastern: Ash PR’d at 13.08 in Fayetteville in June, also well under the hurdles B standard of 13.25.

Tionna Tobias, Winslow Twp.: Tobias, one of the leading U.S. long jumpers, has the B standard of 21-10 ½ from a meet in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in April, but she is 9^th-best American and only seven U.S. women have the A standard of 22-1 ¾.

Jessica Woodard, Cherokee: Woodard has the B standard with her 59-10 ¾ in Charlottesville in April. She’s ranked 11^th among Americans and only five U.S. women have the A standard. Woodard has placed among the top eight at U.S. nationals 12 meets in a row, including three podium finishes.

Elisia Lancaster, Delsea: Lancaster’s PR of 227-0 puts her 16^th among U.S. women and well over the B standard of 206-8.

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