From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Delsea senior Matthew Littlehales ran the fastest 3,200 in New Jersey this year Thursday night on a cold and rainy night in Marlton.

Littlehales was first out of more than 400 runners in 21 heats at the Cherokee Night of 3200s with a time of 9:19.19.

Littlehales, the state Group 3 champion at 3,200 meters last spring and at 1,600 meters this indoor season, negatived 4:45.55 and 4:33.64, closing in 2:09.98 for his final 800 and 60.18 for his final 400.

Don Bosco senior Matthew Maguire led Littlehales with a lap to go before Littlehales speedy final 400. Maguire finished 2^nd in 4:24.84.

Other South Jersey runners under 9:30 were Glassboro sophomore Joe Saicic, 5^th with a PR 9:26.37 and negative splits of 4:45.21 and 4:41.16 closing in 67.23, Ocean City senior Erik Preisner, 6^th in 9:28.79 [4:46.20 / 4:42.59, closing in 66.26] and Cherokee junior Maximo Harada with a PR 9:29.32 [4:45.99 / 4:43.33, closing in 66.68].

Also under 10 minutes: Cherokee junior Sean Sooy [9:33.38], Cinnaminson senior Jacob Wickersham [9:34.63], Cherokee senior Logan Bromley [9:38.56], Ocean City junior Keenan Neuman [9:41.27], Ocean City junior Nathan Aschmann [9:41.50], Cherokee junior Gavin Danielewicz [9:46.16], Cherry Hill East junior Cian Sherlock [9:46.84], Highland senior Andrew Dopkin [9:52.34], Glassboro sophomore Zacchaeus Harrigan [9:52.91], Winslow senior Vincent Perri [9:53.08], Washington Township sophomore Travor Szilier [9:53.25], Glassboro senior Jaeden Wesley [9:53.81], Cinnaminson junior Edward Abu-Adas [9:57.76], Cherokee freshman Hamza Salahuddin [9:58.08], Cherry Hill East junior Aneesh Rajagopal [9:58.32], Egg Harbor senior Matthew Reed [9:58.71], Ocean City sophomore Nevin Millstein [9:58.85] and Ocean City sophomore Benjamin McCarthy [9:59.15].

Top girls from South Jersey were Cherokee senior Alyssa Suriano [11:02.79], Cherokee sophomore Erin Healy [11:09.25], Cherokee senior Sofia Recinto [11:17.57], Williamstown senior Sophia Aldridge [11:1.57], Egg Harbor junior Meghan Johnson [11:18.00], Cherokee senior Madeline Meder [11:25.46] and Cherry Hill East junior Ryleigh Budsock [11:29.44].

Kentucky sophomore Dahlia Beasley from Washington Township finished strong in her first lifetime heptathlon, placing 10^th at the Texas Relays in Austin with one of the highest scores ever compiled by a South Jersey athlete.

Although Beasley contested one indoor pentathlon in Fayetteville in January, this was her first-ever two-day multi-event competition, and she recorded her fourth PR of the event Thursday after recording three on Wednesday.

Beasley’s score of 5,143 points is 5^th-highest ever by a South Jersey high school alum as far as I can tell, behind Pleasantville’s Nia Ali [5,870 in Azusa, Calif., in 2016], Winslow’s Tionna Tobias [5,640 in Bloomington, Ind., in 2023], Bridgeton’s Shana Williams [5,565 in Buffalo in 1993] and Millville’s Brianna Craig [5,460 in Bloomington in 2023].

On Wednesday, Beasley scord 3,149 points in four events, PR’ing in the 100-meter hurdles [14.75, 875 [points], high jump [5-7, 855 points] and 200 [23.77, 1,003 points]. She also threw the shot 27-0 ¾ for 416 points.

On Thurdsay, she started out with a big 18-5 ¼ for 735 points, not far off her PR 18-11 ½ from December in Nashville, then threw the javelin 94-3 for 453 points, a huge PR over her 76-10 from last week in Orlando and then finished by running 800 meters in 2:21.30 for 806 more points.

Looks like her score is 16^th-best in NCAA Division 1 in the early going of the season.

Kentucky sophomore Dahlia Beasley from Washington Township recorded three PRs Wednesday on Day 1 of the heptathlon at the Texas Relays in Austin.

Beasley, in her first outdoor multi-event competition ever and 2nd of her life, PR’d in the 200, high jump and 100-meter hurdles and totalled 3,149 points in four events.

She ran 14.75 in the 100-meter hurdles, scoring 875 points and breaking her PR of 15.26, which she set last weekend in Orlando. She cleared 5-7 for 855 points in the high jump, breaking her PR of 5-6, which she set when she won the state Group 4 title in Somerset in June of 2024. And she blazed a 23.77 to lead the field in the 200, scoring a whopping 1,003 points and destroying her PR of 24.35 from the 2024 Meet of Champions in Pennsauken. Beasley also scored 416 points with a 27-0 ¾ in the shot put.

In her only previous multi-event competition, Beasley scored 3,534 points in the one-day, five-event indoor pentathlon at a meet in Fayetteville in January. At Rutgers, she never competed in anything other than the 200, 400 and 4-by-4, running 24.88 and 56.18. Her 400 PR remains her 54.83 at West Philly Nationals in June 2024.

So she has no PRs from her year in Piscataway.

The schedule for Thursday is long jump at 11 a.m., javelin at 12:05 p.m. and 800 at 1:30 p.m. She has PRs of 18-11 ¼ in the long jump from a meet in December in Nashville, 76-10 in the javelin from a meet in Orlando last week and 2:19.00 in the 800 from Orlando last week.

If she just matches her PRs in the three remaining events, she’ll surpass 5,000 points with a score of 5,118.

The only South Jersey women to score over 5,000 points in the last 10 years are Winslow’s Tionna Tobias and Millville’s Briana Craig, who finished 1st and 2nd in the 2023 Big Ten Championships in Bloomington, Ind., Tobias with 5,640 points and Craig with 5,460.

Moorestown’s Will Inglis, an Elizabethtown junior, ran the fastest 800 in the Landmark Conference this year Wednesday at the York College Twilight Meet.

Inglis ran 1:53.14, his 2nd-fastest time ever, and won the 800 with his fastest time other than his PR 1:52.37 in Williamstown, Mass., last May.

Inglis won the Landmark Conference 800 indoors in 1:56.47 in Selinsgrove, Pa. In his only previous outdoor race this spring, he PR’d at 3,000 meters with an 8:58.71.

On Wednesday, he was out in 57.14, trailing Dickinson’s Michael Dooley from Bernards. But he closed in 55.90, negative-splitting while Dooley came back in 56.79. Inglis won by five meters over Dooley, who ran 1:53.85 for a 1-2 New Jersey finish.

Inglis’s high shool PR was 2:02.10 at 2023 South Jersey Group 3 Sectionals at Delsea. He didn’t run indoors in high school. So he’s PR’d by nearly 10 seconds since arriving in E’town.

Timber Creek junior Timothy Whitaker turned in an early sub-50 for 400 meters Tuesday as part of a sprint triple in a dual meet at Timber Creek.

Whitaker won the 400 in 49.93 and also won the 100 in 11.04 and the 200 in 22.25. Whitaker, who ran 2:02.37 in December at the Ott Center, has legit range from 100 meters to the 800.

The 100 was the first Whitaker has ever run in high school, so that’s one PR. His previous 200 PR was an indoor 22.54 at the Ott Center in February, and his previous 400 PR was a 50.14 at the Ott in January. His outdoor 400 best was a 51.47 this past May at Haddon Township.

So one day into the 2026 outdoor season, Whitaker already has three PRs.

Sizzling start to the season for Washington Township sophomore Nia’Leila Cuascut, who tripled the sprints with three fast times Wednesday in a FAT-timed dual meet at Timber Creek.

Cuascut won the 100 in 12.11, the 200 in 25.31 and the 400 in 61.56. All three are faster than the fastest listed times in New Jersey so far this spring in the MileSplit database, so pending what happens in other meets on Tuesday she’s going to be among the state leaders in three events.

The 100 time is a PR for Cuascut, who ran 12.18 when she placed 12th at the Meet of Champions at Pennsauken in June.

She smashed her 200 PR of 25.71 from South Jersey Group 4 Sectionals last spring at Pennsauken, and she was just off her 400 PR of 59.75, which she ran twice last year.

In the 100, Cuascut wasn’t far off the school record of 12.02 set by Dylan Giloley at 2024 South Jersey Group 4 Sectionals, also at Pennsauken. She’s only 1-100th of a second outside the all-time Gloucester County top-10, which goes down to Jackie Dim of Washington Township in 2007 and Iyanla Kollock of Our Lady of Mercy in 2016, who both ran 12.10.

Egg Harbor junior Xavier Aucule opened the outdoor season with the fastest 400-meter hurdles time by an Egg Harbor athlete in 18 years.

In a dual meet at Atlantic City, Aucule ran 55.67, snapping his PR of 56.00 from his 4th-place finish at South Jersey Group 4 Sectionals last May at Pennsauken.

That’s fastest by an EHT hurdler since Stevenson Cajuste ran 54.94 at the 2008 Penn Relays, back before Penn sadly eliminated the high school 400-meter intermediates.

School record holder is Charles Oglesby, who ran 54.81 at the 1997 state Group 4 meet at South Plainfield.

Aucule is coming off an indoor season that saw him run 50.13 in the flat 400 at the Ott Center and place 4th at Sectionals at the Bubble.

His time is fastest in New Jersey in the early going this outdoor season. Kasey Kinley of Hunterdon Central ran 56.74 this past weekend in a meet in Somerset.

Bucknell junior Shaelan McNally from Paul VI and sophomore Kerry O’Day from Cherokee both ran collegiate PRs Sunday in the Bison’s dual meet vs. Binghamton in Lewisburg.

McNally won the 800 in 2:14.08 and O’Day was 4th in the 1,500 in 4:38.36.

McNally had only run one previous collegiate 800 and that was at an indoor meet in January 2025 in a home meet, where she ran 2:22.98. She ran 2:11.85 as a Paul VI senior in an indoor meet at Ocean Breeze.

O’Day’s 4:38.36 was her first collegiate 1,500. She ran 4:43.29 at Cherokee in May 2024 at Icahn Stadium in New York.

These were outdoor season openers for both McNally and O’Day.

Bucknell junior John Flammer from Holy Spirit ran 1:58.32 and placed 7th in the men’s 800.

Bryce Tucker opened his 2026 outdoor season with an impressive 400-meter hurdles win in Orlando.

Tucker, a Rutgers junior from Pennsauken, ran 50.77 to win the intermediates at the Central Florida Knights Invitational.

He won by four meters over Canadian Ryder King of Cornell, who was 2nd in 51.26.

Tucker’s 50.77 is 4th-fastest so far in the Big Ten Conference and 16th-fastest in NCAA Division 1.

Tucker ran a lifetime-best 50.00 last May at the NCAA East First Round in Jacksonville, earning a lane at the NCAA Championships, where he advanced to the final and earned All-America honors with an 8th-place finish.

That’s 4th-fastest ever by a South Jersey athlete, behind only Reuben McCoy of Winslow [48.37], Paulsboro’s Fred Sharpe [48.86] and Camden’s Dwight Ruff [48.50]. It’s also 2nd-fastest in Rutgers history behind the school-record 49.82 set by Jameson Woodell of Hunterdon Central at the 2022 East Prelims in Bloomington, Ind.

In the same race in Orlando, Deptford’s Lathan Brown, a Rutgers junior, placed 6th with a 52.91.

Rider’s Maddie Dischert from Atlantic City PR’d at 1,500 meters Saturday as part of an 800-1,500 double at a home meet in Lawrenceville.

Dischert ran 2:21.85 in a rare 800 and 4:37.13 in the 1,500, placing 2nd in both at the Rider 6-Way Invitational. It was her first collegiate 800 and first overall 800 since the 2022 indoor season, when she ran 2:44.07 as a high school junior at the Bubble.

This was also her first official college 1,500, although she did run 4:58.17 in a mile at the Armory last month.

The 4:37.13 is less than half a second off the Rider all-time top-10, which goes down to 4:36.82. Indoors, Dischert is 3rd-fastest in school history in the 5,000 at 16:59.86 at Boston University and 5th in the 3,000 with 9:53.09 at the Armory as well as 8th with that 4:58.17 mile. None of those marks are listed yet on Rider’s out-dated all-time performance lists.