Going into Day 2 at the South Jersey Group 4 meet, the Lenape girls have 77 points.
In nine events.
That means Lenape is averaging 8 1/2 points per event so far. Or better than second place on the average per event.
To put that in perspective, consider that the Southern Regional girls won last year’s meet with 67 points. Lenape has already topped that with nine events to go.
Day 2 of the South Jersey Group 4 meet begins at 10 a.m. Saturday with finals scheduled in the 200-meter dash, 800-meter run, 3,200-meter run, high hurdles, 400-meter relay and 1,600-meter relay on the track and triple jump, high jump and discus in the field.
Lenape holds a 34-point lead over Kingsway in S.J. Group 4, with Egg Harbor (30), perennial champ Southern (28) and Vineland (24) next in team scoring.
Lenape already has more points than it scored last year (57). For all its accomplishments in recent years under coaches Gerald Richardson and Jack Walsh, Lenape has only won one South Jersey title outdoors, winning in 2011. Lenape has been second to Southern five times (2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2014) and third behind Southern and Cherokee in 2012.
With nine events to go, Lenape is only 33 points away from the record for most points in a South Jersey Group 4 meet. Cherokee scored 110 points in 2013, edging Southern by just three points. Lenape scored 107 when it won in 2011.
The Lenape girls made quite a statement in the opening events Friday at Egg Harbor’s Eagle Stadium.
In the first track final, Carly Pettipaw ran a PR 1:01.49 and Samantha Maynes finished third in a PR 1:04.16 for 16 quick points. Moments later, junior Shannon Storms and freshman Cassie Hoxit cleared 9-6 in the pole vault, Storms winning and Hoxit tying for second, for 17 more points.
The meet wasn’t an hour old, and Lenape had 33 points and a 21-point lead over Kingsway.
Pettipaw and soph Jasmine Staten then went 1-2 in the 400 — both breaking 57 seconds — and senior Marissa Topolski broke 59 seconds for fourth, generating a whopping 22 points in the 400.
Staten also won the long jump by more than a foot, adding a fraction of an inch to her PR with an 18-4., and senior Camille Franklin ran 5:00.49 for second in the 1,600 and eight more points.
Franklin, soph Megan Quimby, senior Eryka Colucci and soph Cian Williams added a fifth in the 3,200-meter relay for two more points, and senior Ariel Mitchell ran fifth in the 100 with a PR 12.46.
That’s 22 points in the 400, 17 in the pole vault, 16 in the intermediates, 10 in the long jump, eight in the 1,600 and two in the 4-by-8 and the 200.
A whopping 77 points.
For the record, the record for largest margin of victory in the South Jersey Group 4 meet is 36 points, Southern 95 and Lenape 59 in 2007.
Lenape, ranked No. 3 in the state and one of the best teams ever assembled in South Jersey, has a chance to make some history today.
Check back here later today for results, performance lists, records and all the usual stats you won’t find anywhere else!
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 