St. Augustine senior David Kenny ran a four-second 800 PR Sunday, clocking 1:58.84 at the 757 Showdown in Virginia Beach.

Kenny was racing his first 800 since February of last year, when he PR’d at 2:02.11 for sixth place in the Parochial A state meet at the Bennett Center.

Kenny, running unattached, placed seventh overall. His outdoor PR is 2:02.37 from the 2019 South Jersey Invitational at Delsea, so this was an overall PR as well.

His time is a school record and fastest by any South Jersey non-public half-miler since Bishop Eustace’s Brian Laskowski ran 1:56.50 at the Armory in January of 2008.

Kenny ran out of an unseeded heat, winning the fourth of six sections by over two seconds, then watching as only one runner ran faster in the fifth race and five in the fastest section.

He also ran 52.40 in the 400. He’s got a 51.80 PR from last month at the Armory.

Tionna Tobias, a University of Iowa sophomore from Winslow, moved into the No. 8 spot in school history in the pentathlon Saturday.

Tobias placed seventh in the Big Ten Conference multi-event championships at the University of Illinois in Champaign, with a score of 3,470 points.

Her score is No. 9 in NCAA Division 1 among freshmen and No. 2 among Big Ten freshmen, behind Wisconsin’s Mackenzie Heyroth, who scored 3,496 points Saturday.

Tobias’s best event was the 60-meter hurdles, where she ran 8.79 for 954 points. She had the 5th-fastest time overall.

She recorded her a PR of 2:26.88 for 732 points in the 800. She won the first of two 800 sections and finished fourth overall.

Tobias also cleared 5-1 in the high jump for 678 points, long jumped 17-3 1/4 for 631 points and threw the shot put 30-0 3/4 for 475 points.

Tobias has run 8.50 in the highs, long jumped 18-11 1/4 and high jumped 5-5 in the past couple weeks, so there’s plenty of room for her to build on that 3,470 score.

In her only previous pentathlon, last year at Nebraska, Tobias scored 2,724 points, failing to clear a height in the high jump and scoring zero points in the event.

Iowa pentathlon all-time top-10
4,200 … Tria Simmons, 2019
4,123 … Jenny Kimbro, 2019
3,974 … Tammilee Kerr, 2008
3,798 … Chris Davenport, 1983
3,701 … Kamesha Marshall, 2005
3,511 … Tiff Pedersen, 2004
3,472 … Sarah Ryan, 2013
3,470 … Tionna Tobias, 2021
3,427 … Maureen Abel, 1979
3,421 … Allison Wahrman, 2017

Paulsboro senior Amirah Sharpe ran a personal-best 57.15 and twin sister Arianna Sharpe ran 58.49 Saturday in the 400-meter dash at the 757 Showdown! 2021 track meet at the Virginia Beach Sports Center.

Amirah Sharpe’s time is No. 3 in Gloucester County history and it’s 1-100th of a second off the fastest South Jersey Group 1 time ever. In 2014, Penns Grove’s Faleesha Dowe ran 57.14 to win the state Group 1 meet at the Bennett Center.

Amirah, a three-time state Group 1 champ at 800 meters, placed 4th racing in the 24th of 25 sections Saturday and Arianna finished 10th overall competing in the 22nd section. 

Amirah Sharpe’s previous indoor (and overall) PR was a 57.58 earlier this month on the same track. Arianna Sharpe’s indoor PR is a 58.40 last month, also on the same track. She’s run 57.62 outdoors from the 2018 state Group 1 meet at Franklin Township High.

Amirah Sharpe’s time is No. 24 in South Jersey history and No. 3 in Gloucester County history:

The Sharpe sisters competed unattached because the New Jersey indoor season hasn’t officially started yet and New Jersey schools aren’t permitted to compete out of state this year. 

Here are all the sub-58 times in Gloucester County indoor history:

55.83 … Kiara Lester [Deptford], 2016
56.21 … Dana Burnett [Williamstown], 1997
57.15 … Amirah Sharpe [Paulsboro], 2021
57.44 … Nicole Tiernan [Washington Twp.], 2011
57.47 … Briana Crofton [Delsea], 2011
57.57 … Audrey Wilson [Deptford], 2008
57.58 … Thailia Cooper [Kinsgway], 2015
57.80 … Megan Tiernan [Washington Twp.], 2010
57.85 … Jackie Dim [Washington Twp.], 2008

Palmyra graduate To’Mara Carmichael, now a senior at NCAA Dvision 2 Queens College in Charlotte, N.C., opened her season Friday by winning the 20-pound weight throw at the Winter Relays at Virginia Military Academy in Lexington,Va.

Carmichael threw 51-9, winning by nearly four feet.

Carmichael set her PR of 58-1 1/4 last year when she won the South Atlantic Indoor Championships in Winston-Salem, N.C. 

She also was a conference champ outdoors in the shot put in 2018 at Johnson . Smith University in Charlotte with a throw of 42-8 3/4.

Carmichael also placed 4th in the shot put at the indoor conference meet last year with a 41-7 3/4. Her shot PR is 44-1 1/2, but she didn’t throw the shot Friday.

Carmichael ranks No. 2 in Queens history in the shot and No. 1 in the weight throw indoors and is the school record outdoors in the shot (42-8 3/4), hammer (161-10) and discus (144-9) outdoors.

Carmichael was a three-time state Group 1 discus champion, winning the event in 2015, 2016 and 2017 for Palmyra High. She PR’d at 139-8 at the 2016 meet – No. 13 in South Jersey history – and in 2017 went on to place 3rd at the Meet of Champions.

 

Paulsboro seniors and twin sisters Amirah and Arianna Sharpe ran two of the fastest 500s in state history recently in a meet in Virginia.

Both ran under the existing South Jersey record in the infrequently run middle-distance race.

Amirah and Arianna, competing unattached since the New Jersey indoor season hasn’t officially begun, placed 2nd and 4th in the 2 1/2-lap race at the Virginia Showcase at the Virginia Beach Sports Center.

Halyn Senegal of St. Louis High in Lake Charles, La., won the race in 1:14.92, Amirah was 2nd in 1:15.73, Charlee Crawford of St. Georges Tech in Middletown, Del., was 3rd in 1:16.09, and Arianna placed 4th in 1:17.18.

Amirah and Arianna now rank No. 5 and No. 9 in state history. The previous South Jersey record was 1:17.31, set last year by Pleasantville’s Maya Harper at the New Balance Games at the Armory.

Here’s a look at the all-time New Jersey top-10:

All-Time New Jersey 500-Meter List
1:10.22 … Athing Mu [Trenton], 2020
1:12.99 … Janine Davis Queen of Peace 2005
1:13.51 … Olivia Baker [Columbia], 2011
1:14.35 … Hazel Clark Columbia 1995
1:15.73 … Amirah Sharpe [Paulsboro], 2021
1:16.36 … Alexis Roper [North Hunterdon], 2011
1:16.77 … Sam Anderson [Matawan], 2016
1:17.06 … Lexi Del Gizzo [Tenafly], 2016
1:17.18 … Arianna Sharpe [Paulsboro], 2021
1:17.31 … Maya Harper [Pleasantville], 2020

The Sharpe twins also went 1-2 in the 400 at the Technique Holiday Invitational on the same track at the Virginia Beach Sports Center.

Amirah won the race in 57.58 and Arianna was second in 58.40.

For Amirah, the time is an indoor-outdoor PR. She ran 57.69 in an AAU summer track meet in North Carolina in June of 2019 but her high school PR was 58.15 from the 2019 state Group 1 meet at Franklin township High. 

Amirah is a three-time New Jersey Group 1 state champ in the 800 and has a PR of 2:15.05 from the 2018 outdoor state meet, but she didn’t run the 800 in Virginia and actually hasn’t run an open 800 since the 2019 outdoor Meet of Champions at Northern Burlington, when she was seventh in 2:16.29 as a Paulsboro sophomore.

The 57.58 is a school record and ranks No. 7 in Gloucester County indoor history. It’s also fastest by a South Jersey Group 1 girl indoors since Faleesha Dowe of Penns Grove ran 57.14 in 2014.

Amirah has also run 7.66 for the 55-meter dash this winter and 25.84 for 200.

Arianna Sharpe’s 58.40 is an indoor PR. She ran 57.62 at the 2018 outdoor state meet. She also won the 200 in Virginia with a PR time of 25.31.

Even though the Sharpes were competing independently, because their marks were made during the indoor season, they are eligible for records and all-time lists.

Amirah Sharpe’s time is No. 9 in the world this year, according to the IAAF international performance list, which is pretty cool to see even though the 500 has only been contested this winter at a handful of high school meets, mainly in Virginia.

University of Iowa freshman Nylah Perry, a 2020 graduate of Winslow, ran 56.33 in her first collegiate 400.

Perry won the 400 at the Husker Triangular on the University of Nebraska’s Devaney Center in Lincoln, outleaning sophomore Danielle Josephs of Minnesota by 4-100ths of a second.

It was Perry’s first 400 since she won the Meet of Champions last March at Ocean Breeze with an indoor PR of 56.19. She’s run as fast as 55.97 outdoors.

Perry’s  time is No. 9 among all freshmen in NCAA Division 1 so far this year, No. 8 in the Big Ten Conference and No. 2 among Big Ten freshmen, behind Minnesota’s Abigail Schaffe, who ran 55.53 this past weekend.

Perry also ran a 56.5 anchor split on Iowa’s 1,600-meter relay team, which ran 3:45.23, finishing second to Minnesota’s 3:43.88.

Cherokee graduate Lucciano Pizarro added 3 1/2 feet to his PR Saturday in his second college meet.

Pizarro, a freshman at Penn State, threw the 16-pound shot 53-10 1/2 in the Penn State Invitational after making his college debut with a 50-3 1/2 throw last weekend, also on his home track at Penn State.

Pizarro placed fourth overall and second among Penn State throwers. 

Rutgers junior Adam Hunt from Collingswood took second in the weight throw with a 56-7 1/4. He hit 57-6 1/2 last weekend at Penn State. His PR is 57-8 1/2 from a meet at The College of New Jersey last January.

Turnersville’s Kami Joe Hickson, a University of Maryland freshman, ran 2:13.14 Saturday in her first college 800, placing fourth at the Penn State Invittional in State College.

Hickson finished just behind Penn State freshman Victoria Vanriele, who won eight straight N.J. indoor or outdoor Meet of Champions 800s while at Governor Livingston High in Berkeley Heights. Vanriele ran 2:08.45 in her first collegiate 800. Her high school PRs were 2:07.24 indoors and 2:05.15 outdoors.

Saturday’s race was Hickson’s first 800 since last March 1, when she was 4th in the PTFCA indoor states, also at Penn State.

Hickson attended Washington Township High through indoor season of her sophomore year. She ran 2:12.72 as a freshman at the 2017 outdoor state meet, No. 3 in South Jersey indoor history. She was the state Group 4 800 champ as a freshman with a 2:14.99 at the Bennett Center.

She transferred to Neumann Goretti High in South Philly before sophomore outdoor season, and her indoor PR is 2:08.58 from 2019 New Balance Nationals at the Armory in New York, when she placed eighth. 

She ran 1:36.23 in a 600 last weekend in her first college race, also at Penn State.

Hickson is the daughter of Don Hickson, who played football and ran track at Highland and played football at Georgia.

Hickson was the 1990 Group 3 indoor state champ in the 55-meter high hurdles in 7.3 and was fourth in the Meet of Champions and then placed third outdoors in Group 3 in the 110-meter highs in 14.2. Hickson’s brother Brandon played basketball at Highland.

Sterling graduate Janell Rowe, a University Toledo senior, got her delayed 2021 season started in a Bowling Green-Toledo dual meet at Green-Perry Fieldhouse in Bowling Green, Ohio, on Friday.

Rowe long jumped 17 feet for second place and cleared 4-9 3/4 in the high jump for third place. Her best event, the triple jump, wasn’t contested.

Rowe has indoor PRs of 39-11 1/4 in the triple [No. 9 in school history], 18-5 3/4 in the long jump and 4-11 in the high jump and has also sprinted and hurdled for the Rockets. She’s No. 5 in school history outdoors in the triple jump at 39-4.

It was Rowe’s first competition in 11 months, since she competed in the Mid-American Conference Championships in Akron last February.

Lucciano Pizarro, a Penn State freshman from Cherokee, opened his season by throwing the 16-pound shot a personal-best 50-3 1/4 and placing fourth in the Nittany Lion Opener this past weekend.

Pizarro surpassed 50 feet on two throws, with a 50-1 1/2 and the 50-3 1/4. Penn State swept the top four spots in the meet.

It was Pizarro’s first meet since December of 2019, when he threw 49-5 3/4 in another meet at PSU’s Horace Ashenfelter track. That was his only meet last season, and Penn State continues to list him as a freshman.

Pizarro won the 2018 Meet of Champions with a throw of 60-11 with the 12-pound shot as a Cherokee senior in the spring of 2018.

In the same meet, Rutgers junior Adam Hunt, a Collingswood graduate, threw a 57-6 1/2 in the weight throw, taking second. Hunt threw two inches off his PR of 57-8 1/2 set at a meet at The College of New Jersey last January.