From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Collingswood grad Kevin Kevelier, a freshman at Monmouth, hit a big high jump PR and won his first conference title Friday.

Kevelier, who entered competition at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships with a PR of 6-7 and was best-known for his triple jump exploits, cleared 6-8 ½ to win the high jump at the 168^th Street Armory in Manhattan.

Kevelier, who also placed 7^th in the long jump, just PR’d at 6-7 two weeks ago at Boston University. At the start of February, he had a high jump PR of 6-4 ¾.

Kevelier passed at 5-8 ¾ and 5-10 ¾,  then cleared 6-0 ¾ on his 1^st attempt, 6-2 ¾ on his 2^nd try and 6-4 ¾ and 6-6 ¾ meters on his first try. Because teammate Blake Wehr was clean through 6-6 ¾ and Kevelier had a miss, Kevelier had to clear a PR 6-8 ¾ to have a chance to win the title if Wehr did not clear 6-8 ¾. After missing his first attempt, Kevelier got over the bar on his 2^nd try, and when Wehr missed his third try, the title was Kevelier’s. With the event won, Kevelier had the bar moved up to 6-9 ¾, missing three tries.

Kevelier’s 6-8 ½ is No. 6 in Monmouth history indoors and the best jump by a Monmouth high jumper in seven years, since Erik Anderson cleared 6-9 ½ in 2015.

In the long jump, Kevelier jumped a personal-best 22-0 ½ for 7^th place. It was his first indoor long jump competition as a collegian and surpassed his high school indoor long jump PR of 20-0 from his only career indoor long jump competition in high school, a meet at Ocean Breeze in January 2020. Kevelier jumped 22-2 ¼ outdoors last April in a meet at Rider.

On Saturday, Kevelier competes in the triple jump at 6:15 p.m. He’s the No. 2 seed with a season-best 46-10 ¼.

I’ll have a South Jersey round-up from the women’s meet later tonight, but here are a couple more strong results from South Jersey athletes in the men’s meet:

Burlington Township graduate Jalen Jones, a junior at Monmouth from Burlington Township, posted the fastest qualifying times in both the 200 and 400 Friday at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships at the Armory.

Jones easily won his 400 section in 48.65, not far off his indoor PR of 48.38 or his lifetime PR of 48.28 from last outdoor season. He came back to run 21.90 to lead all qualifiers in the 200. That’s not far from his indoor best of 21.80, which he ran earlier this month in Boston. He has run 21.72 outdoors.  Jones won the MAAC 400 both indoors and outdoors last year.

The men’s 400 final is scheduled for 5:45 p.m. Saturday with the 200 final following at 6:25 p.m.

Stone Caraccio, a Monmouth freshman from Kingsway, led all qualifiers in the 800. Caraccio ran 1:52.02, winning the first of four heats. The winner of each heat plus the next four-fastest times advanced to the final at 6:05 p.m. on Saturday.

Caraccio was the only half-miler to run under 1:53.34. Caraccio ran 1-100^th of a second off his PR of 1:52.01, which he set earlier this month at Monmouth. Caraccio’s high school PR was 1:54.53, also at Ocean Breeze.