Brandon Outlaw ran the fastest 400 of his life in the final of the ACC Championships this past weekend.

Outlaw, a Moorestown graduate who’s now a junior at Virginia, ran 46.13 in the final after a personal-best 46.20 in the trials. He placed third behind Jacory Patterson of Virginia Tech (45.14) and DaeQwan Butler of Florida State (45.83). Patterson is No. 8 in NCAA Division 1 with a 44.81 earlier this year.

His PR before the Atlantic Coast Conference Championships at North Carolina State in Raleigh was 46.35 from another meet in Raleigh back in March. He came into the 2021 spring season with a PR of 46.58 from the 2020 indoor ACC meet at Notre Dame, a previous collegiate outdoor PR of 47.27 from the 2019 ACC meet in Charlottesville and an outdoor lifetime best of 46.82 from Group 3 sectionals at Bernards in the spring of 2017.

Outlaw’s time is No. 23 in the NCAA Division 1 East Region heading into the NCAA Prelims in Jacksonville later this month.

Outlaw’s time is https://storage.googleapis.com/virginiasports-com/2021/05/4e44d247-21_records-lists.pdf and only 29-100ths off the school record of 45.84 set by Alfred Shirley at the 2018 NCAA East Preliminary Round in Tampa. Outlaw’s 46.58 is the Virginia indoor school record. 

Egg Harbor senior Lauren Princz took advantage of some nice hot summer weather conducive to sprinting to run the fastest 100 in the state this year and the 4th-fastest 200.

Princz, a two-time Meet of Champions winner, won the 100 in 11.99 and the 200 in 24.68 in a dual meet Tuesday at EHT. Even though it was a dual meet, fully automatic timing was used, courtesy of Tomahawk Timing.

Princz’s 100 time is only 18-100ths of a second off her lifetime best of 11.81, which she ran in 2018 when she won the national freshman 100 title in Greensboro. It’s her first FAT 100 since 2019 Nationals, when she ran 12.00.

The previous-fastest 100 time in the state this year was a 12.08 that Joy Enaohwo of Union ran at the Union County Championships at Governor Livingston in Berkeley Heights this past weekend.

In the 200, Princz’s unpressed 24.68 trails only Julia Jackson of Scotch Plains-Fanwood, who ran 24.42 at the Union County meet, and Clayton twins Amirah and Arianna Sharpe, who ran 24.65 and 24.66 in what was technically a scrimmage – an outdoor meet held before the start of the season – at Underhill Field in Maplewood in March. They may have still been attending Paulsboro at that point. They competed unattached and it’s not known when they transferred.

The Penn State-bound Princz’s 200 PR is 23.90 from her Meet of Champions win at Northern Burlington in June of 2018.

Princz, like everyone else, had her 2020 outdoor season wiped out because of the COVID shutdown and she didn’t race this past indoor season, so this was her first true elite performance since the 2020 indoor Meet of Champions at Ocean Breeze in March of 2020, where she ran a PR 6.98 to win the 55 and an indoor PR 24.83 to place second in the 200.

Second in the 100 Tuesday was teammate Mariah Stephens, who ran 12.83, and second in the 200 was Amiyah Stephens, who ran 26.60.

Runners PR by 12 seconds all the time.

In the 5,000 or 10,000. Maybe in the 3,200 if they get a fast race and great conditions. 

But in an 800???

That’s impossible!

But that’s exactly what Collingswood senior Owen Marish did on Saturday.

In his second lifetime 800, Marish won the 800 at the Camden County Championships in 1:56.65. He led Audubon senior Zachary Williams to a 1:57.85, with Haddon Heights senior Andrew Bayna also dipping under two minutes at 1:59.53.

In his only other lifetime 800, Marish ran a hand-timed 2:08.1 in a dual meet three weeks ago at Haddonfield, taking second to Sean Eisenhower, who won the race in 2:06.8.

Marish has run cross country throughout his high school career. He had a solid season this past fall, placing 12th at Group 2 sectionals with a 17:06.90 at DREAM Park in Logan Township.

This spring, in addition to the 2:08, he’s run 4:51.50 in his only 1,600. He did break 10 minutes in the 3,200, placing 48th at the Henderson Invitational in West Chester, Pa., with a 9:59.52.

But 1:56.65?

That’s outrageous.

His time is No. 11 this year in New Jersey and No. 4 in South Jersey, behind junior Kyle Rakitis of Kingsway (1:55.04), Pennsuaken sophomore Bryce Tucker (1:56.07) and Cherokee senior Brett Shea (1:56.60). It’s also fastest in the state this year in Group 2.

His time is the fastest by a Collingswood half-miler – by far – as far back as the MileSplit database goes, which is 20 years. They show Peter Urian running 2:01.00 at the 2011 Haddonfield Invitational. 

And I’m willing to bet it’s the fastest time ever by a New Jersey half-miler with a PR over 2:08!

 

Terrific double over the weekend for Woodstown graduate Xavier Seals at the CACC Championships.

Seals, a Georgian Court freshman, won the 800 in 1:55.18 and the 1,500 in 4:07.27 at the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference meet on his home track in Lakewood.

In the 800, Seals edged teammate Chukwuebizie Andamadi, who was second in 1:55.67. Seals was out in 58.21 but came back in 56.98. 

He negative-split the 1,500 as well, out in 2:05.14 for the first 700 and closing in a blazing 2:02.14 and 56.26 (!) to again edge Andamadi, who ran 4:08.15.

Seals isn’t far off the school record of 1:54.80 in the 800, set two years ago by Andamadi at the Rider Invitational in Lawrenceville. The 1,500 mark is a little farther off but based on his closing speed certainly within reach at 3:58.51, set in 2017 by Uriah St. Lewis at the Monmouth Invitational in West Long Branch.

Seals also ran a 50.87 third leg on Georgian Court’s 3rd-place 1,600-meter relay team, which ran 3:26.47.

Georgian Court is coached by one-time Mike Murawski, a three-time state Parochial A high jump champ in 2002 and 2003 for Holy Cross. The Lions won their fifth CACC team title 262-112 over Bloomfield.

At Woodstown, Seals ran 2:02.51 and 4:27.59, which means he ran his closing 800 at the conference meet this weekend faster than his high school 800 PR. He placed 10th in the state Group 1 XC Championships at Holmdel in the fall of 2019.

Catching up with Elisia Lancaster, who bombed another hammer PR in a recent meet in Lawrence, Kan.

Lancaster, a Delsea graduate and now a junior at Southern Illinois, only had two legal throws out of six attempts but surpassed 200 feet for the first time – and second time – in her life.

She opened with a 207-11 and after three straight fouls hit 207-5 on her fifth throw. She finished by fouling again.

Lancaster began the spring with a hammer PR of 182-2 from a meet at Towson in Maryland from the spring of 2019, when she threw for Rowan College / Gloucester County. She transferred to Towson but only competed indoors and this spring had four meets in the 190’s before her breakthrough at Kansas.

Lancaster now ranks No. 42 in all of NCAA Division 1 and No. 19 in the West Region. She also ranks No. 39 among all U.S. women on the IAAF United States list.

Lancaster also threw 194-2 at the Missouri Valley Conference Championships this past weekend at her home facility in Carbondale, Ill.

The South Jersey alumni hammer record is 220-6, set by another Delsea athlete, Jamine Moton, when she won the 2002 NCAA Championship in Baton Rouge.

 

Buena grad Kristin Siegle got into a fast 1,500 field at the Trials of Miles in Jersey City Saturday and emerged with another personal best.

Racing against mainly post-collegiates the Rider senior placed sixth in 4:22.79, shattering her personal best and her Rider school record of 4:25.83 from the Philadelphia Metropolitan Collegiate Invitational.

That’s the equivalent of a 4:43.81 for a full mile or 4:42.16 for 1,600 meters for Siegle, who had a high school PR of 5:15.98 and never qualified for a Meet of Champions.

In a separate section of the 1,500, Lenape graduate Megan Quimby, who ran for Yale, finished first in 4:29.49, a personal best. Her previous PR was 4:32.07 in the prelims of the 2019 outdoor Ivy League Championships at Princeton. 

 

Camden’s Teseanna Harris, a sophomore at Bloomfield College in Essex County, won her first conference title Sunday with a collegiate-best time in the 100-meter hurdles.

Harris ran 14.70 – into a 1.1 meters-per-second wind – to win the 100-meter highs at the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Championships at Georgian Court in Lakewood.

She won by nearly half a second over teammate Autumn DeMary, who placed second in 15.17.

Harris’s previous best at Bloomfield was a 14.86 just two weeks ago in a meet in Newark and before that it was 15.46 from a meet last month.

Harris was also fourth in both the 100 in 12.80 (into a 1.8 wind) and the 200 in 25.93.

Harris graduated from Creative Arts Morgan Village Academy in Camden but competed for Camden High, since Creative Arts doesn’t have a track team. She was the 2019 state Group 2 high hurdles champ.

Delran graduate and Georgian Court sophomore pole vaulter Hannah Gravante won her first conference title Sunday morning, clearing an outdoor-best 10-0 at the Central Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships in Lakewood.

Gravante, competing outdoors for the first time since 2018, matched her outdoor PR of 10-0, which she set at 2018 Group 2 sectionals at Central Regional in Bayville. Her lifetime best is 10-6, which she cleared indoors at Ocean Breeze in February of 2020.

Gravante already had the competition won when she cleared 10-0 on her first attempt. She had the bar raised to 10-2 3/4 but missed three tries.

At Delran, Gravante was the 2018 BCSL Patriot Division pole vault champion.

Another crazy day for senior Floyd Whitaker, who scored nearly one-third of Highland’s points on the way to the large-school team title at the Camden County Championships at Haddon Township.

Whitaker ran a personal-best 54.85 to win the 400-meter intermediate hurdles, jumped 46-9 1/4 to win the triple jump, cleared 6-2 for second in the high jump and ran another PR 15.43 for third in the 110-meter highs.

That’s 34 points for Whitaker, and Highland won the large-school division by 31 points over Cherry Hill East, 116-85.

Whitaker’s previous 400IH PR was a 55.87 last month at the Metuchen Relays. His previous 110HH best was 15.54 from a dual meet last month against Delsea.

Whitaker didn’t long jump Saturday, but he won the 2020 indoor Meet of Champions at Ocean Breeze at 23-5 1/2.

He hasn’t lost a triple jump competition since the 2019 New Balance Outdoor Nationals in Greensboro, where he placed eighth. He’s a two-time Meet of Champions triple jump winner and has a PR of 50-2 1/2 from the 2019 outdoor Meet of Champions.

The last time he lost a triple jump to a New Jersey competitor was the 2018 outdoor state meet at Central Regional, where he leaped 47-11 1/4 but took second to Richmond Shasha of Hamilton West, who jumped 48-8. (I was wondering what became of Shasha and it turns out he competed in one meet in his life for DeSales University in Center Valley, Pa., and set an indoor school triple jump record of 44-9 1/2 at Lehigh’s Rauch Fieldhouse and never competed again.)

Whitaker ranks No. 1 in New jersey in the triple jump with a 47-11 1/2 from the Metuchen Relays last month. He’s No. 2 in New Jersey in the intermediates, behind only Pennsauken sophomore Bryce Tucker’s 54.28 Saturday at the BCSL meet. He’s No. 6 in South Jersey in the high hurdles and No. 4 in the long jump (21-5). He’s also tied for No. 3 in the state in the high jump with a 6-4 from the Deptford Spartan Relays.

Justin Milligan won two events and scored in another to help Maple Shade win the Freedom Division title at the BCSL Championships Saturday at Pennsauken.

And it was quite an unusual set of events that he scored in.

Milligan, a Maple Shade senior, led 1-2-3 Maple Shade sweeps in the 800 and 1,600 and also placed third in the discus! 

Milligan ran 2:05.96 to win the 800, leading teammates senior Roger Hof and junior Murphy Hastings in second and third, and he ran 4:40.27 to win the 1,600, with junior Lincoln Ormsby and Hastings in second and third.

Milligan threw 100-9 for third in the discus, less than five feet behind winner senior Robert Stroehlein of New Egypt.

According to his New Jersey MileSplit profile, it’s the first time he’s ever thrown the discus in a major meet.

Milligan’s 4:40.27 broke a three-year-old 1,600 PR of 5:08.83 from the 2018 BCSL meet at Northern Burlington. His 800 PR is 2:04.37 from the 2019 South Jersey Invitational at Delsea.

Maple Shade also swept the 3,200, with Ormsby winning in 10:34.63 junior Ryan Olesky second and sophomore Chad Cloke third.

That’s 72 points in three events for the Wildcats, who doubled New Egypt 207-102 to win the divisional title.

This was Maple Shade’s first BCSL team title since the Wildcats won the Freedom Division in 2010. Shade also won BCSL titles in 1983, 1984, 1992, 1998 and 2003.

Maple Shade’s other individual winners were sophomore Sean Loomis in the 200 and junior Brennen King in the pole vault. 

The Wildcats also won the 1,600-meter relay, but the results site does not list the four runners.