It didn’t take Villanova’s Ashley Preston long to get into mid-season form.

Preston, a 2018 Delsea graduate and Villanova sophomore, matched her indoor PR in her 2020 season opener Saturday, clearing 12-7 1/2 at the Great Dane Classic at Ocean Breeze.

Preston tied her PR set at SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio, in February, when she won the Big East title as a freshman. She won the outdoor Big East title at Icahn Stadium in New York with a 13-2 1/4 clearance, which is her outdoor PR.

Preston ranks 4th in Villanova history both indoors and outdoors 

Preston cleared 12-7 1/2 at Delsea, No. 3 in state history. 

Claudine Smith moved into the No. 6 spot on the all-time Rutgers indoor triple jump list in her first collegiate meet.

Smith, an Atlantic City graduate and freshman at Rutgers, won the triple jump Saturday at the TCNJ Invitational at the Armory with a jump of 39-6 1/4.

She actually hit that twice.

Her mark is No. 4 this year by a freshman in NCAA Division 1, behind Mikeisha Welcome of Oklahoma (43-9 3/4), Mara Hausler of Missouri (42-2 3/4) and Euphenie Andre, also of Missouri (40-8 3/4).

It’s also No. 6 in the Big 10.

Smith opened with a 37-7 and fouled on her second attempt. She then hit 39-6 1/4 on both her third jump of the trials and first jump of the finals. She finished with a 39-0 and a 38-9 3/4.

Sophomore teammate Zia Barr (who graduated from Teaneck High, also the alma mater of the guy writing this) placed second Saturday with a jump of 38-2 1/4, so Smith actually had the four-best jumps of the competition.

That’s only a few inches from her indoor PR of 40-1 1/2, which she actually recorded in her most recent indoor triple jump competition — New Balance Nationals last March at the same track.

Smith jumped a PR 42-2 to win the outdoors Meet of Champions last spring.

Oliver Adler and Ethan Wechsler are at it again.

The long-time South Jersey, Olympic Conference and Group 4 rivals have been battling for a couple years now outdoors, on the XC trails and indoors as well.

Wechsler and Adler went 1-2 in the 3,200 at Group 4 sectionals last spring, 1-2 at the Olympic Conference XC meet, 2-3 at sectionals and states, 4-5 at Meet of Champions this past fall.

On Saturday, Adler edged Wechsler in the 3,200 at the Olympic Conference meet with the two-fastest South Jersey times this year.

Adler, a Cherry Hill East senior, ran 9:38.33 and Wechsler, a Cherokee senior, ran 9:38.96 on the flat 200-meter track at the Bennett Center in Toms River.

Their times are No. 3 and No. 4 in the state this year. Stephen Daly of Delbarton ran 9:33.52 at the Armory Saturday, and Jack Jennings of Mendham ran 9:35.79 at Drew earlier this month.

Adler’s PR is 9:34.97 from a meet at the Bennett Center last winter. Wechsler’s indoor PR is 9:21.02 at state last winter.

Cherry Hill East junior Aidan Eyre was third in 9:45.64, No. 3 in South Jersey this year so far. Eyre.

That’s a 28-second drop from his indoor PR of 10:13.36 at the Bennett Center a year ago this week. It’s a seven-second drop from his outdoor PR of 9:41.41, which he ran at Cherokee in April.

Iyanla Kollock opened her sophomore season at Rutgers with a win Saturday evening at the TCNJ Invite at the Armory.

Kollock, a graduate of Our Lady of Mercy Academy of Newfield, ran 7.68, finishing about half a meter ahead of Krystal Mitchell of Central State, who was second in 7.74. Kollock had led all qualifiers in the trials with a 7.69.

Kollock was runner-up in the 100 at the Metropolitan Championships last spring and made the finals of the Big 10 200 indoors as a freshman.

Kollock’s 60 PR is 7.59 from IC4As last March at Boston University, where she placed fourth, so she was less than a 10th of a second off that in her season opener.

Sincere Rhea, the national scholastic indoor high hurdles champion for St. Augustine last year, made his collegiate debut for Penn State Saturday with a win on his home track.

Rhea won the 60-meter high hurdles in 7.98 at the Nittany Lion Challenge on the Ashenfelter Indoor Track in State College.

Rhea ran 7.98 to lead all qualifiers in the trials and then repeated the same time in the final, which he won by half a meter over senior Shyheim Wright of Pitt, who was second in 8.07.

I’d love to tell you where Rhea ranks on the all-time Penn State 60-meter hurdles list, but the most recent all-time list on Penn State’s web site is from 2012-13 and only goes five deep.

But it’s a good start for Rhea, whose time is No. 3 in the Big 10 so far — behind Iowa hurdlers Jaylan McConico [7.66] and Josh Braverman [7.97] and No. 2 among all NCAA Division 1 freshmen, behind only Oscar Smith of Kansas State and the Bahamas, who ran 7.87 last month at the K-State Winter Invitational at Ahearn Fieldhouse in Manhattan, Kans.

The No. 6 freshman on that national freshman list is Sam Aviles of Rider, a freshman from Palmyra. He ran 8.11 at the Fastrack Season Opener last month at Ocean Breeze. Rhea and Aviles went 1-4 in the indoor Meet of Champions last year.

Rhea, the Meet of Champions 400 winner last spring, also split 48.3 on Penn State’s all-freshman 1,600-meter relay team, which finished first in 3:13.49, fastest so far this year in the Big 10.

Also on that team were Savion Hebron of Neshaminy High, son of former Eagles and Broncos running back Vaughn Hebron; Philly native Godwin Kabanda of Northeast High; and Karl Johnson, who anchored in 47.70. Don’t know where Karl Johnson is from, since the roster link on Penn State’s web site is broken and there’s no record of him in the MileSplit database.

Cherry Hill East graduate Maya Drayton is off to a fast start as a freshman at Georgetown.

Drayton, who didn’t run indoor track at Cherry Hill East, ran 56.38 Saturday to place 3rd in the 400-meter dash at the Nittany Lion Challenge at State College. She ran 56.77 in her only previous collegiate race, at month ago at Navy, so that’s an indoor PR for Drayton.

Her outdoor PR is 56.00 from second place at last year’s state Group 4 meet at Franklin High, so she’s less than half a second off that early in her first indoor season.

Drayton finished just behind Penn State’s Antoniette Bradley (56.05) and Army’s Call McMullen (56.15).

Just behind Drayton was Winslow grad Flora Ahiarakwe, a Pitt sophomore, who was fourth in a season-best 58.34. Ahiarakwe ran on Pitt’s 3:38.18 1,600-meter relay team that placed third at ACC’s last year.

Winslow graduate Edwin Alston, a senior at Central Connecticut in ran a season-best 8.19 to win the 60-meter hurdles at the Dartmouth Relays at Leverone Fieldhouse in Hanover, N.H.

Alston led all qualifiers with a 8.36 in the trials before running away with the final. Teammate Tyrik Henry took second in 8.38.

Alston, the Central Connecticut indoor school record holder at 7.94, is a three-time indoor and outdoor conference runner-up in the high hurdles.

Alston is undefeated this indoor season. At Winslow, he was the 2015 outdoor Meet of Champions winner

Buena grad and Rider senior Kristin Siegle ran a PR 5:04.33 to win over a field of 46 women in the mile at the Spartan Invite Friday at Ocean Breeze.

Siegle won the first of four sections, winning by 25 meters over Gianna Mastromatteo of Marist College of Poughkeepsie.

Her previous mile PR was a 5:06.21, which she ran last February at the Fastrack National Invite on the same track.

With the 5:04.33, Siegle moves up to No. 6 performer in school history:

4:44.33 … Emily Ritter, 2015
4:58.16 … Heather Giovagnoli, 2012
4:58.66 … Steph Welte, 2016
5:00.58 … Chelsea Callan, 2011
5:03.19 … Meg Elgin, 2012
5:04.33 … Kristin Siegle, 2020
5:04.56 … Meg McGarrity, 2017
5:04.79 … Teagan Schein-Becker, 2019
5:07.40 … Peri Pavicic, 2018
5:07.68 … Jillian Shutt, 2012

Siegle’s time is fastest this year in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. 

She’s run as fast as 4:39.94 for 1,500 meters outdoors, which is No. 5 on Rider’s all-time outdoor list and converts to 5:02 and change for the full mile.

On Friday, Siegle also ran the 800-meter leg on Rider’s winning distance medley team. Mackenzie Greenfield led off, Oliva de la Torre Coca ran the 400 and Pavicic anchored. Rider ran 12:29.72, beating second-place Ithaca by 10-100ths of a second.

At Buena, Siegle had PRs of 5:23.16 indoors and 5:15.98 outdoors for 1,600 meters, so she’s essentially improved by about 21 seconds indoors and 16 seconds outdoors. 

The Kingsway girls took over the No. 1 spot on the 2020 South Jersey performance list in the 3,200-meter relay with a 9:35.90 Wednesday night at the Millrose Trials at the 168th Street Armory.

Ashlynne Burke led off in 2:24.3, Skye Robinson split 2:24.5 and Emily Pierontoni contributed a 2:28.2 split to set up Allison Pierontoni, who anchored in 2:18.9.

Union Catholic won the race with a U.S.-leading 9:21.86 – without a sub-2:19 leg – and North Rockland of Haverstraw, N.Y., was second in 9:30.57. Kingsway’s time is No. 7 in the early going this winter nationally, according to the MileSplit U.S. data base.

Kingsway’s time is No. 2 in Gloucester County history, behind Kingsway’s own 9:32.18 at the 2017 Millrose Trials.

ALL-TIME S.J. INDOOR 4-BY-800 LIST
9:04.66 … Lenape, 2013
9:09.71 … Lenape, 2012
9:11.94 … Lenape, 2008
9:19.35 … Wilson, 2002
9:22.30 … Lenape, 2010
9:22.38 … Buena, 1999
9:23.71 … Lenape, 2009
9:24.68 … Seneca, 2017
9:26.67 … Lenape, 2007
9:27.22 … Lenape, 2014
9:28.7 ….. Willingboro, 2003
9:28.90 … Haddonfield, 2019
9:31.10 … Seneca, 2016
9:31.92 … Shawnee, 2014
9:31.92 … Haddonfield, 2017
9:32.18 … Kingsway, 2017
9:32.95 … Seneca, 2008
9:34.49 … Millville, 2007
9:35.90 … Kingsway, 2020
9:36.10 … Sterling, 2017
9:36.41 … Seneca, 2009
9:36.50 … Seneca, 2014

 

Williamstown’s Ciara Demarest PR’d for a third straight meet Thursday, extending her South Jersey No. 1 mark to 38-3.

Demarest threw 38-3 at the Cherokee Thrown Down No. 1 at Cherokee High School in Marlton, winning by about a foot and a half over Millville junior Shan’teri Myrick, who threw 36-7.

Demarest opened her high school career with a 36-1 1/2 at a meet at the Bennett Center just before Christmas, then threw 37-1 at another Bennett Center meet before breakthrough through the 38-foot barrier on Thursday.

Her mark is No. 9 in the state so far this year and No. 1 among freshmen. According to the MileSplit national database, she’s No. 2 nationally among freshmen behind Carlie Weiser of Giddings (Texas) High School, who threw 42-2 while competing unattached at an open meet in Houston. Most Texas schools don’t have actual indoor track programs.

Demarest is nearing the South Jersey freshman class indoor shot put put record of 39-11, set in 2015 by Vineland’s Najeaya Singleton at Group 4 states. Nicole Sims of Plainfield set the state class record of 44-9 1/2 in 1990.