Julian Pratt never broke 11 seconds for 100 meters or 23 seconds for 200 meters in high school, but on Monday afternoon he broke the Rowan school record for the 60-meter dash.

His own record.

https://www.rowanathletics.com/sports/2008/2/26/MTrackRecords.aspx?path=mtrack

Pratt lowered the Rowan 60 record from 6.93 to 6.92 with his third career New Jersey Athletic Conference title at the NJAC Championships at Ocean Breeze. He set the school record 6.92 last year at the same meet when he placed second to Cameron Dobbins of Rutgers-Camden via Williamstown.

Pratt also won the 100-meter dash at the 2018 and 2019 NJAC outdoor championships. He’s been first or second at six straight NJAC title meets.

Pratt, a Camden High graduate, had PRs of 11.11 and 23.06 in high school. 

On Monday, Pratt ran 6.97 in the fourth of four 60 heats. Justin Percival of SUNY Farmingdale, racing the first prelim, led all qualifiers at 6.95.

Jah’mere Beasley, a Sterling grad and Rowan freshman, was the only other qualifier under 7. He ran a personal-best 6.98 in the second race of the trials. His previous PR was 7.02 on the same track earlier this month.

In the final, Pratt finished an instant before Beasley, Pratt in 6.92 and Beasley with another PR of 6.94. Percival ran third in 6.96. 

Pratt and Beasley are ranked No. 14 and No. 21 in NCAA Division 3 and they go into the Atlantic Region meet in Rochester ranked No. 1 and 3 in the region. Percival ran 6.94 last month at the Armory.

Before Pratt ran 6.93 last year, the school record in the 60 was 6.95, set by Freehold graduate Dave Benjamin in 2017.

Beasley’s 6.94 makes him the No. 4 freshman in NCAA Division 3

Beasley also won the 200 with a 22.22, which is No. 15 in Division 3 and No. 3 among freshmen. He has a college best of 22.21 from a meet at Ocean Breeze in January.

At Sterling, Beasley ran as fast as 21.30 outdoors, placing 4th in the Meet of Champions last spring. He never ran indoor track in high school, so this is his first season of running the 200 on a tight, banked one-lane track.

 

Robert Abrams won his third conference championship Monday, winning the NJAC mile title in 4:16.57 at Ocean Breeze.

The lead group of four runners came through 800 meters together in 2:10, but Abrams, a College of New Jersey senior from Cherry Hill West, threw out a 31.8 fifth lap to gap the field. With 400 to go, he had built a three-second lead, and he won by 12 meters over Ramapo’s Jason Rodriguez in 4:16.57. 

Abrams negative’d 2:10.0 and 2:06.6.

Abrams also won NJAC titles in the 5,000 on the track last spring (15:15.03) and in cross country this past fall (24:37.9 over 8K at Stockton University).

Earlier this month, Abrams ran an all-time TCNJ No. 3 4:12.53 mile at Boston University. He’s also run 8:42.38 for 3,000 meters this year.

Teammate Mike Zurzolo took third in 4:18.88 off a 63.9 final 400. That’s a monster PR for the former Cherokee runner. 

Zurzolo shaved 2 1/2 seconds off his mile PR of 4:21.30 from last month. Before that he had an indoor PR of 4:24.57 from last winter.  

Lenape graduate Kevin Lauer, a sophomore at Rowan, was 5th in 4:26.04.

Abrams and Zurzolo are ranked No. 2 and 6 in the mile in the NCAA Division 3 Atlantic Region, according to TFRRS. The NCAA Atlantic Region Championships are scheduled for March 6 at Nazareth College in Rochester, N.Y.

 

Ronetta Hunter was sitting in 5th place at the MAAC Championships Sunday as she stepped to the shot put circle with one throw to go. Her best throw of her first five was a 44-7 3/4.

Here’s what the shot put standings looked like at the Armory with one throw left:

46-2 3/4 … Alexandra Preckajlo [Manhattan]
45-5 ……. Lasma Padedze [Manhattan]
45-4 1/4 … Jordan Wildermuth [Monmouth]
45-1 3/4 … Chibuzo Amonu [Monmouth]
44-7 3/4 … Ronetta Hunter [Rider]
44-6 ……. Mike Maples [Quinnipiac]

Hunter, a Rider senior and Burlington Township graduate, was enjoying a consistent series after opening the trials with a foul – 44-4 1/4, 44-7 3/4, 44-0, 44-5 3/4. With an indoor PR of 45-2 from ECACs last March at Boston University, she was only a few inches off her best indoor throw ever.

But then, on her final throw? She bombed a 46-4 to win by 1 1/4 inches over Preckajlo.

That’s not only her best indoor throw by over a foot, it’s only 1 1/4 inches off her outdoor PR of 46-5 1/4, set last spring in a meet at Duke University in Durham, N.C.

Her winning throw moved her up to No. 3 in Rider history, behind only Wayne High graduate Jazmine Fenlator – the Olympic bobsledder – who threw 48-6 3/4 in 2007 and Red Bank Catholic graduate Fidele Junes, who threw 46-6 1/4 last year. Hunter is also No. 3 outdoors with her 46-5 1/4, behinds Junes (49-3 3/4) and Fenlator (48-8 1/4).

Hunter also scored a couple points in the weight throw with a PR 53-9 3/4. Her previous PR was a 50-10 3/4 in a meet earlier this month at Ocean Breeze. That 53-9 3/4 is No. 9 in school history.

Rider won its third straight team title, and it won by half a point over Quinnipiac, so without Hunter’s two PRs the 2020 MAAC Team Trophy would be residing right now in Hamden, Conn., instead of Lawrenceville, N.J.

Kaila Carter, a Cherokee graduate and a senior at The College of New Jersey, won the NJAC hurdles title Monday at Ocean Breeze and shattered a 10-year-old school record.

Carter ran 8.89 over the 60-meter highs and edged teammate Kassidy Mulrayne, who was second in 9.03. TCNJ went 1-2-4-5 for 27 points in the race. Annette Wanjiku of West Deptord was 4th in 9.14 for TCNJ.

TCNJ won its third straight NJAC indoor team title. 

It was Carter’s first NJAC title after a 2nd, a 3rd, a 4th and a 6th either indoors or outdoors.

Her 8.89 broke the school record of 8.91, set in 2010 by Priscilla Senyah. 

Carter’s previous PR was an 8.92, which she ran at Ithaca in 2018 and again at George Mason last month.

Carter’s time is No. 8 in NCAA Division 3 and No. 1 in the Atlantic Region.

 

That was one heck of a shot put PR Monday night by Delsea junior Joe Metzger, who bombed a 54-1 1/4 in the SJTCA meet at the Bubble.

Metzger’s previous PR was a 51-0 at Ocean Breeze earlier this month. He’s only about a month removed from his first 50-foot throw, at the Bubble on Jan. 27.

You don’t get many three-foot PRs in the shot put! But this is Delsea, which turns out quality throwers every year!

The 54-1 1/4 – which led a Delsea sweep with senior Rick Kurczeski (47-4) and sophomore Josh Caudill (47-0 1/4) – is No. 3 in South Jersey this year, behind only John Purvis of Winslow (60-0) and Hammonton’s Nate Karl (56-11).

That’s the best mark by a Gloucester County underclassman since Nick Pulli of West Deptford threw 56-0 1/2 in 2013 and it makes him the No. 1 underclassman in South Jersey this year and No. 5 in the state.

Metzger is the third Delsea thrower in the last eight years to hit 54 feet indoors. Josh Awotunde, a 5-time All-America at South Carolina who ranks 25th in the world this winter at 67-1 with the 16-pound ball, threw 57-8 1/4 at 2013 Easterns. Bill Goldsborough threw 58-8 3/4 two years ago. Additionally, Ryan Knight threw 55-5 1/2 back in 1996. 

Another 10 3/4 inches and Metzger will give Delsea four 55-foot shot putters!

Meanwhile, Kurczeski, a senior, threw half an inch off his PR, and Caudill obliterated his previous PR of 44-8 1/2 from three weeks ago at the Bubble. That’s an indoor-outdoor overall PR for Caudill, whose mark make him the No. 3 sophomore in South Jersey behind Willingboro’s C.J. Johnson (50-4) and St. Augustine’s Franklin Simms (49-10), both at the state relays.

He’s also the top Gloucester County sophomore since Kingsway’s Sam Shine threw 47-4 1/4 in 2014.

Huge first conference meet for Rider freshman Sam Aviles, who won the 55-meter hurdles and placed second in the 55-meter dash just under 15 minutes apart at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships.

Aviles, a Palmyra graduate, ran a personal-best 8.09 to win the 60-meter hurdles then raced back down to the paddock and took second in the 60 in 6.88, just 1-100th of a second off the PR he had set in the trials.

Aviles’ previous hurdles PR was 8.11 from Ocean Breeze back in December. He ran 8.12 to lead all qualifiers in the prelims before his 8.09 in the final.

Aviles’ 8.09 equals No. 8 in Rider history and is 1-100th of a second behind Maple Shade graduate Brandon Hicks’ 8.08 from 2003 for No. 7. Moorestown’s Dwayne Robinson is No. 5 on that list from 1992. The last Rider hurdler to run faster was James Burroughs, who ran 7.96 in 2013.

Incredibly, Aviles is one of three college freshmen from South Jersey that’s run sub-8.10 this year. Sincere Rhea of Penn State and St. Augustine, the indoor national champ last winter, is the No. 3 freshman in NCAA Division 1 at 7.81. Syracuse freshman Naseem Smith of Syracuse (8.08) and Aviles are both also among the top 25 freshmen nationally.

The Pierontoni Sisters won the South Jersey Group 4 team championship Sunday.

OK, that’s not exactly true. The Pierontoni sisters got a lot of help Sunday in their sectional championship performance. Senior pole vaulter Allison Bobst, one of South Jersey’s most versatile athletes, cleared 10-0 and tied for second place for seven big points.

But the Pierontoni’s — seniors Allison and Emily and freshman Aubrey — did score enough points Sunday to win an extremely competitive, extremely deep South Jersey Group 4 by themselves.

Kingsway scored 58 points, and the Pierontoni’s scored 51 of them in the South Jersey Group 4 meet at the Bubble in Toms River.

Kingsway outscored some of the state’s top teams — mighty Egg Harbor Township was second with 49 points, outdoor state Group 4 co-champ Millville was third with 44 1/3, sprint/hurdles powerhouse Eastern was fourth at 36 and state Group 4 co-champ Rancocas Valley fifth at 22.

Allison Pierontoni won the 800 in 2:21.24, PR’d in a very fast 1,600 at 5:04.98 and won the 3,200 in 11:19.46.

Emily took second in the 800 in 2:21.72 – a big indoor PR from her 2:24.03 last weekend at Ocean Breeze – and also in the 3,200 in 11:26.60, a six-second PR from earlier this month.

And Aubrey added a fast sixth-place in the 1,600 with a 5:13.84, a 3 1/2-second PR, and also ran 11:43.25 for fourth in the 3,200.

The sectional title is the second indoors for Kingsway, which won SJ-4 in 2015.

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.