Aden Tomeo, a junior at Audubon, went into states with an indoor high jump PR of 6-2 and a lifetime best of 6-4.

Not bad.

He left the Bennett Center Sunday with a fancy new PR of 6-7.

Tomeo won the South Jersey Group 1 high jump with a three-inch overall PR and a five-inch indoor PR. He fell one inch shy of the Group 1 meet record of 6-8, set in 2015 by Pleasantville’s Tariq Adams, and the overall South Jersey sectional meet record of 6-8 shared by Adams and Williamstown’s Devin Bradham, who cleared 6-8 in Group 4, also in 2015. Adams’ mark is also the best in any Group 1 sectional.

But Tomeo has another year to go after those records and a bunch of others.

His mark makes him No. 1 in South Jersey this year, one inch ahead of Kameron Smith and Nate Robertson of Willingboro and Floyd Whitaker of Highland, and No. 3 in the state, behind seniors Jamier Wright-Collins of JFK Paterson (6-9) and Foluso Adedeji of Weequahic (6-8).

Tomeo will see Adedeji, Smith and Robertson next weekend at the Group 1 state meet. 

(An aside – in most modern-day track results you can easily get any field athlete’s series or progression. Hopefully, the NJSIAA in conjunction with the Bennett Center timers modernize their obsolete timing system so that information is available, like it is with virtually any non-NJSIAA meet. I’d love to know whether Tomeo took any attempts at 6-8 or 6-9 or simply shut down for the day. There’s no way to know. Getting real-time results was a big step [even though team scoring is never made available until a meet is over, which is silly]. But the technology and software is there to easily provide mid-race splits, relay splits, en-route times, throws full series marks, pole vault and high jump progressions, etc. It’s time to put it to use! [update – Thanks to Dennis Smyth for not only letting me know Aden took three tries at 6-8 but sending over the photo that appears at the top of this post!]

Absegami graduate Mariah Hubbard, a senior at Monmouth, won her fourth conference triple jump title Sunday.

Hubbard jumped 39-1 1/4 on her final attempt and won by nearly a foot in the triple jump at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference indoor championships at the Armory.

https://results.armorytrack.com/meets/4042/events/198748/results

She also had jumps of 38-3 and 38-6 1/2. Second place was 38-2 1/4 so Hubbard had the three-best jumps of the competition.

Hubbard also won the 2017 indoor title (39-4), the 2019 indoor title (39-9 3/4) and the 2019 outdoor title (38-9 1/2).

Hubbard also placed fifth in the long jump with a 17-11 3/4 jump.

Hubbard owns the school record of 40-5 from last year’s indoor ECAC meet at Boston University. Her outdoor best is 39-8 at a meet this past April t the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

Ian Moore, in only his second 800 as a collegian, won his first conference title.

Moore, a Monmouth freshman from Rancocas Valley, won a strategic 800 final Sunday at the Armory in 1:54.96, finishing at the front of a mass finish with teammate Louis DiLaurenzio, the defending champ, second in 1:54.99, Rider sophomore Donny Vineyard from Egg Harbor Township third in 1:55.04 and two more Rider half-milers — Mike Mazzei and Kevin Heredia — next in 1:55.46 and 1:55.94. 

So the first three finished in the span of less than 1-10th of a second, and the first five in less than a second.

Moore has run a lot faster — he ran 1:52.76 last weekend at Ocean Breeze — but conference championships are often strategic races that come down to who has the best kick on the final straight.

The top five finishers all ran right around 28.7 for the final lap.

Another Monmouth freshman from R.V., Micah Wood, who ran 1:53.46 last weekend, took the pack through the 400 in 57.1 and was in fourth with less than a lap to go before finishing seventh in 1:56.51.

Burlington Township graduate Jalen Jones won his first collegiate conference title Sunday with a big 400 PR at the MAAC Championships.

Jones, a Monmouth sophomore, ran 48.38 to win the 400 by over half a second at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference meet at the Armory.

Watch his race from the backstretch, thanks to Burlington Township Track and Field’s Twitter account!

Jones’ previous indoor 400 PR was a 49.11 in the trials on Saturday. Before that it was 49.57 at Boston University last February. His outdoor PR is from last year’s MAAC Championships in West Long Branch, where he ran 49.21 in the trials. 

At Township, had PRs of 50.24 indoors and 48.84 outdoors, so this was an overall lifetime PR, and he did it on a 200-meter track with nobody close to him.

The odds of a tie are so remote in a meet with 10 events, 310 points to divvy up and a bunch of teams battling all day for points.

In fact, according to the NJSIAA sectional meet program, there had never been a team tie since the inception of indoor sectionals in 2008. 

That covers 13 years of meets in four Groups in four sections for boys and girls. That’s no ties in 412 sectional meets since 2008.

Until now.

Audubon and Collingswood, Colonial Conference rivals, Camden County rivals, schools located 2 1/2 miles apart, two towns separated only by a tiny swath of Oaklyn, finished deadlocked Sunday in the South Jersey Group 1 sectional meet at the Bubble in Toms River.

Audubon: 75
Collingswood: 75

Why have one champion when you can have two?

It was the first indoor sectional title for Audubon and the third in a row for Collingswood.

Follow along this titanic battle as the results came in!

400-METER DASH
Senior Emily Wallace gave Collingswood 10 points in the first event of the day with a win in 59.86, and junior Emily McGrath and senior Alivia Stocklin of Audubon took second and third in 61.99 and 62.28
Score after 1 event: Audubon 14, Collingswood 10 

HIGH JUMP
Audubon went 1-T4-6 for 14 points, with junior Sarah Parr earning the win at 4-10 and Stocklin and junior Emily Owens taking fifth and sixth at 4-6.
Score after 2 events: Audubon 28, Collingswood 10

1,600-METER RUN
Collingswood junior Sophie Steidle, who ran 5:21 last weekend, cruised to a 5:42.88 victory, winning by over 10 seconds
Score after 3 events: Audubon 28, Collingswood 20

SHOT PUT
Woodstown went 1-3, with junior Kara Knorr getting a three-foot win at 34-8. Audubon went 2-6 with senior Morgan Hearn (31-6) and junior Madelynn Spink (29-0), and Collingswood snared two points with junior Hailey Spencer throwing 29-4 1/2 for fifth.
Score after 4 events: Audubon 37, Collingswood 22

55-METER HURDLES
Collingswood’s Wallace recorded her second win of the day with a major PR of 9.21, and Audubon’s McGrath also PR’d at 9.42 for third.
Score after 5 events: Audubon 43, Collingswood 32

800-METER RUN
Four of the six medalists were from Audubon and Collingswood. Junior Sophie Steidle and freshman Lynnea Martinsen went 1-6 for Collingswood, Siegle running 2:26.64 and Martinsen 2:34.53. Audubon went 2-5 with Stocklin at 2:29.84 and McGrath 2:33.24.
Score after 6 events: Audubon 53, Collingswood 43

POLE VAULT
Audubon’s Parr cleared 11-0 for the win, and Collingswood junior Fioina Basewitz got over the bar at 10-0 for second.
Score after 7 events: Audubon 63, Collingswood 51

55-METER DASH
Junior Maria Muzzarelli of Buena, a first-year runner, got the close win over Collingswood’s Wallace, with both credited with a 7.51. Junior Kelly Loughlin picked up a fifth for Audubon.
Score after 8 events: Audubon 65, Collingswood 59

3,200-METER RUN
The tireless Steidle cruised to her third win of the day, this time in 12:36.56. Nobody else from Collingswood or Audubon placed.
Score after 9 events: Audubon 65, Collingswood 69

1,600-METER RELAY
Audubon got the win with a 4:14.56 to increase its total to 75, and Collingswood held off Haddon Heights by about half a second (4:20.83 to 4:21.39) to lock up third, add six points to its total and also finish with 75. What a meet!!!
Score after 10 events: Audubon 75, Collingswood 75

The South Jersey Group 4 sectional championships wasn’t decided on the track, it was decided on a computer screen where timing officials ruled that Rancocas Valley anchor Ryan Maggs had finished 1-100th of a second ahead of Millville’s anchor in the 1,600-meter relay.

Going into the race, the final event of the day, Rancocas Valley had 38 points and Jackson had 33 1/3 but the No. 1 seed and heavy favorite in the 4-by-4.

A relay win would increase Jackson’s point total to 43 1/3, which meant R.V. needed six points – third place – to win its first indoor sectional title.

With a lap to go, R.V. was well back of third, but junior anchor Ryan Maggs was gaining.

At the line? Too close to call.

It came down to this:

That’s Maggs on the outside, and remember that’s a photo of a photo that was on a pier of paper, so it’s probably not the best picture, but it was clear to the timers that R.V. had gotten to the line before Millville.

That gave R.V. the six points it needed to outscore Jackson by two-thirds of a point

Rancocas Valley: 44
Jackson: 43 1/3

3:26.79 … Jackson
3:29.54 … Kingsway
3:31.16 … Rancocas Valley
3:31.17 … Millville
3:35.04 … Toms River North
3:35.07 … Washington Township

Junior Rahmir Patterson, junior Gabriel Wilson and senior Gavin Farrell ran the first three 4-by-4 legs, setting up Mags, a 2:01 half-miler who has never run an open indoor 400.

The 3:31.16 was a season-best for R.V.

R.V. is only the fourth South Jersey school to win South Jersey Group 4 since indoor sectionals began in 2008. Egg Harbor Township had won six of the last eight titles, Washington Township won in 2009 and 2011, Lenape won in 2014 and the other titles belonged to Central Jersey schools – Toms River East, Toms River North and Trenton once each.

Let’s take a look at how R.V. got into position to win the team title:

MIEKEL HOUSE
House posted the third-fastest qualifying time in the prelims at 6.70, but he ran 6.52 in the final to edge Egg Harbor’s Ahmad Brock, who ran 6.58 for the win. House ran within 2-100ths of a second of the Group 4 meet record of 6.50, set in 2010 by Absegami’s Rasheed Grande.

JORDAN FLOYD
Floyd matched his high jump PR of 6-2 to earn the win, and lead a 1-2 R.V. sweep. Floyd’s best events may be the triple jump (44-7 1/2) and long jump (20-8), but since they aren’t contested in New Jersey, he won a sectional title in his next-best event!

TAHMIR CLARK
Clark’s best event is definitely the long jump. He surpassed 22 feet for the first time at Ocean Breeze last weekend. But he cleared 6-0 and crucially did it on fewer misses than another jumper, which earned him second and six points instead of four.

RAHMIR PATTERSON
Patterson, a junior, ran 52.57 in an unseeded heat, and that time bumped three runners in the seeded heat and earned the junior sixth place overall. Without that point, R.V. does not win the team title.

DANIEL DAYRELL
Egg Harbor’s Anthony Vazquez, the Easterns champ, ran away with the final in 7.49, but Darrell, an R.V. senior, took second in 7.70 for eight huge points.

JONAH WOOD
Another crucial point that could have made the difference between a team title and no team title. Wood PR’d with a 44-8 throw for sixth place.

Kingsway placed third with 34 points, and the next six teams were all within six points in an incredibly competitive and balanced group: Millville 28, Toms River North 27, Cherry Hill East 27, Egg Harbor Twp. 22 1/3, Southern Regional 22, Cherokee 22.

There’s no section in the state as competitive as South Jersey Group 4.

That was one heck of a 1,600 race in the South Jersey Group 4 girls sectional Sunday!

All six medalists at the Bennett Center recorded indoor PRs and five recorded indoor-outdoor lifetime bests. And all five South Jersey runners who medaled moved into the top 10 in South Jersey this year.

5:04.98 … Allie Pierontoni [Kingsway]
5:06.90 … Olivia Shafer [Egg Harbor Twp.]
5:07.01 … Olivia Takla [Toms River North]
5:11.27 … Maura Keane [Washington Twp,]
5:11.28 … Isabella Leak [Egg Harbor Twp.]
5:13.74 … Aubrey Pierontoni [Kingsway]

Pierontoni, the sectional champ last spring, matched that performance with a huge indoor PR of 5:04.98. That’s No. 9 in Gloucester County indoor history and only three seconds of Rachel Vick’s school record.

Egg Harbor senior Olivia Shafter lowered her indoor/outdoor overall PR 10 seconds with her 5:06.90. That looks like No. 3 in Atlantic County indoor history and within 5 1/2 seconds off the school and county mark of 5:01.20 set by Julianna Catania in 2016.

After Toms River North soph Olivia Takla took third with an indoor/outdoor PR of her own, Washington Township junior Maura Keane ran a seven-second indoor/outdoor PR of 5:11.27 for fourth and was followed 1-100th of a second later by Egg Harbor senior Isabella Leak and then Kingsway freshman Aubrey Pierontoni, who both also scored huge indoor/outdoor PRs.

Allie Pierontoni’s time is No. 1 in South Jersey this year and actually fastest sine 2017, and Shafer’s 5:06.90 matches Sarah Naticchia of Haddonfield for No. 2 this year in South Jersey. Keane is No. 4 in south Jersey, Leake is No. 5 and Aubrey Pierontoni is No. 9.

It looks like Keane’s time is No. 3 in Washington Township indoor history. Michelle Rowen ran that historic 4:43.1 full mile at 1983 Easterns in Boston, which remains the South Jersey record and converts to 4:41.46 for 1,600 meters, and Lindsay Kane ran 4:53.36 in 2014.

This is my best effort at a Gloucester County indoor girls top-10 list. Anybody missing?

ALL-TIME GLOUCESTER COUNTY INDOOR 1,600 LIST
4:41.52y … Michelle Rowen (Wash. Twp.), 1983
4:53.36 … Lindsey Kane (Washington Twp.), 2014
4:54.58 … Celine Mazzi (Delsea), 2014
4:56.1y … Ruth Lockbaum (Glassboro), 1985
5:00.81 … Vickie Ajimoko (Williamstown), 2014
5:01.96 … Rachel Vick [Kingsway], 2017
5:02.83 … Felicia O’Donnell (Delsea), 2011
5:03.81 … Maria Ruiz (Williamstown), 2009
5:04.98 … Allie Pierontoni (Kingsway), 2020
5:05.36 … Diana Iacone (Washington Twp.), 2012

The Willingboro girls won their first sectional title in 10 years Saturday evening, and they did it in style!

Led by senior Tamia Welch Smith, junior Balkis Lyiola and senior Mikell Dolo, who combined for 52 points, the Chimeras rolled to an 87-49 win over New Providence in the Central Jersey Group 1 sectional championships at the Bubble in Toms River.

It was Willingboro’s first indoor sectional title since the Chimeras won South Jersey Group 1 in 2010.

This past spring, Boro won its first outdoor sectional title since it won Central Jersey Group 3 back in 2004.

Although the official meet program shows them winning SJ-3 in 2016, Winslow actually won that meet, and Willingboro wasn’t even in Group 3 that year.

In any case, it was an incredible day for the Chimeras, who won five events, had two 1-2-3 sweeps, and will send an impressive contingent up to the state Group 1 meet on the same track next Saturday morning.

Let’s take a look at how the Boro put together such an impressive performance Saturday:

Balkis Lyiola
Lyiola, a junior, was a busy girl Saturday, scoring in three individual events and anchoring the winning relay team.

Lyiola won the 55-meter dash by 1-100th of a second over Jakara Nock of Camden with a personal-best 7.54, leading a 1-2-3 Boro sweep.

She also took third in the 55-meter hurdles in 8.86, another PR and her first time under 9.0 seconds, as part of another Boro sweep.

And she PR’d in the 400 with a 1:02.87. She also anchored Willingboro’s 1,600-meter relay team, which beat the field by 50 meters.

Tamia Welch Smith
Welch Smith led the 1-2-3 sweep in the 400 with a PR of 1:00.33 and also took second in the 55-meter hurdles with another PR of 8.78.

Mikell Dolo
Dolo PR’d in the highs with an 8.61 triumph, leading a Chimera sweep, and she ran 7.65 in the 55 for third place after a PR 7.59 in the trials.

*Abigail Brown
Brown, a junior, won her first sectional title with a personal-best 33-7 1/2, breaking her PR of 33-3 1/4, which she set earlier this month. She won by more than 2 1/2 feet.

Aleshia Mendez
Mendez, a sophomore, PR’d in the 400 at 1:02.33 for second place, snagged a point in the 800 and led off the Chimeras’ winning 4-by-400 team.

Samiyah Williams
Williams, a freshman, took fifth in the 55 in 7.80 after a PR of 7.75 in the trials, and she ran the third leg on the winning 4-by-4 team.

Jadah Grant
Grant, a sophomore, contributed the second leg on Willingboro’s winning 4-by-400 team.

Just a dominating performance Saturday by the Willingboro boys in winning its fourth straight sectional title and state-record eighth overall.

Senior Zaire Clements won the 55 and 400 and ran on the winning 1,600-meter relay team and Willingboro won the Central Jersey Group 1 sectional title at the Bennett Center in Toms River by a whopping 63 points over Asbury Park.

Willingboro scored eight more points than the second-, third- and fourth-place teams combined (Asbury 32, Metuchen 30, Camden 25).

The Chimeras’ 63-point margin of victory is the largest ever in any Central Jersey indoor sectional.

The previous largest margin of victory was 57 points, also by Willingboro, just two years ago. The Chimeras won the 2018 Central Jersey Group 1 title 115-58 over Metuchen.

Willingboro also won South Jersey Group 2 in 2016, Central Jersey Group 2 in 2011 and 2012 and CJ-1 in 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

With its eighth indoor sectional title in the 13-year history of the meet, the Boro tied Rahway for most all-time indoor sectional titles. Rahway has won six North 2 Group 2 titles and two more in Central Jersey Group 2.

Willingboro has won 17 outdoor sectional titles to go with its eight indoors. The Chimeras have also won 17 state relays titles, 13 indoor state titles and 12 outdoor state titles.

Since 2017, Boro is 4-for-4 at the state relays, 4-for-4 at indoor sectionals and 2-for-3 at indoor states.

The Willingboro girls won just as impressively. But they deserve their own post soon!

400-METER DASH [11 points]: In what was only his third major 400 race, senior Zaire Clements edged Camden’s Dontae Guest with a 51.31, an overall indoor-outdoor PR, to earn the win.Clements’ previous PR was a 51.84 earlier this month. Senior Jamaho Kingsley added a point with a sixth-place finish in 54.02.

POLE VAULT [18 points]: Junior Glenn Ferguson (11-0) and sophomore Bryon Gary (10-6) went 1-2 for the Chimeras.

SHOT PUT [16 points]: Sophomore C.J. Johnson (48-5 3/4) and junior Deonte Allen (47-9 1/2) went 2-3, and junior Colin Douglas took fifth at 40-7 1/2, his first time surpassing 40 feet.

55-METER HURDLES: Sophomore Bryson Bright lowered his PR from 8.59 to 8.48 in the trials, earning a lane in the final, where he PR’d again at 8.46, missing the top six by 2-100ths of a second.

1.600-METER RUN [1 point]: Junior Roshane Waugh ran a seven-second PR of 4:45.89 for sixth place.

55-METER DASH [15 points]: Clements picked up another win in the 55 with a 6.67, with teammates Nate Robertson and Sheraton Green fourth and sixth with PRs of 6.79 and 6.82.

HIGH JUMP [24 points]: Kameron Smith gets the sectional title on a tiebreaker at 6-6 with Robertson, repeating their 1-2 finish from last year, and sophomore Anais Hughes made it a 1-2-3 sweep, matching his PR of 5-8 for third place.

1,600-METER RELAY [10 points]: Clements, Green, Kingsley and sophomore Jaylen Young ran 3:34.06 to win the 4-by-4 over neighboring Burlington City.

BOYS
State Relays (14)
1982 [Group 4]
1983 [Group 4]
1985 [Group 3]
1986 [Group 3]
1987 [Group 3]
1990 [Group 4]
1996 [Group 4]
2000 [Group 3]
2001 [Group 3]
2002 [Group 3]
2003 [Group 3]
2005 [Group 3]
2012 [Group 3]
2015 [Group 1]
2017 [Group 1]
2018 [Group 1]
2019 [Group 1]
2020 [Group 1]

Indoor Sectionals (4)
2011 [CJ-Group 2]
2012 [CJ-Group 2]
2015 [CJ-Group 1]
2016 [Group 2]
2017 [CJ-Group 1]
2018 [CJ-Group 1]
2019 [CJ-Group 1]
2020 [CJ-Group 1]

Indoor States (12)
1983 [Group 4]
1986 [Group 3]
1987 [Group 3]
1988 [Group 3]
1989 [Group 3]
1990 [Group 4]
1995 [Group 4]
1997 [Group 4]
2000 [Group 3]
2002 [Group 3]
2012 [Group 2]
2018 [Group 1]
2019 [Group 1]

Outdoor Sectionals (15)
1977 [Group 4]
1978 [Group 4]
1979 [Group 4]
1980 [Group 4]
1982 [Group 4]
1986 [Group 3]
1988 [Group 3]
1990 [Group 4]
1991 [Group 4]
1993 [Group 4]
2000 [Group 3]
2003 [Group 3]
2004 [CJ-3]
2005 [CJ-3]
2012 [Group 2]
2018 [Group 2]
2019 [Group 1]

Outdoor States (12)
1979 [Group 4]
1981 [Group 4]
1982 [Group 4]
1986 [Group 3]
1988 [Group 3]
1989 [Group 3]
1990 [Group 4]
1991 [Group 4]
1993 [Group 4]
1994 [Group 4]
2002 [Group 3]
2003 [Group 3]

Bishop Eustace graduate Montel Johnson, a junior at Monmouth, won his first career conference title Saturday.

Johnson won the weight throw at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships at the Armory with a 61-8 1/2 on his first throw. That’s a PR by three-quarters of an inch over his 61-7 3/4 earlier this month at Millrose.

His best mark coming into this season was a 57-0 1/4 from last winter.

The Gibbsboro native is Monmouth’s first MAAC champion in the weight throw since Errol Jeffrey won the event (and the shot put) at the 2014 meet.

Johnson had the four-best throws of the competition Saturday!

After opening with his winner, he threw 60-5 1/4 and 60-6 3/4 on his last two throws of the trials. In the finals, he started and finished with a foul but had a 61-5 3/4 in between, his third-best throw ever.

Nick Kocienda of Manhattan was second with a throw of 59-6 3/4.

Johnson specializes in the hammer throw outdoors. He was third in the conference last year with a PR of 183-2.

At Eustace, Johnson was third at states in the discus (157-5) and fifth in the shot (51-1).

He never threw the hammer until April of 2018 and didn’t throw the weight until January of 2018.