Isaiah Arzu, a Rancocas Valley senior, ran a big 55-meter dash PR Monday.

Arzu ran 6.68, lowering his PR from 6.77 that he ran in a SJTCA meet last winter at the Bubble.

His performance would be No. 2 in South Jersey and No. 8 in the state this year but isn’t eligible for performance lists because it was made in a polar bear meet with Cinnaminson outdoors at Rancocas Valley.

Deptford’s John Adams is South Jersey’s top sprinter at 55 meters so far this winter with a 6.63 last month at the Bubble.

The Red Devils now have four sprinters who’ve run 6.75 or faster either indoors or outdoors. Junior Herbert Quarterman ran 6.72 last week, junior Masai Byrd ran 6.74 last month and junior David Murry ran 6.75 on Monday. All are PRs.  Murray shattered his previous PR of 6.95 from last month.

Looks like R.V. has the makings of a pretty good 400-meter relay team outdoors! 

Miekel House set the R.V. school record of 6.45 when he placed 3rd at last year’s Eastern’s at the Armory.

Eastern senior Jailya Ash ran the fastest hurdles time in the state this year in a meet against Winslow Friday at the Bubble.

Ash ran 8.19 in her first race at the 55-meter hurdles this winter. She ran 8.72 last month at adidas Indoor Nationals over the 60-meter barriers, 

Ash raced Winslow’s Shevell Higgs, who has run 8.40 and was runner-up in the 55 highs at last year’s indoor state Group 3 meet. Higgs took second in this race in 8.74.

Ash and Higgs rank No. 1 and 2 in the state this year, Ash with her 8.19 and Higgs at 8.62 from another Bubble meet two weeks ago.

Rancocas Valley junior Anabella Chin is the only other South Jersey girl to run sub-9 this year, and she did that placing second to Higgs at the Bubble last month.

The U. Conn-bound Ash has a 55 hurdles PR of 8.03 from a year ago tomorrow, when she won the Meet of Champions at Ocean Breeze. That’s No. 8 in South Jersey history.

Cherry Hill East junior Dillon Page recorded a four-inch personal-best of 6-6 Friday at the Bubble.

Page, in his first meet since last year’s Meet of Champions, surpassed his PR of 6-2, which he hit four times last indoor season. His outdoor PR is 6-0 from the 2019 Group 4 sectionals.

According to MileSplit’s performance list, 6-6 is the No. 1 mark in the state this year and equals No. 15 nationally during this abbreviated indoor season.

Page’s mark equals No. 3 in Cherry Hill East history indoors. 

Uchenna Njoku cleared 6-8 at the 2009 state Group 4 meet at the Bubble, Andrew Athias hit 6-9 at the 2011 state Group 4 meet at the Bubble and Jared Athias cleared 6-6 in 2013 at the Metropolitan Invite at the Armory. Njoku also holds the outdoor record at 6-8 from Group 4 sectionals in 2009 at Egg Harbor.

Page last indoor season placed 3rd at sectionals at 6-0, 2nd at states at 6-2 and 9th in the Meet of Champions at 6-2.

Daniel Do of Absegami, Stephen Conte of Paul VI and Chris Shaw of Washington Township Helped Stockton sweep the top 5 spots in a five-team XC meet Saturday.

Do ran 17:37 and placed 3rd, Conte 17:38 for 4th and Shaw 18:01 for 5th over 5,000 meters in the Stockton Invitational in Galloway Township, and Stockton outscored second-place New Jersey City University 15-49. Rutgers Camden was third with 67 points.

Cooper Knorr of Manalapan won the race in 16:08 and Kyle Navalance from Toms River North was second in 16:56. Knorr, Navalance and Do are seniors, Conte is a junior and Shaw a sophomore.

It was Stockton’s first XC meet in 16 months and it was Conte’s first race in 2 1/2 years after missing last year’s XC season with an injury.

Rutgers Camden was led by junior Vinny Maine of Camden Catholic in 7th and sophomore Andrew Barnhardt of Audubon in 8th.

Stockton will host the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships on March 20.

Sterling graduate Jessie Klenk, a Stockton University junior, was the overall winner in a small XC meet Saturday featuring runners from five New Jersey colleges. 

Klent ran 20:37 over 5,000 meters on Stockton’s campus in Galloway Township, and freshman teammate and Eastern graduate Kierstin Clem was second at 21:13.

Stockton was the only school with five finishers. Stockton senior Jamie Wun from Moorestown, freshman Madeline Corbett from Mainland Regional and senior Melanie Ressler from Fair Lawn finished 5th, 6th and 7th overall.

Clem and Corbett were both running their first career collegiate race and their first XC race since 2019 sectionals at Delsea.

Also in the top 10 were Gloucester County College freshman Jeanine Morrow of Washington Township (8th) and Rutgers-Camden freshman Rebecca Savage from Audubon.

Cherokee graduate Abby Gilmore earned All-America honors Friday when she ran a leg on Olivet Nazarene’s 6th-place 3,200-meter relay team at the NAIA Indoor Nationals.

Gilmore ran a personal-best 2:21 split and Olivet Nazarene University of Bourbonnais, Ill., ran 9:32.45 at the Ruth Donohue First Dakota Fieldhouse on the campus of Mount Marty University in Yankton, S.D.

Gilmore ran the third leg. The Tigers ran 9:35.64 Wednesday, the 7th-fastest time in the trials, to qualify for the final. This is the third time the Tigers have earned indoor All-America honors in the 4-by-8. They placed 6th in 2014 and 7th in 2016.

Bishop Eustace graduate Connor Melko was Lehigh’s No. 2 runner and placed 17th overall at the Patriot League Cross Country Championships Friday in Bethlehem.

Melko ran 22:40 over the 4.7-mile course on Lehigh’s south campus, an average of 4:49 per mile and finished just five seconds behind senior Bradford DeMassa, Lehigh’s No. 1 runner.

Melko, a Mickleton, Gloucester County native, placed 46th in the Patriot League XC meet as a freshman in November of 2019, so he improved 29 spots in one year. This was only Melko’s second race in the last year.

Army went 1-2-8-9-21 and won the team title 41-49 over Boston University. Lehigh finished fifth.

Richie Castaneda finished 15th, Ben Woodard 20th and Sebastien Reed 26th in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference XC Championships Friday.

Castaneda, a Rider sophomore from Camden Catholic, ran 25:32 over 8,000 meters at Seaview Golf Club in Galloway Township, outside Absecon in Atlantic County. He finished 90th in the conference meet as a freshman in the fall of 2019, so he improved 75 spots since his last MAAC meet. His 25:32 is a 5K or 8K PR on any course, shattering his previous PR set in October of 2019 at West Windsor Fields near Princeton by more than a minute and a half.

Woodard, a Rider junior from Highland, ran 25:39, which was also a PR, breaking his 5M or 8K best of 25:43 set in that same race at Princeton in the fall of 2019.

Reed, a Monmouth freshman from Pitman, ran 25:59 in his second career college race and first over 8,000 meters.

Castaneda was Rider’s top finisher and Woodard was the Broncos’ third man. Reed was Monmouth’s fifth finisher and the 4th freshman overall across the line.

Iona of New Rochelle, N.Y., won with a perfect 15 points, sweeping the top seven spots. Monmouth outraced Rider 77-94 for second place.

Delsea grad Colin Kane, a St. Joe’s sophomore, recorded a top-20 finish Friday in the Atlantic 10 XC Championships.

Kane ran 25:04 over five miles at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville, Va., just outside of Richmond. He was out slowly – in 45th place through one mile and in 30th at the 3.4K before picking up 11 spots over the final 5.6K.

Kane was St. Joe’s No. 2 runner, finishing behind only senior Matt Scarpill, who was 4th in 24:41. 

Camden Catholic graduate Matt Coffey, another St. Joe’s sophomore, finished 68th in 26:20 and St. Joe’s freshman Max Kelly from Ocean was three seconds back of Coffey.

Richmond won with 44 points. St. Joe’s took 4th with 88 points.

In only her second college race, Kingsway graduate Allie Pierontoni, a freshman at Monmouth, placed 6th out of over 100 runners Friday at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference XC Championships.

Pierontoni ran 22:15 over 6,000 meters at Seaview Golf Course in Galloway Township, Atlantic County. She was Monmouth’s No. 1 runner and finished only 32 seconds behind conference champion Gemma Nuttall of Iona.

In her only previous race as a collegian, Pierontoni ran 18:22 over 5,000 meters to win the Jasper Invitational in Montgomery, N.Y. two weeks ago.

In her race Friday, she ran 18:32 5,000 pace over 6,000 meters.

Pierontoni ran 2:17, 5:02 and 10:52 at Kingsway and was 5th at the 2020 indoor Meet of Champions at Ocean Breeze with that 10:52.53.  

Iona scored 36 points to win the team title. Monmouth was 4th of 10 teams with 83 points, behind Iona, Siena (58) and Quinnipiac (70).