Egg Harbor senior Lauren Princz, edged for the win in the 100, bounced back with a commanding win in the 200 Saturday at the Meet of Champions.
Princz ran 24.22 to win the M-of-C 200 for the second time. She also won it as a freshman in the spring of 2018. Overall, this was her third M-of-C title. She also won the 55 indoors in 2020.
Overall, she’s had 10 top-3 finishes at the Meet of Champions in her brilliant career, and that’s with her junior year wiped out.
Princz ran away from the field on the turn at South Plainfield and won going away, finishing two meters ahead of second-place Azariah Grantham of Union, who ran 24.48.
South Jersey sprinters have won the 200 at five consecutive Meet of Champions – Shakira Dancy of Winslow Township in 2016 and 2017, Princz in 2008 and Wilson’s Dennisha Page in 2019.
In the 100, Princz took second to Manchester Township senior Jada Ellis, who got a great start and ran 11.57. Princz was second in 11.66, well under her previous PR of 11.76, which she ran last month at the Atlantic County Championships at Buena.
That’s the 5th-fastest time ever run at the Meet of Champions by a South Jersey girl, behind Olympian English Gardner of Eastern (11.56}, Bria Mack of Williamstown (11.60 in the 2017 trials), Moorestown’s Amandi Rhett (11.61 in 2000) and Page (11.63 in 2019).
Her time is No. 7 in South Jersey history and lowers her own Atlantic County record.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 