Lenape graduate Hayley Conway, a freshman at The College of New Jersey, has been named NJAC women’s track Rookie of the Week after recording a four-second PR in her first collegiate 800-meter race.

Conway negative-split a 2:22.43 to finish second at the TCNJ Invitational at the 168th Street Armory this weekend.

In her first college 800 and second college race, Conway took second to Kayla Rosario of Rutgers. Rosario ran 2:21.62.

Conway came through 400 meters in 72.1 but closed in 70.3 for a nine-second indoor PR.

Her time is No. 16 early on in Division 3 and No. 4 among freshmen. It’s also fastest in the early weeks of the season in the New Jersey Athletic Conference.

This is the kind of story we love. It’s not always about what superstar high school freshman comes out of the gate running 2:13, never to be heard from again. 

Conway wasn’t one of Jack Walsh and Gerald Richardson’s endless stable of 2:15 half-milers at Lenape. She had an outdoor PR of 2:26.38 and an indoor PR of 2:31.52 during her high school career.

She never placed in a county or sectional meet indoors or outdoors, although she did place 3rd in the intermediate hurdles last spring in the Olympic Conference American Division Championships.

But she never stopped working and never stopped improving and now she has a big 800 PR to show for it.

There’s something to be said for persistence and steady development. 

Every runner’s journey is different, and someone like Conway — who didn’t break 2:33 until the end of her sophomore year outdoors but kept at it — can be more inspiring than someone who experiences immediate success.

TCNJ is back at the Armory on Friday for the Ramapo Indoor Opener

Olympic high jumper Priscilla Frederick, a Paul VI graduate from Sicklerville, opened her indoor season with a 6-0 1/4 clearance, which places her in the top 10 in the world early on this winter.

Frederick cleared 6-0 1/4 at the Father Diamond Invitational at George Mason Sports Complex in Fairfax, Va., which ranks her No. 6 in the world.

After passing the first seven heights, she cleared 5-7 and 5-10 3/4 on her first attempt and then 6-0 1/4 on her third attempt. She took three tries at 6-2.

Frederick maintains dual citizenship and competes for Antigua + Barbuda, her father’s home country.

Frederick, 30, has indoor and outdoor PRs of 6-3 1/4. She hit 6-3 1/4 indoors in Hustopeče, Czech Republic, last January, and she has a 6-3 1/4 outdoor clearance from 2015 in a meet in Toronto. Both are national records. She’s a two-time Pan Am Games silver medalist (2015, 2019) and she placed 28th at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro at 6-2 1/2.

George Mason junior Avory Ransome, a Penns Grove graduate, bombed PRs over the last two weekends in two events.

Ransome placed second to teammate Jaylen Simmons in the shot at the Father Diamond Invitational at his home track in Fairfax, Va., last weekend with a PR of 52-11 with the 16-pound shot. Simmons won the event with a PR of his own at 57-5 1/4. This past weekend, he threw a PR of 49-7 3/4 in the weight throw and also hit 52 feet for a second straight week in the shot.

Ransome now ranks 4th in the A-10 in the shot put behind Simmons and two Virginia Commonwealth throwers – Jaekob Vollbrecht (56-1 1/4) and Ebenezer Belayneh (54-3 1/4).

He also ranks No. 4 in George Mason history indoors in the shot put.

Ransome’s previous shot put PR, which was also his indoor PR, was a 52-5 1/2 when he placed fourth at last year’s Atlantic 10 Championships, also at his home track. His previous weight throw PR was a 44-0 3/4 last January in another meet at George Mason.

His outdoor shot PR is 52-2 3/4 when he was fourth in the outdoor A-10 Championships last May at Amherst, Mass. Ransome was the A-10 shot put champion as a freshman with a 50-7 1/2 throw.

At Penns Grove, Ransome threw 55-11 1/2 and was a county, conference and sectional champ in the shot put and a sectional winner in the discus outdoors and a sectional champ indoors.

Ransome, a native of Pedricktown, graduated from Penns Grove with a 4.0 GPA and was a member of the National Honor Society and salutatorian.

His first name was spelled A-V-E-R-Y when he was in high school.

Rancocas Valley junior Tahmir Clark had a big day over the weekend, recording huge PRs in both the high jump and long jump.

Clark won the high jump at 6-2 and the long jump at 21-10 1/2, winning both events in the Monmouth University Invitational in West Long Branch.

If the MileSplit database is correct, Clark’s previous high jump PR was 5-8 and his long jump PR was 20-8.

Those are serious PRs!

The 5-8 came at the Bennett Center a week earlier. Before then his high jump PR was 5-6, which he hit a couple times early last spring. He hit 20-8 last May at the Cherokee Invitational. The 21-10 1/2 appears to be his first-ever indoor long jump competition.

Clark’s 21-10 1/2 is No. 1 in South Jersey and No. 3 in the state so far this year. His 6-2 is tied for No. 9 in the state and No. 3 in South Jersey behind Willingboro teammates Kameron Smith (6-6) and Nate Robertson (6-4).

It looks like the only long jumper R.V. has ever had that’s jumped farther indoors than Clark is Iverson Clement, who took 4th ta 2017 Easterns with a 22-6 1/2. He went on to jump 23-0 1/2 and win Group 4 states that spring but didn’t compete as a senior.

Another RV jumper, Jalen Blango, also a junior, PR’d as well with a 21-7 1/4 for second, just behind Clark. Blango, also a first-year indoor competitor, extended his indoor PR by over a foot and a half. He had jumped 20-0 1/2 at Ursinus back in December. Blango has a 21-6 1/2 outdoor PR from last year’s County Open on his home track.

Blango’s jump is No. 4 in the state this year and No. 2 in South Jersey. Looks like they’re the first teammates in Burlington County history to jump 21-6 indoors in the same year, although Willingboro may have in 1981. I’ll check that.

Clark also placed sixth in the 55-meter high hurdles and again if the database is correct it looks like it was the first hurdles race of his life indoors or outdoors. He ran 8.59 to win an unseeded section and his time held up for sixth overall.

Here’s my best attempt at an all-time indoor Burlington County list. Corrections and additions are always welcome!

25-5 1/2 … Carl Lewis (Willingboro), 1979
24-6 1/4 … Gerard Reynolds (Willingboro), 1990
24-2 1/2 … Isaac Samuels (Kennedy), 1983
24-0 3/4 … Mike Morrison (Willingboro), 2002
22-9 3/4 … John Meekins (Cinnaminson), 1987
22-8 1/2 … Chris Steliga (Cherokee), 2008
22-7 3/4 … Hede Dewberry (Willingboro), 1981
22-7 1/2 … Chase Campbell [Lenape], 2014
22-6 1/2 … Iverson Clement [Rancocas Valley], 2017
22-4 1/4 … Sean Mayers (Cherokee), 2002
21-11 3/4 … Areon Robinson (Kennedy), 1985
21-11 3/4 … Mel Long (Willingboro), 1982
21-11 … Dwayne Ross (Moorestown), 1989
21-10 1/2 … Paul Grimes (Shawnee), 1983
21-10 1/2 … Tahmir Clark [Rancocas Valley], 2020
21-10 1/4 … Justin Farrar (Willingboro), 1997

In his first race in 10 months, Antonio Tarantino won the 200-meter dash at the TCNJ Invite this weekend at the Armory.

Tarantino, a Paul VI graduate and sophomore at Rutgers, ran 21.56 to easily beat the field. He finished four meters ahead of second-place Grant Swinton of Academy of the Arts, who ran 21.89.

Tarantino competed in only one outdoor meet for Rutgers last year, running legs on two relay teams at the USF Bulls Invitational in Tampa. 

This race was his first open 200 since March 1 of last year, when he placed second in the 200 at IC4A’s in Boston with a wind-legal personal-best 21.05.  

Tarantino, a Blackwood native, has a wind-legal outdoor PR of 21.07 from the 2018 New Balance Championships, where he placed third. That was his last outdoor 200.

Tarantino’s 21.56 is No. 3 in the Big East this year behind Ohio State junior teammates Eric Harrison (21.20) and Tyler Johnson (21.35), who raced at the Jim Green Invitational in Lexington, Ky., this past weekend.

Egg Harbor’s shuttle hurdles team is off to a hot start this winter. The Eagles ran 30.83 at the Bennett Center, the No. 1 time in the state. Winslow was less than a meter back with the No. 2 time in the state at 30.92.

Results from that meet don’t include names, but presumably Anthony Vazquez anchored — he has a South Jersey-leading 7.50 to his credit this winter, No. 3 in the state — and William Spence, Marcus Wood and Malachi Wesley were also part of that EHT group. 

Winslow’s group likely included Terry McNeill, Brandon Green Green and Isaiah Lewis. 

If you know who Winslow’s fourth hurdler was or if any of these names are wrong please let me know in the comment’s section!

Both EHT and Winslow earned a spot on the all-time South Jersey top-25 list, which includes every sub-31 time that we know of. 

There aren’t a lot of opportunities to run the shuttle hurdles indoors, and it’s really only run in meets at Ocean Breeze and the Armory, but for what it’s worth EHT and Winslow rank No. 2 and No. 3 nationally, according to the MileSplit database. Western Branch of Chesapeake, Va., ran 30.20 at the Marine Corps Holiday Classic late last month at the Armory.

ALL-TIME S.J. SHUTTLE HURDLE LIST
29.45 … Deptford, 2019
29.72 … Winslow Twp., 2004
29.74 … Egg Harbor, 2009
29.5h … Woodrow Wilson, 1999
29.6h … Camden, 1978
20.7h … Paul VI, 1972
29.8h … Willingboro, 1982
29.9h … Moorestown, 1975
30.0h … Willingboro, 1978
30.07 … Oakcrest, 2012
30.22 … Camden, 2009
30.26 … Winslow Twp., 2003
30.41 … Camden, 1996
30.47 … Willingboro, 2012
30.52 … Washington Twp., 2012
30.3h … Camden, 1999
30.64 … Seneca, 2012
30.4h … Camden, 1979
30.4h … Camden, 1997
30.81 … Willingboro, 2016
30.83 … Egg Harbor Twp., 2020
30.90 … Winslow Twp. 2015
30.92 … Winslow Twp., 2020
30.94 … Deptford, 2018

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.