Lenape senior Shelby Whetstone moved into the all-time South Jersey top-10 in the 800 with an incredible breakthrough race in the state Group 4 meet at Franklin.
Whetstone, the No. 6 seed after a 2:15.90 at sectionals, ran 2:10.55 to win the race over a loaded field.
She broke the Burlington County record of 2:11.07 set in 2007 by Lenape’s Miya Johnson, who was a teammate of Caitlin Orr, who is now Whetstone’s distance coach.
Whetstone’s previous PR was a 2:14.09 at the Rowan Invitational, so that’s a 3 1/2-second personal-best! She’s undefeated this year at 800 meters.
It looks like Whetstone will be the No. 2 seed in the 800 at the Meet of Champions next weekend at Northern Burlington behind defending champion Victoria Vanriele of Governor Livingston, who was third at nationals last spring in 2:05.99.
Whetstone edged Edison junior Cynthia Boryeskne to the finish line. Boryeskne, the top seed, was second in 2:11.24.
Here time is fastest by any South Jersey half-miler since 2014, when Ocean City’s Rachel Stremme ran 2:09.84.
2:07.33 … Marielle Hall (Haddonfield), 2009
2:08.87 … Erin Donohue (Haddonfield), 2001
2:09.2h … Katrina Sye (Buena), 1999
2:09.50 … Renee Tomlin (Ocean City), 2005
2:09.84 … Rachel Stremme (Ocean City), 2014
2:10.1h … Michelle Rowen (Washington Twp.), 1982
2:10.55 … Shelby Whetstone (Lenape), 2019
2:10.57 … Nijgia Snapp (Oakcrest), 2009
2:10.79 … Krista Ferrara (Vineland), 1991
2:10.9h … Ruth Lockbaum (Glassboro), 1985
2:11.07 … Miya Johnson (Lenape), 2007
2:11.45 … Sydney Coppolino (Sterling), 2017
2:11.56 … Mary Bohi (Seneca), 2009
2:11.80 … Briana Gess (Haddonfield), 2016
2:11.88 … Kayla Martin (Seneca), 2015
2:11.94 … Bridget Flynn (Ocean City), 2014
2:12.04 … Kami Jo Hickson (Washington Twp.), 2017
2:12.0h … Monica Olkowski (Cherokee), 1990
2:12.28 … Rachel Vick (Kingsway), 2017
2:12.61 … Felicia O’Donnell (Delsea), 2009
2:12.63 … Liz Locke (Kingsway), 2010
2:12.77 … Lauren McHale (Ocean City), 1998
2:12.78 … Megan Quimby (Lenape), 2015
2:12.83 … Brooke Kott (Millville), 2008
2:12.85 … Greta Feldman (Haddonfield), 2008
2:12.93 … Carly Pettipaw (Lenape), 2015
